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Trianon: A Novel of Royal France
The fruit of years of research, TRIANON corrects many of the popular misconceptions about Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. The novel chronicles their resolution and dignity in the face of crushing disappointments, innumerable humiliations, personal and national tragedy, and death itself.
"What distinguishes this short and readable book from others is Vidal's examining their lives in light of their Catholic faith in a country that, until the Revolution, was the 'eldest daughter of the Church.'" ~Mike May, Pittsburgh Magazine, March 1998
"Exhaustively researched and yet completely accessible for those who wish to understand the events from a very personal perspective." ~Genevieve Kineke, Canticle Magazine, May-June, 2007
"What distinguishes this short and readable book from others is Vidal's examining their lives in light of their Catholic faith in a country that, until the Revolution, was the 'eldest daughter of the Church.'" ~Mike May, Pittsburgh Magazine, March 1998
"Exhaustively researched and yet completely accessible for those who wish to understand the events from a very personal perspective." ~Genevieve Kineke, Canticle Magazine, May-June, 2007
182 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
11 people are currently reading
387 people want to read
About the author
Elena Maria Vidal
7 books78 followersElena Maria Vidal grew up in the countryside outside of Frederick, Maryland, "fair as the garden of the Lord" as the poet Whittier said of it. As a child she read so many books that her mother had to put restrictions on her hours of reading. During her teenage years, she spent a great deal of her free time writing stories and short novels.
Elena graduated in 1984 from Hood College in Frederick with a BA in Psychology, and in 1985 from the State University of New York at Albany with an MA in Modern European History. In 1986, she joined the Secular Order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Elena taught at the Frederick Visitation Academy and worked as a private tutor as well as teaching children's etiquette classes. During a trip to Austria in 1995 she visited the tomb of Empress Maria Theresa in the Capuchin crypt in Vienna. Afterwords she decided to finish a novel about Marie-Antoinette she had started writing ten years before but had put aside. In 1997 her first historical novel TRIANON was published by St. Michaels Press. In 2000, the sequel MADAME ROYALE was published, as well as the second edition of TRIANON, by The Neumann Press. Both books quickly found an international following which continues to this day. In 2010, the third edition of TRIANON and the second edition of MADAME ROYALE were released.
In November 2009, THE NIGHT'S DARK SHADE: A NOVEL OF THE CATHARS was published by Mayapple Books. The new historical novel deals with the controversial Albigensian Crusade in thirteenth century France. Elena has been a contributor to Canticle Magazine, Touchstone Magazine, The National Observer, and The American Conservative. In April 2009 she was a speaker at the Eucharistic Convention in Auckland, New Zealand. In August 2010 Elena spoke at The Catholc Writers Conference in Valley Forge, PA. She is a member of the Catholic Writers Guild and the Eastern Shore Writers Association. She currently lives in Maryland with her family and is working on a historical novel about her Irish ancestors. Elena blogs at http://teaattrianon.blogspot.com/.
Elena graduated in 1984 from Hood College in Frederick with a BA in Psychology, and in 1985 from the State University of New York at Albany with an MA in Modern European History. In 1986, she joined the Secular Order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Elena taught at the Frederick Visitation Academy and worked as a private tutor as well as teaching children's etiquette classes. During a trip to Austria in 1995 she visited the tomb of Empress Maria Theresa in the Capuchin crypt in Vienna. Afterwords she decided to finish a novel about Marie-Antoinette she had started writing ten years before but had put aside. In 1997 her first historical novel TRIANON was published by St. Michaels Press. In 2000, the sequel MADAME ROYALE was published, as well as the second edition of TRIANON, by The Neumann Press. Both books quickly found an international following which continues to this day. In 2010, the third edition of TRIANON and the second edition of MADAME ROYALE were released.
In November 2009, THE NIGHT'S DARK SHADE: A NOVEL OF THE CATHARS was published by Mayapple Books. The new historical novel deals with the controversial Albigensian Crusade in thirteenth century France. Elena has been a contributor to Canticle Magazine, Touchstone Magazine, The National Observer, and The American Conservative. In April 2009 she was a speaker at the Eucharistic Convention in Auckland, New Zealand. In August 2010 Elena spoke at The Catholc Writers Conference in Valley Forge, PA. She is a member of the Catholic Writers Guild and the Eastern Shore Writers Association. She currently lives in Maryland with her family and is working on a historical novel about her Irish ancestors. Elena blogs at http://teaattrianon.blogspot.com/.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 25, 2015
Fan fiction, and bad fan fiction at that. The most common mistake early fan fiction writers made was the creation of a "Mary Sue". In prehistoric Star Trek fan fic, the Mary Sue was usually the female ensign that was brilliant, reserved and beautiful only to the special few who could see past her reserve. This might be Kirk, once Ensign Mary Sue had saved them from attacking Romulans. As fan fic expanded, the Mary Sue included both fangirls and fanboys.
Why write fan fic? A lot of reasons, but at least one is that you don't like the way the characters are handled "canonically", i.e. either by the original authors or those charged with them. For example, despite J.K. Rowling's firm objections, there is a flourishing "Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy Are a Couple!" fan fic genre (one of the first things fan fic did was establish a "slash" genre, in which couples were paired. The couples were usually characters who had hitherto been identified as heterosexual, such as Harry and Draco --- the proto slash was Kirk/Spock).
So what does all of this have to do with Ms. Vidal's romps through the histories of Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI and their children? She certainly doesn't make the mistake of ridiculous pairings (Louis XVI/Fersen, say). But she does fall into the Mary Sue trap.
Marie Antoinette and Louis become her best friends, to the point of adopting Ms. Vidal's attitudes about lots of things, including Roman Catholic Triumphalism. In her attitudes, poorly voiced by her characters, Ms. Vidal makes Pius IX sound like Garibaldi.
There are a lot of readers who crush on Marie Antoinette, God knows. As Caroline Weber points out in her highly readable Queen of Style, the last widely acknowledged Queen of France knew how to dress. She was reasonably attractive . . . for a queen. That's not a knock of Marie Antoinette's personal attributes, but a statement of fact. If you look at portraits of other 18th century sovereigns, the bar is low. Moreover, she was generally in the vicinity of Louis XVI, who despite many sterling qualities, looked like a lump in homemade gravy.
Marie Antoinette also had one of the great exit lines in history: "Monsieur, I ask your pardon. I did not do it on purpose." Okay, she was apologizing to her executioner for stepping on his toes, but really, what else could she say about her life? Ms. Vidal writes about the Trianon, flowers, music, simple dances a la Anglaise, delicious meals that appear when wanted, etc. as though it appeared by magic and not on the backs of the French peasantry. Was the Queen culpable for this? Of course not. She was a 14 year-old mailed to France as a deal-sealer for an Austrian/French alliance (oops, there's that slash again). It would have required far more will and intelligence that Marie Antoinette ever possessed to ward off bad behaviors. Despite all of this, the evidence suggests that the Dauphine, then young Queen was simply silly, not corrupt. But Ms. Vidal takes all of this and adds the startling twist that Louis was determined not to touch her until he had won her love. In support of this, Vidal instances the idea that Joseph II made a field trip to France in order to see why his sister and brother-in-law were so loved, and then mutters something about how he also passed on some medical advice to Louis.
Come on. That's not what happened, and if the author is honest, she knows it. As I said above, Louis XVI possessed many sterling qualities, and I do think Ms. Vidal at least gets the main one right: he was devoted to France. And as such, he knew perfectly well that a good king secures his succession. Ms. Vidal is writing hagiography, not history.
The reader might quibble and say, "no, she is writing literature." Well, she can't have it both ways, although as a novel, this wouldn't make it past most community college creative writing classes. I read a lot of historical novels. Most fall into one of a few categories --- the weirdly intimate (Sharon Kaye Penman, despite being highly entertaining, is the champ at this --- "Uncle Dickon?" "Yes, Ned?" "Now that Aunt Anne has developed the consumption, are you thinking of stealing my throne and marrying my sister Bess so that Harry Richmond may not bed her?" Like that), the very weird (Carolly Erickson's The Tsarina's Daughter --- the poor children of Nicholas and Alexandra are a lot of fan fic writer's best imaginary friends (BIFFs!) or the "want to see how much I have read?" ("Yes, I was at the National Assembly today where Mirabeau harangued us all on the Rights of Man, using the same language that the rascally Thomas Paine has used in one of the many pamphlets that are being distributed in Paris as I speak, pamphlets which defame the very purity of the Queen in ways that are unspeakable, because when the Queen disported herself at the small Trianon, she smelled of flowers and little knew that it had been built for La Pompadour or perhaps it was La Du Barry, anyway, La Somebody Who Was Not Marie Antoinette and therefore it is so unfair!" "Resign yourself to the Sacred Heart!"), a genre that Ms. Vidal has cornered.
Then there is the unpleasant Catholic Triumphalism. I am Catholic, born and bred, and even I had some trouble following Ms. Vidal through the thickets of the Sacred Heart devotion (the Miraculous Medal shows up in Madame Royale) and the reception of Extreme Unction by the dying Abbe Edgeworth. Ms. Vidal's point is that things had slid downhill since the French Revolution, which was apparently caused by the pesky philosophes, Masons and the Illuminati (along with the nasty Comte de Provence and the Duc d'Orleans). She is sort of the Jim Garrison of the Revolution, coming up with so many theories as to its cause, none of which are remotely historical.
All of this would be tolerable if the writing was remotely good. Alas, even there Ms. Vidal drops the ball. The characters thud along, talking to each other as though they were aware of Ms. Vidal in the corner, scribbling down each sentence, and had decided to posture for future reference at Sodality meetings. Here's the deal: you can't keep describing someone as incredibly charming unless you can demonstrate it by the way she speaks and interacts with other characters. In this book, Marie Antoinette finally emerges as someone you would want to know when Ms. Vidal uses her actual answers at her trial.
Not recommended.
Why write fan fic? A lot of reasons, but at least one is that you don't like the way the characters are handled "canonically", i.e. either by the original authors or those charged with them. For example, despite J.K. Rowling's firm objections, there is a flourishing "Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy Are a Couple!" fan fic genre (one of the first things fan fic did was establish a "slash" genre, in which couples were paired. The couples were usually characters who had hitherto been identified as heterosexual, such as Harry and Draco --- the proto slash was Kirk/Spock).
So what does all of this have to do with Ms. Vidal's romps through the histories of Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI and their children? She certainly doesn't make the mistake of ridiculous pairings (Louis XVI/Fersen, say). But she does fall into the Mary Sue trap.
Marie Antoinette and Louis become her best friends, to the point of adopting Ms. Vidal's attitudes about lots of things, including Roman Catholic Triumphalism. In her attitudes, poorly voiced by her characters, Ms. Vidal makes Pius IX sound like Garibaldi.
There are a lot of readers who crush on Marie Antoinette, God knows. As Caroline Weber points out in her highly readable Queen of Style, the last widely acknowledged Queen of France knew how to dress. She was reasonably attractive . . . for a queen. That's not a knock of Marie Antoinette's personal attributes, but a statement of fact. If you look at portraits of other 18th century sovereigns, the bar is low. Moreover, she was generally in the vicinity of Louis XVI, who despite many sterling qualities, looked like a lump in homemade gravy.
Marie Antoinette also had one of the great exit lines in history: "Monsieur, I ask your pardon. I did not do it on purpose." Okay, she was apologizing to her executioner for stepping on his toes, but really, what else could she say about her life? Ms. Vidal writes about the Trianon, flowers, music, simple dances a la Anglaise, delicious meals that appear when wanted, etc. as though it appeared by magic and not on the backs of the French peasantry. Was the Queen culpable for this? Of course not. She was a 14 year-old mailed to France as a deal-sealer for an Austrian/French alliance (oops, there's that slash again). It would have required far more will and intelligence that Marie Antoinette ever possessed to ward off bad behaviors. Despite all of this, the evidence suggests that the Dauphine, then young Queen was simply silly, not corrupt. But Ms. Vidal takes all of this and adds the startling twist that Louis was determined not to touch her until he had won her love. In support of this, Vidal instances the idea that Joseph II made a field trip to France in order to see why his sister and brother-in-law were so loved, and then mutters something about how he also passed on some medical advice to Louis.
Come on. That's not what happened, and if the author is honest, she knows it. As I said above, Louis XVI possessed many sterling qualities, and I do think Ms. Vidal at least gets the main one right: he was devoted to France. And as such, he knew perfectly well that a good king secures his succession. Ms. Vidal is writing hagiography, not history.
The reader might quibble and say, "no, she is writing literature." Well, she can't have it both ways, although as a novel, this wouldn't make it past most community college creative writing classes. I read a lot of historical novels. Most fall into one of a few categories --- the weirdly intimate (Sharon Kaye Penman, despite being highly entertaining, is the champ at this --- "Uncle Dickon?" "Yes, Ned?" "Now that Aunt Anne has developed the consumption, are you thinking of stealing my throne and marrying my sister Bess so that Harry Richmond may not bed her?" Like that), the very weird (Carolly Erickson's The Tsarina's Daughter --- the poor children of Nicholas and Alexandra are a lot of fan fic writer's best imaginary friends (BIFFs!) or the "want to see how much I have read?" ("Yes, I was at the National Assembly today where Mirabeau harangued us all on the Rights of Man, using the same language that the rascally Thomas Paine has used in one of the many pamphlets that are being distributed in Paris as I speak, pamphlets which defame the very purity of the Queen in ways that are unspeakable, because when the Queen disported herself at the small Trianon, she smelled of flowers and little knew that it had been built for La Pompadour or perhaps it was La Du Barry, anyway, La Somebody Who Was Not Marie Antoinette and therefore it is so unfair!" "Resign yourself to the Sacred Heart!"), a genre that Ms. Vidal has cornered.
Then there is the unpleasant Catholic Triumphalism. I am Catholic, born and bred, and even I had some trouble following Ms. Vidal through the thickets of the Sacred Heart devotion (the Miraculous Medal shows up in Madame Royale) and the reception of Extreme Unction by the dying Abbe Edgeworth. Ms. Vidal's point is that things had slid downhill since the French Revolution, which was apparently caused by the pesky philosophes, Masons and the Illuminati (along with the nasty Comte de Provence and the Duc d'Orleans). She is sort of the Jim Garrison of the Revolution, coming up with so many theories as to its cause, none of which are remotely historical.
All of this would be tolerable if the writing was remotely good. Alas, even there Ms. Vidal drops the ball. The characters thud along, talking to each other as though they were aware of Ms. Vidal in the corner, scribbling down each sentence, and had decided to posture for future reference at Sodality meetings. Here's the deal: you can't keep describing someone as incredibly charming unless you can demonstrate it by the way she speaks and interacts with other characters. In this book, Marie Antoinette finally emerges as someone you would want to know when Ms. Vidal uses her actual answers at her trial.
Not recommended.
February 20, 2013
The public square separated from God is a place where all hell breaks lose - literally. The feudal system was destined for the trash heap, that is a given, but was devotion to God and all the associated virtues derived from that devotion, to be dispatched as well? Well the French Revolution demonstrates the evil that results from man's separation, coerced initially, then physically forced , from God's laws and commandments. It has been repeated time and again, starting with the fall of man and progressing to the Babylonian exile and wandering in the dessert for 40 years, when it should have lasted but a few weeks. Bad things happen when God's laws are ignored or usurped by man. History, written by man has portrayed the French Revolution as enlightened - how wrong they have been. It gave rise to the monster of Bonaparte and re-invigorated by Hitler. The sad thing is, it will happen again or is happening right now.Well written book portraying an entirely different take on the run of the mill historical version of the revolution. Truly a gem.
August 6, 2016
A wonderful read and a different and challenging take on Louis and Marie Antoinette.
January 21, 2017
Simply a must read. I have read it many times. Finally the truth about The Martyr Queen.
February 7, 2024
Trianon is author Elena Maria Vidal’s passion project: to vindicate Marie Antoinette, to vindicate Catholic Royal France. Trianion was the name of Marie Antoinette's mansion on the Versailles Estate- a house previously inhabited by the favorite mistresses of French kings. But Louis XVI gave it to his wife, demonstrating that, for them, there was only fidelity to each other, to God, and to France. I believe Vidal's melancholic tone is forgivable. With sadness, she unearths “the martyrdoms Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette” from their dusty graves, she confounds the stereotype of wealthy, Catholic monarchy, and she shines a brave light into the dark corners of the French Revolution plot… something uncomfortable for many. If you question the history books and the men who wrote them, this short (but dense!) book is for you.
4 stars. Tragic. Storytelling. Supernatural. I appreciated the list of character descriptions because there is *a lot* of French name dropping. Mayapple Press should have also included, however, a list of Vidal's sources in the back for further study.
4 stars. Tragic. Storytelling. Supernatural. I appreciated the list of character descriptions because there is *a lot* of French name dropping. Mayapple Press should have also included, however, a list of Vidal's sources in the back for further study.
December 29, 2021
Excellent Story
I found this to be both an excellent & well written story. A bit royalist in its slant. However, the bigger storyline (to me) was about how we meet the ups & downs of life & how faith can sustain us.
I found this to be both an excellent & well written story. A bit royalist in its slant. However, the bigger storyline (to me) was about how we meet the ups & downs of life & how faith can sustain us.
November 8, 2021
This book challenges many popular opinions of history, and is worthwhile for the consideration of the thoughtful reader.
Read
May 1, 2023The French Revolution was absolutely demonic. Outlawing the Sacred Heart?! All you need to know.
Important novel of the martyr queen.
~Fin~
Important novel of the martyr queen.
~Fin~
August 18, 2012
A less than valiant attempt by the author to raise some compassion for Marie Antoinette. Without a dog in the fight, I was ready to be swayed and brought to my knees in anger at the relentless, unfair treatment of the royal family during la Revolution! Sadly- Vidal offered no tangible evidence that dissuade the notion that Antoinette was entirely disconnected from the trials of the poor or to support the fact that she was completely innocent of the claims laid against her by multiple historians. With today's pop-culture media, I can surely appreciate that there were plenty of exaggerations and even (gasp) total lies circulated about the Queen. As an example, I certainly do NOT believe that a daughter of Marie-Theresa would ever climb atop and dance the length of a dining table in front of courtly guests, as a particular handbill of the time proclaims. But do I believe there was some truth among all the fancifications? sure. At one point in the story, the author refers to Count von Fersen in passing- almost as if he were a member of her kitchen staff. A simple statement made "he was only a friend", which I almost expected to be followed by the promise: "I swear!"
All in all, the book was well-written and it was interesting to get a more personalized account of her life when so many books are focused on the leaders of the Revolution. But it didn't do enough to cause me pick up a musket and defend the honor of the royal family along with the Swiss Guard at Versailles.. you know, should my time machine ever get off the fritz.
All in all, the book was well-written and it was interesting to get a more personalized account of her life when so many books are focused on the leaders of the Revolution. But it didn't do enough to cause me pick up a musket and defend the honor of the royal family along with the Swiss Guard at Versailles.. you know, should my time machine ever get off the fritz.
May 27, 2008
A very good story of Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution. It cuts through a lot of the myths that surround her, and the French Revolution. My only warning is that the story isn't seen through the eyes of the same person for more than one chapter, and it is not in chronological order. So the material in the story is extremely good, but it could have perhaps been written better style wise.
December 29, 2021
The dialogue seemed a bit contrived to me, and I think it would have benefited from a simpler writing style, but Elena Vidal should receive praise for giving an unfortunately unique (and very important) perspective on the doomed French Royals, by emphasizing the importance of religion's role in their lives
December 29, 2013
Wow! As a child in public school in the US, I never thought to question what I was taught. I believed my history lessons about the French revolution to be true. As a grown Catholic, I have been finding that a lot of the history books have been very skewed. For a more balanced view of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, please read this book!
December 25, 2011
I like the book. Its very spiritual and shows the softer or, let me rephrase that, the spiritual side of the royals.
I still have a long way but once i finish reading the book, will write a conclusion to my review.
So far, so good.
I still have a long way but once i finish reading the book, will write a conclusion to my review.
So far, so good.
April 9, 2008
Beautifully and sympathetically told, covering the viewpoints of multiple characters. Highly recommended.
January 20, 2010
Interesting book. It definetely gives a different perspective of Marie-Antoinette.
March 26, 2012
beautiful and heart-wrenching
December 11, 2014
Emotional, Fascinating, Enlightening & Compassionate! A Brilliant Read!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews