Madame de Pompadour A Life

A riveting new biography of the legendary French queen family life in vienna, the wedding at versailles to louis xvi, the french court, boredom, hypocrisy, loneliness, allies, enemies, extravagant entertainment, scandal, intrigue, sex, birth and bereavement, lovers, peasant riots, the fall of the bastille, the attack on versailles, confinement in the tuileries, escape and capture, mob rule in paris, imprisonment, the guillotine. marie antoinette is a biographer's dream, and evelyne lever's account of the life of the inimitable (and last) french queen is a sumptuous, addictive delight. from marie antoinette's birth in vienna in 1755--the fifteenth child of austrian archduchess maria theresa and holy roman emperor francis i--through her turbulent and unhappy marriage to louis xvi, the turmoil of the french revolution, her trial for high treason (during which she was accused of incest), and her final beheading, lever draws on a variety of resources, including diaries, letters, and firsthand accounts, to weave a gripping, fast-paced historical narrative that reads like expertly crafted fiction.

Evelyne Lever is a leading French historian. Marie Antoinette is her first book to be published in the United States. She lives in Paris with her husband, Maurice Lever, the author of Sade.