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Title: Quite a disappointment
Review: I read Erickson's other book about Marie Antoinette, and I know she knows the subject. Why she didn't use her knowledge in this book is beyond me. Instead of giving us insight into things that did happen (adopting a child before she had her own), she creates characters who didn't historically exist. Instead of bringing alive the people who affected the Queen's life, she glossed over relationships and character. The King's brothers tried to take his thrown, the King's aunts tried to sabotage the Queen, the Queen adopted a child then abandoned him, the Queen was accused of relationships with her women friends... but frankly, this "hidden diary" is as vacuous as critics said Marie Antoinette was. Highly disappointing from Carolly Erickson. Fragmented and strangely distancing from the subject.
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