title: The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette: A Novel
author:  Carolly Erickson 
description: Historian Erickson (<i>Bloody Mary</i>; <i>To the Scaffold</i>; etc.) makes her first foray into fiction with this invented journal kept by the notorious queen who was sent to the guillotine during the French Revolution in 1793. Recounting her childhood as Austrian Archduchess Maria Antonia, her marriage to feckless Frenchman Louis XVI and her nave pangs of conscience about hungry peasants clamoring at the gates of Versailles, Erickson delivers a spirited blend of fiction and fact. While Marie Antoinette's love affair with Swedish nobleman Axel Fersen is well-documented, other characters pivotal to Erickson's plot are pure fabrication: swarthy servant Eric, his jealous wife, Amelie, and the queen's confessor, Father Kuthibert. These inventions add color to the story of the ruler inaccurately linked to the phrase "Let them eat cake!" The novel's narrative engagingly reflects Marie Antoinette's progression from privileged adolescent to royal mother of four (though only one daughter and son survived into adulthood), and Erickson's descriptions of pomp and circumstance lend flavor and flair. While France's most infamous queen was clearly more sybarite than saint, Erickson's lively account reveals a woman whose bravery and resilience seem as noteworthy as the bloody details of her demise. <i>(Sept.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of
  France, Volume 6, by Madame Campan
  
  
  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the
  terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
  www.gutenberg.net
  
  
  Title: The Memoirs of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France, Volume 6 Being the
  Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting to the Queen
  
  
  Author: Madame Campan
  
  
  Release Date: December 4, 2004 [EBook #3889]
  
  
  Language: English
  
  
  Character set encoding: ASCII
  
  
  START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARIE ANTOINETTE
  
  
  
  
  
  Produced by David Widger
  
  
  MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE
  
  
  Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting to the Queen
  
  
  Volume 6
  
  
  CHAPTER V.
  
  
  In the beginning of the spring of 1791, the King, tired of remaining at the
  Tuileries, wished to return to St. Cloud. 