marie antoinette the portrait of an average woman

The illustration above, for example, shows the royal family at their dinner when their real imprisonment in a former Knights' Templar fortress in Paris called 'The Temple.' Zweig explains how their provisions were arranged: Though there are many fascinating things in the book, I'll present a few of the food passages. Zweig, in my reading experience, always seems to present quite a bit about what his characters ate - a subject I find especially interesting. By the end, Zweig shows her as a completely different, and highly self-aware and dignified victim. or as Zweig writes: 'Too late, Marie Antoinette had grasped in the very depths of her soul that she was destined to become a historical figure, and this need for transcending the limitations of her own time intensified her forces to an extreme.' (Kindle Locations 6223-6225). As the Revolution began to threaten her husband the king, she developed a sense of responsibility. In the early years of her reign, she was a self-indulgent, pleasure seeking, irresponsible adolescent and young woman. Marie Antoinette's character development - as Zweig documented and brought it to life - was portrayed in a most fascinating way. It pleases me that his stories and histories, which I could then find only in an academic library in quite old editions, have now become completely accessible: for example Marie Antoinette, which I purchased as an e-book, and Magellan, which I read a few years ago ( link).Īlthough I have read a bit about the French Revolution and what led up to it (in historic works like Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolutionīy Simon Schama or fiction like City of Darkness, City of Lightīy Marge Piercy) I was surprised at how little I knew of the central role that Queen Marie Antoinette actually played during the complex events of her time. Zweig was in eclipse for quite a long time after his death in 1942, and my interest in him started shortly before this renaissance, when I read his autobiography, The World of Yesterday.

Marie antoinette the portrait of an average woman