Not much of a portrait for a beautiful queen. (Marie-Antoinette: A Portrait - Ian Dunlop)

Member Name: blackviolets

Product:	Marie-Antoinette: A Portrait - Ian Dunlop
Date:	07/06/09 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: the 'illustrations'

Disadvantages: bit too long and wasn't all that interesting

I'm not really one for non fiction books and the only reason I picked this one up was because I've recently finished reading The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette. Like a lot of fact fiction style books I'm always a bit dubious about how much has been made up. Up until now all I really knew about her was very little.

The actual book is 388 pages long so it is most definetly not a light read. It's set into 20 shortish chapters, each one delving into another historical period in time surrounding her life and the things which affected it.

Ian Dunlop starts at the very beginning, before her marriage to Louis Auguste and the coronation to the remaining few days of Louis XV. In fact despite the fact that it is mentioned that he is basically at deaths door, it all gets a bit confusing. In the first few chapters it still seems that the king is still alive, although in fact Ian Dunlop is writing about a completely different king altogether.

After the death, the crown is now to be handed down to Louis Auguste, a very shy and reserved young man. Straight from the start you are made well aware that Louis is a very reluctant king.

And what with a young wife who has a love of expensive gowns and balls, when you've just started your reign over a country in massive debt it isn't the ideal situation.

Dunlop also writes about the wedding, marriage, the birth of their children and being imprisoned in The Temple. Despite this book being about Marie Antoinette she is hardly mentioned until aroundabout halfway through.

In a lengthy amount it is written about what her dress at the coronation looked like and her carriage. The way she enjoyed the company of men. The way the crowd reacted towards her and how she relished it all up. This being a book which states that it is supposedly presenting a sympathetic portrait on a Queen.

We learn about how the same crown cheered for her on her marriage then turned to baying for her blood some 23 years later. Accused of aldultery, spending the countries money on frivolties and of opposing the 'old regime', it doesn't all appear to be a very sympathetic text at all!

We also get pictures (!) or illustrations which is possibly the better term. So now I know that when people say that Marie Antoinette was a very beautiful queen and her husband was handsome, they are somewhat telling the truth.

This isn't a bad book, it's just not very interesting which is something which it should be considering who it's about. It's all facts, relentless facts. Some of which had absoloutly no point of being there in the first place.

I felt that a lot more could of been said with fewer words about what was happening at that time. Another thing which bothered me was that I don't speak french. Maybe Ian Dunlop presumed that everybody who read this would be able to understand it.

There are quite a few times when he is quoting something important-maybe words from Marie Antoinettes mother warning her about her ways-it's several lines long with no translation. In some places he has actually also written it down in English but for the majority of the time I've had to skip through paragraphs. (maybe missing out on important information!)

I wouldn't particularily recommend this book unless you are keen on the story of Mary Antoinette. It's far too long and pays more attention to the colour of a painted wall than to that of the life of the King and Queen in court.

I don't think it's an easy book to come across. You're more likely to find it at a library or on a book swapping site. You can get it from Amazon but you would have to use the marketplace section.

Summary: .