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A review by ailurophile_bibliophile89
In the Shadow of the Empress: The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters by Nancy Goldstone
2.0
2 Stars
Snarky but baseless and inaccurate
Previous Nancy Goldstone books I've quite enjoyed for several reasons: easy-to-understand writing, enthralling subjects, and I love her witty notes (she's right - there's no originality in royal names).
However, while I appreciated the humor and side comments, and while I enjoyed Maria Theresa's tale, along with her daughters, Maria Christina and Maria Carolina, the author's assumption that Fersen was the father of two of Marie Antionette's children is absurd and not based on historical fact. If anything, it's based on the author's own opinions and theories.
While I, perhaps unfortunately, have to take the author's words for the former three ladies, I have done a fair amount of reading on Marie Antionette and can say with confidence that Fersen fathering any children off Marie Antionette is only gossip and hearsay, and quite frankly - absurd. Even the queen's contemporaries were certain that Louis XVI was the father of all their children.
Moreover, I disliked how she breezed through the lives of these remarkable women. Perhaps Goldstone needed to meet a deadline, or perhaps there wasn't enough material she could add (which explains the rather odd addition of Emma, Lady Hamilton's life tale), or maybe she just wanted to finish writing and didn't care about the final outcome, but whatever it was, the book felt rushed.
Basically, due to the aforementioned reasons above, overall In the Shadow of the Empress: The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters is definitely a disappointment.
Snarky but baseless and inaccurate
Previous Nancy Goldstone books I've quite enjoyed for several reasons: easy-to-understand writing, enthralling subjects, and I love her witty notes (she's right - there's no originality in royal names).
However, while I appreciated the humor and side comments, and while I enjoyed Maria Theresa's tale, along with her daughters, Maria Christina and Maria Carolina, the author's assumption that Fersen was the father of two of Marie Antionette's children is absurd and not based on historical fact. If anything, it's based on the author's own opinions and theories.
While I, perhaps unfortunately, have to take the author's words for the former three ladies, I have done a fair amount of reading on Marie Antionette and can say with confidence that Fersen fathering any children off Marie Antionette is only gossip and hearsay, and quite frankly - absurd. Even the queen's contemporaries were certain that Louis XVI was the father of all their children.
Moreover, I disliked how she breezed through the lives of these remarkable women. Perhaps Goldstone needed to meet a deadline, or perhaps there wasn't enough material she could add (which explains the rather odd addition of Emma, Lady Hamilton's life tale), or maybe she just wanted to finish writing and didn't care about the final outcome, but whatever it was, the book felt rushed.
Basically, due to the aforementioned reasons above, overall In the Shadow of the Empress: The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters is definitely a disappointment.