Customer Reviews

Athenais: The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress, the Real Queen of France

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have been studying the Bourbon dynasty for many years, and am very familiar with the subject. Having just re-read Frances Mossiker's fabulous "Affair of the Poisons", I was intrigued when I spotted "Athenais" at a local bookstore. Over the course of 40 minutes I didn't read the whole thing, but certainly glanced over most of it, especially the sections dealing with the Poisons incident.

I was shocked to see that she had lifted whole passages from Mossiker, with the barest attemp at re-phrasing! I found Mossiker in the bibliography, but nowhere was she footnoted in the entire chapter!

Disgusted, I looked at the "Author"'s credentials too see who this lazy person was - a writer for VOGUE! What the F***?

The publisher couldn't even get the lingerie on the cover right! Why was the cover model in a VICTORIAN nightie?

I sincerely hope this book is not representative of the state of scholarship on this subject.

I give it one star for having given employment to the guys at the presses.

I found this book to be spectacularly unfulfilling. It had neither the depth to be considered as a scholarly work nor the level of characterization for a fictionalized history.

The main character remains, throughout the work unknown and undeveloped. Most of the information presented appears to be a fairly standard summation of previous works which is not assisted by the author's tendency to jump erratically from period to period with little regard for continuity.

In summary, not a book which could be recommended.

I've been fascinated with the decades of the Sun King's reign and the impact of his egomania on his country since I was 7 years old. Obviously, his women were a significant part of his life.

There are several things in Hilton's book that disturb me, not the least of which is her persistent effort to justify Athenais's worst personality traits as well as to either villify or ridicule her rivals. I mean, honestly, it's pushing it to depict Athenais as being "right" in abusing her friendships with the Queen and Louise de La Valliere (Louis's first mistress, who Athenais replaced) in order to "get closer" to the King and secure his "favor," only to turn around and depict Madame de Maintenon (who supplanted Athenais) as some sort of horned monstrous ingrate for "taking advantage of her benefactress to steal her love."

The reality of that era is that virtually the only person who had any real control over who he favored and slept with was Louis himself.

The speculation/conjecture about the Affairs of the Poisons, while perhaps not entirely unreasonable, still clings to the idea that Athenais was some sort of heroine ill-used and abused by the system of the times.

The book is not a total loss, but its extreme bias leaves me wondering if the author has first-hand experience of being the "other woman who got cheated on." Athenais is an intriguing figure in history, there was no need to canonize her less than admirable behavior at times. I would have had more respect for the work if there had been a little more objectivity to that point.

Given the remarkable material a historian is given to work with, it is difficult to write a bad biography of anyone connected with the reign of Louis XIV, but Ms. Hilton decided to give it her best shot. I am not surprised to discover that this book was written by a twenty-six year old, because the author's genuine potential as a writer and researcher are greatly flawed by an irritatingly shallow assessment of her subject. Hilton is so enamored of La Montespan's beauty and glamour that she blithely glosses over the Royal Mistress' many and disturbing character flaws (a probable bent towards Satanism being only the most famous of them,) gives her a quite unwarranted importance in the development of her lover's reign, and denigrates all her female rivals (notably Madame de Maintenon) in a way that comes off as positively childish.

(Who was it that said, "It's always tempting to impute/Unlikely virtues to the cute"?)

Hilton is at the beginning of her career, however, and I do think she may well have better work ahead of her as she matures. While this is certainly a promising debut, I have the suspicion she'll be a little embarrassed by this book in twenty years or so. I hope that is the case, anyway.

Having enjoyed the recently published "Versailles," the fictionalized autobiography of Marie-Antoinnette, a friend gave me this for Christmas. But this is a very different book--a very well-researched, scholarly work on the court of Louis XIV. The character of La Montespan is interesting enough, although a little hard to understand fully due to the lack of primary source material--i.e., her letters. Rather, I found this book fascinating for its details of court life. Being the King's mistress was not always easy--it was a confined life, yet one was constantly on public display and the subject of constant intrigue. One always had to preserve the fiction of beauty, youth, and passion. Pregnancy, although frequent, was hidden; after a birth the barely recovered mistress is compelled to appear before the court that very evening in full court dress. Children are whisked away and kept out of sight. Accompanying the King into battle was also part of one's duties, and this meant long, cold, rigorous rides in open carriages without interruption for anything, including meals and the call of nature.

The court was ultimately a device for the King to retain a tight grip on power--physical presence was an absolute requirement for access to the privileges of aristocratic rank--for the King to say "I haven't seen him" was a fatal blow. Requiring attendance at all times was a way of keeping unruly nobles under control and within sight. Living at court didn't mean living in luxury--one fought for a clean corner to sleep, causing aristocrats to spend huge sums builing homes near Versailles, not to mention he spending on the necessities to keep up appearances--clothes, jewels, carriages.

It is hard to get a grip on what these people were really thinking as they led this unbelievably artificial and uncomfortable life. In an interesting footnote the author explains why surviving letters are often unreliable--they were often written for public or posterity or the King's spies consumption.

Read this book for a fascinating glimpse of the era. As other reviewers note, it is uneven in spots, and you can get lost in the tangled relationships, the titles of the aristocracy, and the endless plots. If you're willing to breeze through some of the endless detail, it's a great read.

People have always been fascinated by beautiful, glamorous royal mistresses. They are the ultimate bad girls, beautiful and sensual, and one of the baddest was Athenais de Montespan, the longtime love of the Sun King.

Unfortunately, "Athenais : The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress, the Real Queen Of France" is so tilted in Athenais's favour that it's impossible to take Lisa Hilton's work seriously. She's a good writer, but she also apparently has the sensibilities of a airhead prom queen, to whom baubles and beauty are everything.

Athenais de Montespan was in trouble before she encountered King Louis XIV, the handsome young king of France. With a crazy, debt-ridden husband who pawned her earrings to pay his debts, Athenais was all too willing to lure in the King, in the hopes of becoming his new official mistress -- and displacing the lovely Louise de Valliere, her old pal.

Athenais did become the new mistress, and soon became the center of cultural life around the Sun King's court, as well as bearing him several illegitimate children. But as time went on and she made some terrible choices, Athenais was replaced by the most unlikely of romantic rivals -- an older governess who looked after her children.

Even infamous figures like La Montespan can be cast in a compelling light, if shown realistically. Unfortunately, Hilton doesn't seem to realize this; apparently she's too dazzled by Athenais's beauty, sex appeal, wit and intelligence (most of which were focused on keeping the king in bed with her), as well as the love story between Montespan and Louis XIV. And, of course, roasting any women who infringed on that love story.

Don't expect the other women to get such, ahem, royal treament. The poor queen is given a little slack for her deformities, but Hilton sneeringly calls her a "dreary object" with a "lumpy Hapsburg nose." Louise de Valliere is portrayed as a scheming, whining idiot who tries to steal (back) the king from Athenais, and kindly old Madame de Maintenon as a prudish, scheming old hypocrite... apparently because they were neither as acidly witty or as beautiful as Athenais. Louis himself is painted as a gullible man-child who desperately needs Athenais to make Versailles and himself suitably glamorous. Yes, it really is that shallow.

While these women are accused of hypocrisy, scheming, emotional blackmail, and of luring the king to bed via shrewd plotting, Athenais does all these things as well. And whatever flaws aren't ignored (Satanism) are painted as the marks of a strong, intelligent woman, who is even gushed over as a "goddess."

It must be admitted that this book is written beautifully; Hilton brings Versailles at its peak to life, and describes the beautiful rooms and clothing with excellent prose. Unfortunately, the slanted focus of the book is too much to stand. So, it was okay for Athenais to abuse Louise, because Louise had an "infuriating lack of dignity"? Sorry, doesn't wash.

While beautifully written, the shallowness and cattiness of Lisa Hilton's book makes it a squirmingly biased read. This is Athenais de Montespan... high school clique-style.

I was severly disappointed with this book. Maybe if the author had named the book "An Overview of the Early Years of Court During the Reign of Louis XIV" I would not have been so let down. The author spends relatively little time focusing on Athenais and too much time on the other court players. I came away not having learned anything new about this intriguing woman. Further, the impression I got is that the author did little new, in-depth research and just spewed out well-known facts, dates, and names. While it is not a terrible book, if you have any prior knowledge of the reign of Louis XIV, then I would not recommend this book as it is only a reiterration of commonly known facts.

Couldn't disagree with the first reviewer more: Athenais stands out for the detail & authority of the research as well as the *lack* of silly revisionism that often plagues historical bios. Athenais isn't held up as a heroine; the book is more about the dissection of a fascinating personage (good, bad, murky) and the context of the times she lived in. It's a rare read -- goes down easy but not in the least bit superficial, an amazing effort (not to mention a first book!)... A copy was given to me & i've already bought two more for bibliophile relatives...

Well i do think i've seen it all, tho i never thought i'd see the day where a woman, known in her own time to be, at the very least, manipulative, scheming and cruel, at worst a possible accomplice to murder, lauded and fawned over as some sort of feminist heroine.

Athenais de Montespan had nothing likeable about her, certainly no traits to encourage any woman to take her up as role model. She was not misunderstood. She was despicable.

The author has, sadly, placed countenance over content; but then again, that is modus operandi in the world of fashion, glam rags et al.

The descriptions of Athenais de Montespan in Anne and Serge Golon's "Angelique" series (romance novels no less, but well researched) offer better insights than this book, as do previous bios on Montespan.

I recommend readings on du Pompadour or Marie-Antoinette instead, the latter of whom was indeed misunderstood.

I have always found history facinating, and I thought this book would be a fast read. Well...I started reading it at the begining of October, and here it is Christmas and i am just now finishing it. The book has it's moments, then Ms. Hilton goes off on tangents that are distracting and almost confusing. I know that the purpose of the tangents where to further explain historical facts, but to me, it seemed to heavily muddle the story line. What was the most confusing to me was all the names and titles! I know that is was tradition for some royalty, and persons of the court to have several titles, but Ms. Hilton kept changing things around. If one of the character received a new title, then Ms. Hilton referred to them by that new title. In one chapter, the character would go by one title, and then in the next, she referrs to them by another title. For me, it was confusing, and I had to keep referring to the list of characters at the front of the book that had explanations of everyone's title and relations. I am not one to NOT finish a book, and I came very close several times to not completing it, but I finally did. If it weren't for all the historical explanation tangents and and multiple names changes, this would have been a good book. It had a good story line, but, unfortunately, it was lost in the mix. And don't be fooled by the size of the book...nearly a quarter (if not more) was the bibliography and references.