Customer Reviews

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

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As a scholar of Louis XIV and his times, I must say that "Athenais: The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress" is a truly excellent addition to the library of anyone interested in the period.

Louis XIV was the king of France (not Spain as the previous reviewer wishes you to believe) during the height of its "superpower" days. Married to a Spanish princess in a loveless political marriage, he carried on a series of affairs with various women. Three became truly important, and each corresponds to the major phases in his life: Louise Francoise de la Valliere when he was youmg and new to power, Francoise Athenais de Montespan during the height of his golry, and Madame de Maintenon during his waning years, when the king became religious and gloomy, while France suffered economic hardship and war with much of Europe.

The author captures the characters well, showing them as real people in their true environment, without putting a modern day spin on their thoughts or actions. The writing is well done and detailed, without becoming bogged down or tedious.

I believe that this is an excellent book for one to spark an interest in this fascinating time in history.

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.

"Athenais" is a book detailing the life of Athenais de Montespan, Louis XIV's best mistress. While it is an interesting and richly detailed book, it boasts a problem which only serves to muddy it completely.

It's obvious that Lisa Hilton is not only interested in Madame de Montespan, she emulates her. While she has very few kind or even fair words for Louis XIV's other mistresses, she is brimming with praise and admiration for her subject. All others are conniving and undeserving when Athenais is concerned. If Athenais commits a heinous act, it's either for the greater good or simply not her fault. If one of the others does so, however, they are open to complete defamation. Hilton goes out of her way to try and justify the actions of Athenais de Montespan, and it seriously interfered with my enjoyment of the book.

This is further worsened by the fact that Hilton calls this a "biography," though her favoritism and bias can be found on almost every page. If she had approached the subject in an objective and scholarly way, the book would have been much better overall.

There were many admirable things about this book. One is the attention to detail that Lisa Hilton took. The book can only be described as rich and vibrant. Another is that it is full of little historical facts about the French court and its courtiers. You learn quite a bit from reading this.

All in all, this is an entertaining and informative book. I only wish the author hadn't taken such liberties with it, seeing as it's supposed to be a biography.

a well written and engaging biography of a remarkable woman...and a window into the character of Louis XIV and life at his court. great read!

A very favorable portrait of Athenais, who in the eyes of the author could do no wrong. After reading about her in Fraser's "Love and Louis XIV," in which she was not looked upon nearly so favorably, I feel I have a much deeper understanding about this complex person.

The book is not as engrossing as others I've read in the genre. The chapter about the Affair of the Poisons was especially difficult to follow. I don't think that I soaked in much of it at all and just read it to get it over with. Far too many names and relationships were spouted page after page for me to keep track of.

I also found that including quotes and poems in french without translating on the same page in the form of footnotes to be an annoyance. Constantly flipping back and forth between the notes in the back of the book and the text threw off the flow of reading.

Overall the book was very interesting and thorough, painting each character and the court of Louis XIV vividly.