Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV [Hardcover]

Karleen Koen (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 28, 2011

Louis XIV is one of the best-known monarchs ever to grace the French throne. But what was he like as a young man—the man before Versailles?
 
After the death of his prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, twenty-two-year-old Louis steps into governing France. He’s still a young man, but one who, as king, willfully takes everything he can get—including his brother’s wife. As the love affair between Louis and Princess Henriette burns, it sets the kingdom on the road toward unmistakable scandal and conflict with the Vatican. Every woman wants him. He must face what he is willing to sacrifice for love.

But there are other problems lurking outside the chateau of Fontainebleau: a boy in an iron mask has been seen in the woods, and the king’s finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, has proven to be more powerful than Louis ever thought—a man who could make a great ally or become a dangerous foe . . .

Meticulously researched and vividly brought to life by the gorgeous prose of Karleen Koen, Before Versailles dares to explore the forces that shaped an iconic king and determined the fate of an empire.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Guest Reviewer: Jean M. Auel on Before Versailles
Jean M. Auel is an international phenomenon. Her Earth's Children® series has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide and includes The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, The Plains of Passage, The Shelters of Stone, and The Land of Painted Caves. Her extensive research has earned her the respect of archaeologists and anthropologists around the world. She has honorary degrees from four universities and was honored by the French government's Ministry of Culture with the medal of an "Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters." She lives with her husband, Ray, in Oregon.

I’ve enjoyed Karleen Koen’s writing since I first read Through a Glass Darkly many years ago, so I was delighted to have the chance to read her latest, Before Versailles. Louis XIV is a fascinating monarch and Koen has rendered him perfectly in these pages: he’s smart, dashing, cunning, manipulative--everything one expects from a King, even one as young as twenty-two. Koen has wisely chosen a few months in 1661 during the early reign of Louis in which to tell this story; these are perhaps the most decisive months of his monarchy and she shows opposing forces pulling him in many directions as he makes his decisions, as well as his reasons for making them. I was intrigued by the lives of the women closest to him: Louise de la Baume le Blanc, the young beauty who is just learning the ways of the court when she is seduced by the King, and the gorgeous Princess Henriette, Louis’s brother’s wife who loves the taste of danger and isn’t above flirting (perhaps a bit too much!) with the receptive King. I loved reading about Louis’s mother--the lover of Louis’s former advisor Cardinal Mazarin--a profound influence in his political decisions. Karleen Koen leaves us wondering if she can be trusted? Koen also dramatically weaves in a scary and mysterious subplot involving a boy in an iron mask, a poor child who could ruin everything for the young and virile King.

Lush descriptions jump off the page and into the imagination and by the time you’ve finished, you’ll feel you’ve lived a few intimate months with these vivid characters. If you’ve not yet visited the chateau de Fontainebleau or seen the magnificent gardens of Versailles you’ll be planning your own tour de France soon after reading the last page, inspired by Karleen Koen's fascinating research and intriguing exploration of the young Louis and his entourage. I strongly encourage you to read Koen’s latest, Before Versailles.

Vive la France!

Jean M. Auel

Review

"In this magnificently written and researched novel, Karleen Koen brings to vibrant life the early years and loves of the future Sun King."--Jean M. Auel author of The Clan of the Cave Bear & The Land of Painted Caves

"A baroque cornucopia spilling over with intrigue, passion, jealousy, ambition, and rich historical detail, Before Versailles offers a glittering glimpse of the crucial months that shaped Louis XIV into Europe's most powerful monarch."--Eleanor Herman, author of Sex with Kings

"Before Versailles presents a grand yet intimate glimpse into the lifestyles of the rich and royal at the court of the young, virile King Louis XIV.  Words to describe the cast of characters cannot do them justice:  moral yet decadent; powerful yet endangered; larger than life yet completely human.  But there is an apt word to describe Karleen Koen's latest novel:  Brilliant!"--Karen Harper, author of The Irish Princess

"Before Versailles captivated me from start to finish! With exquisite finesse, Karleen Koen weaves history and myth into a sumptuous portrait of young Louis XIV, his intrigue-laden court, and the passionate, ambitious, often dangerous women who loved him."--C.W. Gortner, author of The Last Queen and The Confessions of Catherine de Medici

"Following solidly in the footsteps of Dumas, Koen (Dark Angels) reveals independent-spirited Louise to be a modern heroine in period costume, and, with her focus on the time just before Louis becomes the unrivaled Sun King, she finds the era ripe for intrigue and romance, not to mention possible sequels."—Publishers Weekly

"[T]his is a powerful, rich telling of a few months in the life of King Louis XIV. How clever to pick these particular months when so much is changed. . . .  It's enthralling, fascinating and wonderful story telling. Karleen Koen does it again. Can't go wrong reading anything of hers. Bravo!"—Romance Reviews

"Rich with detail and action..."--Library Journal, starred review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Crown (June 28, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780307716576
• ISBN-13: 978-0307716576
• ASIN: 0307716570
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My childhood was filled with glorious books, Little Women, Lad A Dog, Black Beauty, Little House on the Prairie, Caddie Woodlawn. They were as real to me as the life around me, a lower middle class one in a small oil refinery town in Texas. My grandfather, an invalid, was a huge fan of the writers Frank Slaughter, Frank Yerby, and Zane Grey. By the time I learned to read, I was sneaking his square, cheap (a dime, I think) paperbacks off and reading them. Pirates. Passion. History. It has never occurred to me to write anything but historicals, a kind of time travel into other minds, other lands, other eras, other cultures, other worlds. That's what I wish for my readers, that my books take them far away into another place and time and that they enjoy themselves there and maybe even learn an interesting fact or two.

My blog: http://www.karleenkoen.wordpress.com
My website: http://www.karleenkoen.net

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "What a web deceit made, its strands strangling the guilty and the innocent alike." June 28, 2011

By Luan Gaines HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Koen has a unique talent for ferreting out the particularities of history in character and place, the result authentic and satisfying as a hearty meal. Before Versailles describes twenty-two year old King Louis XIV's early days on the throne of France. After the death of Cardinal Mazarin in 1661, hand-picked successor to Cardinal Richelieu, Louis breaks from the tradition of monarchs willing to forfeit the affairs of state to powerful counselors, giving much consideration to the men who aspire to be his advisors, particularly his Minister of Finance, Viscount Nicholas Fouquet, his brother, Philippe, Duke d' Orleans and Philippe's closest confidant, the Count de Guiche. None is privy to the quiet rebellion and political maturation of an extraordinary young ruler with an incisive intelligence and the patience to mold his kingdom into an absolute monarchy.

Fully-fleshed characters inhabit the young king's court, the secrets and passions, plots and assignations in service to winning favor or usurp power, deadly serious games where the future of a kingdom is at stake. Behind the frivolous façade of merrymakers at Fontainebleau, Louis newly wed to the Spanish Marie Terese, Philippe the proud husband of the delectable and fun-loving beauty Henriette, the serious business of governance is played on two levels, the gossip-riddled daily activities of the court and the quiet corridors of power, where deals and fortunes are made, Louis's relative inexperience pitted against the sophisticated machinations of a man whose pride rivals that of a king. Fouquet is a formidable adversary, Louis certainly his equal, a network of spies sharing information in exchange for favor, the laughing faces of courtiers hiding duplicity and malice, greed and corruption.

Louis is the center of a young court in flux: the Queen Mother's affiliation with Mazarin and the loyalties bred of that union; lady-in-waiting Louise de la Baume le Blanc, an anomaly in a jaded court; the malleable Philippe, made more vulnerable by his weakness; Jean-Baptiste Colbert, silent chronicler of the government's excesses; a mysterious boy in an iron mask; the enchanting Henriette, basking in admiration, tempted by a flirtation with the king; and the ambitious Louis XIV, still subject to the vagaries of his heart, betrayed yet resolute, carrying the weight of France's future on his shoulders. While the male characters are defined by ambition and the arrogance of entitlement, Koen's females are equally devious: a Queen Mother clutching her crucifix with an iron fist; the thwarted affection of Countess de Soissons; the claculated intrigues of the Duchess de Chevreuse; foolish Duchess d' Orleans, inhaling the heady air of celebrity, tampering with men's affections; and the kind-hearted Louise, her lack of guile a balm to a besieged king. With a delicate balance of threat and subterfuge, Louis's secret schemes come to fruition in a breathtaking climax as the dominoes fall in a swift yet delicate execution forged of patience and deliberation. Luan Gaines/2011.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit underwhelmed July 28, 2011

By Misfit TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Koen's latest book tackles a short period in the life of a young Louis XIV. Cardinal Mazarin is dead, and Louis is now in control of the government - a government seriously short of cash - although the Superintendent of Finances sure does have a pocketful of it. Louis is newly married to Maria Teresa of Spain, but at the moment he only has eyes for his brother's new wife, Henriette (sister to Charles II) and Henriette definitely reciprocates the feelings.

Meantime Louise de La Vallière, one of Henriette's ladies in waiting, becomes involved in the mystery surrounding a young man whose face is hidden behind an iron mask. What, if any connection is this young boy to the royal family, and why is someone so desperate to keep his existence a secret? Yep, there's a whole lot more to it than that but I'll not spoil, although if you are familiar with it all you know where Louise's story goes from here...

Despite a set of circumstances that promises a deliciously meaty, scandalous read, I found this rather underwhelming, especially coming from the author who gave us Through a Glass Darkly (on my all time favorites list). The characters were all rather flat and lifeless (even Philippe and de Guiche were not as hateable as they should be), and there was definitely not much chemistry between Louis and Louise. The repetitive sentences drove me seriously batty,

"The handsome young king of France was hesitant before her. The handsome young king of France desired her. The handsome young king of France loved her."

In the end, this isn't a bad book by any means, but it doesn't have the kind of punch Louis and his love life deserves. I have read the entire Musketeer series by Alexandre Dumas (part of which tells of the relationship between Louis and Louise as well as his own take on the Man in the Iron Mask), and I couldn't help comparing his take on the characters as opposed to Koen's, and Dumas definitely wins out. Library only, then buy it if you love it.

Interested in trying the Dumas books? Here's the series in order and they are available free on Kindle. Can't speak for the quality of the translation on these so enter at your own risk (they are free after all), but if you're looking for a dead tree version I'd recommend the Oxford World's Classics Editions.

The Three Musketeers
Twenty Years After
The Vicomte de Bragelonne
Louise de la Valliere
The Man in the Iron Mask.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing July 24, 2011

By preppie in nyc

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I devoured her first three novels and was eagerly awaiting this one which I regret to say was a disappointment. Though her grasp of the period (I am a decorative arts historian) remains strong and there are passages describing court life that are as vivid and lyrical as those in her previous novels, there seemed to be no driving plot or a single character's voice to engage or sustain the reader. It seemed more to be a series of linked vignettes with no one character fully developed. The beginning leads the reader to expect it to be about his affair with Louise de la Baume de la Blanc but that vanishes and doesn't appear again until halfway through the novel. The book ends with a lurch with no resolution for basically none of the other main characters. It's not that I expected there to be neat, tidy endings for all but it seemed as if there were too many ideas in this novel and it lacked focus. If I hadn't read her other novels, and I strongly encourage other readers who haven't to do so, I might have enjoyed this book more. I was left with the impression that Koen had an idea for a novel that halfway through became unworkable but she perservered regardless. She has proved that she can create vivid engaging characters and a plot that really draws the reader in but sadly this isn't one of them.