From Publishers Weekly
What was the fate of Marie-Thérèse (1778–1851) after the beheadings of her parents, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France? Nagel, professor of humanities at Marymount Manhattan College (
Mistress of the Elgin Marbles), relates the dramatic highs and lows experienced by the woman known as Madame Royale. Her uncle, the Austrian emperor, wanted her to marry his brother, when she escaped from the Temple Prison at age 17 after three hellish years. Instead, she endured a loveless and childless marriage to her Bourbon cousin the Duc d'Angoulême, but became the close political ally of their uncle, Louis XVIII, whom she joined in his peripatetic exile and saw in his triumphant return to France in 1814 as king. Marie Thérèse survived the 1830 abdication of her father-in-law, Charles X, and died in exile. Known for her kindness and wit, she also endured persistent rumors that she was not the real Marie-Thérèse and the constant threat of abduction and assassination. Nagel's highly detailed and sympathetic account competently fills in historical gaps, but, unfortunately, is hampered by plodding prose. 16 pages of color illus; map.
(Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Gripping….providing new insights into a misunderstood and tragic figure and showing us the real human buffeted by all those historical crosscurrents."—Martin Rubin, Washington Times
"This is a fascinating, readable, and engrossing book that should interest general readers and scholars alike... Highly Recommended"--Library Journal, starred review
"Masterly and compelling... a triumph." --Tina Brown, author of The Diana Chronicles
“A powerful story told with wonderful verve: a triumph.” –Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire
"This highly detailed, exhaustively researched, often riveting account will appeal especially to all those readers who’ve immersed themselves in the many recent books about Marie Antoinette." --Booklist, starred review
"Taking one of those fascinating lives that have remained too long untold, Susan Nagel's Marie-Therese is a well-researched, entertaining and often poignant biography that recreates royalty, terror, tragedy, revolution, and restoration with verve and vividness."--Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Young Stalin and Stalin: The Court of the Red Star
“If there is a more fascinating or unbelievable life than the one led by Marie-Therese-Charlotte, Marie Antoinette's sole surviving child, I certainly am not familiar with it. In this lively, gripping new biography, Susan Nagel recounts Marie-Therese-Charlotte's roller-coaster itinerary from a revolutionary prison, where she spent three years of her girlhood, to the throne of Restoration France, where she reigned for a mere twenty minutes. Royal orphan and republican bete noire, the subject of fervent monarchist adoration and the object obsessive conspiracy theories, this princess emerges in Nagel's telling as one of the nineteenth century's most captivating heroines. A must-read for lovers of French history and royal biography alike.”--Caroline Weber, author of QUEEN OF FASHION: WHAT MARIE ANTOINETTE WORE TO THE REVOLUTION
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Susan Nagel sent the following posts to customers who purchased Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter