The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Francois Halard (Author, Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Marie Antoinete has been romanticized as the matyred queen and vilified as the Austrian whose extravagance and foreign sympathies fired the French Revolution. She has also been admired as the personnification of the 18th-century style: in retreat from the stifling protocol of the French court and in pursuit of her own personal tastes, she created her own personal domain,cultivating a new royal style that was the epitome of elegance. This work turns aside from the official portraits and the great historical events to rediscover the private places and objects that reveal Marie Antoinette's personality. Photograhs reveal in detail the apartments and gardens at Rambouillet, Versailles and Fontainebleau - designed and furnished by the most gifted artisans and craftsmen, among them the cabinet-makers Riesner and Sene and the archeitect Mique.

About the Author

Marie-France Boyer is a freelance journalist and the Paris Editor of The World of Interiors magazine. François Halard contributes to many magazines, including The World of Interiors, Décoration Internationale, Vogue, and House & Garden. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 111 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (July 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500016909
• ISBN-13: 978-0500016909
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,033,722 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A lovely tribute to a royal lifestyle..., June 2, 2000

By	Anita L. Catal (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

A lovely look into the private world of the French queen, but I was disappointed to find so little attention paid to the interiors of the Petit Trianon. The author claims that since Marie Antoinette made so few changes to these rooms, the reader would experience her touch more readily via the Hamlet, heavily featured within the book's pages. I disagree...the Petit Trianon does indeed bear the Queen's stamp, particularly her bedchamber, which is simple yet exquisite. The "moving mirrors" which can obscure the windows of the bedchamber were, to her contemporaries, and in truth all of Paris , absolutely representative of the Queen's taste. It may be that these mirrors, like the mechanism in the dining room which allows the table to be raised up from the kitchen below so servants are never seen (condusive to clandestine trists), date from the time of Louis XV. Regardless, the "room of the moving mirrors", to this reader, exclaims "Marie Antoinette!". I urge any reader of this review, when in France, to tour the jewel box that is the Petit Trianon. In conjunction with the Hamlet, one can get a true feel for the informal lifestyle Marie Antoinette so strived for when staying there. However, overall, the book is such a nice addition to any collection dealing with the Queen's life, or 18th century French architecture and decor that I highly recommend it. I did find an error as the author claims Marie Antoinette called her eldest son her "chou d'amour".

Indeed, Marie Antoinette gave her son this charming pet name, but it was to her youngest boy, Louis-Charles, the Duc de Normandie and future Louis XVII (who would never rule)not Louis-Joseph, who died around the time the Estates-General convened, right before the revolution. The book's argument as to how influential and innovative Marie Antoinette actually was to the decorative arts at the end of that century is not to my mind adequately summed up. Personally, I don't think an answer to that question much matters. Marie Antoinette, through pure force of personality, and the influence of her high position, defined a lifestyle, very much in tune with the American "pursuit of happiness". In this she succeeded admirably.

64 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Open the cover and journey to Antoinette's Versailles, July 13, 2001

By	Leah M. Brown (Anchorage, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As the author of a novel and an award-winning website dedicated to the tragic and dazzling queen, I am a bonafide Marie Antoinette fanatic. For years now, I have read every scrap of paper ever written about Marie Antoinette. I am thrilled to learn new things (like that she drank hot chocolate made with orange water to soothe her sore throat or that she once flicked bread crumbs across the table at Louis XVI). Too, I have been to Petite Trianon and Le Hameau. I have wandered the paths and rolling hills, I have fingered the woodwork in her private rooms.

This beautiful and interesting book is like taking a trip to Versailles (but far less expensive and minus the crowds). The photographs are breath taking, the writing is entertaining.

This book is eye-candy for anyone who appreciates 18th century France, architecture or gardening. It is a MUST OWN book for anyone even remotely interested in My Queen....

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fairy Queen, September 27, 2003

By	"waterstn" (USA) - See all my reviews

I must agree with the other reviewers, and say this a wonderful book. The text is limited, but the photographs make it well worth your while. In all there are 123 illustrations, 108 of them in color, and each is more beautiful than the former.

The photographs focus mainly on the small details of Marie Antoinette's rooms, rather than the entire room itself. It is all those small details that made her style so exquisite.

Represented here are her private apartments at Versailles, the Petit Trianon her little stone treasure, the Hamlet she created so that she could pretend to be a simple county girl, the opulent boudoir at the chateau de Fontainbleau, and the simple yet elegant laiterie at Rambouillet.

Like the former reviewer, I was disappointed in the lack of focus on the interior of the Petit Trianon (there is only an antique postcard depicting her bedroom there), but I think that was my only disappointment. I especially enjoyed the section on her boudior at Fontainebleau, which is Marie Antoinette at her grandest.

Overall, it is a delectable little book that you should enjoy for years to come. After all, those places lucky enough to have been stamped by her unique taste are as timeless as the great lady herself.