As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

Share <Embed>

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Munro Price

The Road from Versailles: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Fall of the French Monarchy Paperback – March 1, 2004

by Munro Price (Author)

15 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$11.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$7.43

$40.00

$3.51

Paperback

"Please retry"

$9.45

$44.43

$5.46

What becomes of leaders when absolute power is wrested from their hands? How does dramatic political change affect once-absolute monarchs? In The Road from Versailles, acclaimed historian Munro Price confronts one of the enduring mysteries of the French Revolution: What were the true actions and feelings of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as they watched their sovereignty collapse?

Dragged back from Versailles to Paris by the mob in October 1789, the king and queen became prisoners in the capital. They were compelled to publicly approve of the Revolution and its agenda, but, in deep secrecy, they began to develop a very different and dangerous strategy. The precautions they took against discovery, and the bloody overthrow of the monarchy three years later, dispersed or obliterated most of the clues to their real goals. Much of this evidence has until now remained unknown.

The Road from Versailles reconstructs in detail, for the first time, the king and queen's clandestine diplomacy from 1789 until their executions. To do so, it focuses on a vital but previously ignored figure, the royal couple's confidante, the baron de Breteuil. Exiled from France by the Revolution, Breteuil became their secret prime minister, and confidential emissary to the courts of Europe.

Along with the queen's probable lover, the comte de Fersen, it was Breteuil who organized the royal family's dramatic dash for freedom, the flight to Varennes. Breteuil's role is crucial to understanding what Louis and Marie Antoinette secretly felt and thought during the Revolution. To unlock these secrets, Munro Price draws on highly important unpublished and previously unknown material.

Meticulously researched and utterly fascinating, The Road from Versailles provides fresh insight into some of the most controversial events in modern history.

Print length

448 pages
Language

English
Publisher

St. Martin's Griffin
Publication date

March 1, 2004
Dimensions

5.96 x 1.22 x 9.28 inches
ISBN-10

0312326130
ISBN-13

978-0312326135
See all details

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Important and engrossing."
--Antonia Fraser, bestselling author of Marie Antoinette

"Truly riveting reading."
--Michael Hochedlinger, International History Review

"Resurrecting a wealth of historical documentation, [Price] has scrupulously detailed the previously unknown underground diplomacy of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, creating a significant contribution to the analysis of the French Revolution."
--Booklist

"This exhaustively researched study should be the definitive diplomatic history of the fall of Louis XVI."
--Publishers Weekly

"The most important book written on the subject for a very long time."
--T.C.W. Blanning, author of The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture

"Through brilliant detective work, Price has uncovered documents that shed a definitive light on the French Crown's policy toward the revolution. This definitive study moves well beyond such works as Michel Vovelle's The Fall of the French Monarchy."
--Library Journal

"Fascinating and genuinely groundbreaking....a truly revolutionary book."
--Andrew Roberts, Sunday Telegraph (U.K.)

About the Author

Munro Price was born in London and educated there and at Cambridge, where he received his Ph.D. He specializes in eighteenth-century France and the French Revolution and has lived and taught in Lyon and Paris. He is currently a Reader in History at the University of Bradford. The Road from Versailles is his third book.

Start reading The Road from Versailles on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Griffin; Reprint edition (March 1, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312326130
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312326135
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.96 x 1.22 x 9.28 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,998,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,105 in Historical France Biographies
- #4,391 in Royalty Biographies
- #7,707 in French History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
15 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		82%
4 star		18%
3 star 0% (0%)		0%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Acquisitions, UNLV Libraries

No Problem

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2015

Verified Purchase

No Problem

Helpful

C. C. Simpson

Incredibly Researched

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2004

Author Munro Price has shown that intense research combined with informative speculation is consistent with successfully piecing together a very confusing and torrid sequence of events in Western European history. Price, through what appears to be pains taking information gathering, relays a brilliant account of the lives of some of the French Revolution's most influential players. He brings to light, to those not in the academic world, the Baron de Breteuil and his tremendous influence on the policy of counter-revolutionary France. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the recipients of the brunt of the Revolution, were shown both in their glory and in the flaws that led to their eventual demise. Price has not failed to impress with his clearly thought out formulations of the mindset and personal weaknesses of Louis XVI and, in contrast, the inner strength of Marie Antoinette. This book is easily followed and is difficult to put down. I recommend to anyone interested in this monumental period of political change in Europe.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Darin A. Leviloff

Insight into the Royals

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2005

I got this book to learn a little about a topic I didn't know that much about. That I came away feeling that I was well-versed in the most esoteric of historical controversies is a testament to the quality of the work. The author has painstakingly researched the issues involved in the French Revolution. Everywhere in the book where a controversy is discussed, the author makes his conclusion, provides the evidence for his conclusion, and why he doesn't believe in alternative explanations. This comprehensive approach allows the reader to understand history not from the usual "because I say, it is so" approach, but to have a sense of how other theories might co-exist.

The narrative shows how close run a thing the French Revolution was and how many directions it might have taken. It also shows the struggles of two highly flawed individuals (the irresolute King and his stubborn, crafty wife) placed in the most complicated of situations. Most importantly, it focuses on Mssr. Bretieul, a French noble, who steadfastly negotiated on their behalf among foreign capitals for many hopeless years.

The book differs from others in that it shows the Revolution from an almost exclusively Royal point of view. Those looking for an overview of the Revolutionary side will be sorely disappointed. But, those who want to see insight into the minds of the royals, who fumbled and bumbled into an escalation that destroyed the tradition of ages, will revel in the fascinating story.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

pnotley@hotmail.com

3.7 stars; a provisional grade

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2003

Munro Price's history of how Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette confronted the French Revolution comes at a less than propitious time. In a month from now, we will see Timothy Tackett's book on the Flight to Varennes. Tackett's previous books have been known for their thorough and exhaustive research, and his newest book may be a stark contrast to Price's which, as we will soon see, is comparatively under-researched. Nevertheless this book does have something of considerable value. It has been known that the royal couple were less than thrilled with the Constitution of 1791 and were trying to deal with foreign powers which France was at war with. But what were their real plans? Price's book offers some real answers.
The answers are convincing because they are not ones that Price is fully comfortable with. Price's colleague and occasional co-writer, John Hardman, has been the most pro-Louis historian for a couple of generations, even in one book comparing Louis to a saint. It is well known that Louis' last pre July 14 prime minister, the Baron de Breteuil was given special powers to talk to other foreign powers. (His letter of authority from the king, was forged, but Price reasonably argues that the Queen was just forcing the pace on her indecisive husband. The letter would not have worked if it did not represent Louis' views, and the plans for the Flight of Varennes could not have occurred without his knowledge and support.) But what were Louis XVI and Breteuil planning for France during the Flight to Varennes and the war with Europe? On at least two occasions the royal couple destroyed valuable documentation, while Breteuil was careful to leave as little information as possible. However with some diligence Price tracked down the papers of an ally of Breteuil, the Marquis de Bomballes, and found out what the royalists were planning. The result is devastating to Louis XVI's reputation.
Recently several scholars, most noticeably Keith Baker, have argued that by refusing a bicameral legislature in 1789, the National Assembly paved the way to totalitarianism and rejected reasonable compromise. It is clear from Bomballes' papers that the king had no interest in such a legislature. Royalists rejected it in 1789, and he and Breteuil rejected it several times in 1791-92. Louis had no interest in the Constitution of 1791, which he had swore to uphold, or using its mechanisms for amending it. He did not wish to go back to the National Assembly, but to the Estates General, giving the Nobles and the Clergy certain powers of veto. He did not plan to compromise with the Assemblies, but seek to use either his own troops to overwhelm them, or use the victory of foreign troops to get what he wanted. Although often unable to make a decision, these were his basic principles, pushed and prodded on by his wife.
This is the most valuable part of the book, and there are descriptions of the Flight of Varennes, the events of August 10 and the battle of Valmy that readers will find interesting. There are also interesting accounts of the royalist players, such as Breteuil's libidinous activities, and his daughter's affairs with an emigre bishop. I have some reservations about the book. (1) There are not that many new sources outside of the Bomballes papers, giving the book a somewhat padded feeling. (2) Certain counter-revolutionary activities could use more detail. There is only a brief mention of the affair of the Marquis de Favras, though Barry Shapiro in his book "Revolutionary Justice" points out that this was a major conspiracy which compromised the king's brother, Monsieur, later Louis XVIII. Price also briefly mentions a plan involving Danton to buy the royal family's freedom, which I would have liked to hear more about. (3) There is a somewhat indulgent tone about the royal couple, as Price tries to refute the idea that they were a pair of nitwits. This is not very convincing, especially since Price believes that Louis did not realize that ejaculation was a necessary condition for conception, while Marie Antoinette's suggestions were almost always unhelpful. At one point, in writing about the royal couple's last meeting before Louis was sent to a scaffold, Price sentimentally says that the two had found a kind of love, though he has elsewhere said that the Queen was sleeping with the Swedish aristocrat Fersen. (4) On certain points, like the royal couple's failure to conceive, or Breteuil's attitude towards Necker, Price relies on limited and self-serving sources. (5) Likewise he is not very acute on revolutionary "paranoia," particularly when he has shown that the republicans were right; the royal couple were traitors, and their treason implicated everyone who tried to deal with them in good faith. (6) Price has the odd tendency to claim that the king could have succeeded if he had just been decisive enough to call on the army. This is an odd argument, because every time it was considered the soldiers showed signs of mutiny and general untrustworthiness, whether it was at the fall of the Bastille, the Flight to Varennes, August 10, 1792, Lafayette's attempted coup, or Dumoriez's treason. And this was before they knew Louis' full plans. (6) Finally this is a history of a select group of individuals. We learn nothing about monarchist ideology or the royalist press, and we learn nothing about why the king never tried to mobilize public opinion on his side. The contrast with Britain, as seen in Linda Colley's "Britons", is rather striking.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Srikanth

Concise and excellent

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2005

This book is a true pleasure to read. It focuses on a relatively small number of personalities and describes what they did- always backed up with research- and the consequences of their actions. The author's style is crisp, focussed and dignified, bereft of obscure or uncommon words that save you the frustration of constantly referring to the dictionary. It makes the principal charcters come to life.

The narrative quality is consistent and sustains your interest throughout. It is neither exhaustive, nor exhausting to read. I recommend it highly.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

David Etherington

Brilliantly written history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2013

Verified Purchase

The book covers the fate of the French monarchy after the Revolution of 1789 - a neglected topic which shows Louis XVI as a much more capable individual than the traditional picture suggests and reveals a constitutional settlement which, though never truly believed in by King or People, might nevertheless have succeeded. The tortuous diplomacy to try and save the monarchy is often frustrated by the court in exile. This is a masterly narrative: fresh, gripping, informative and righting a wrong to a monarch who was made to pay for a history he had never created and had sought to reform.

3 people found this helpful

ROBERT RAINBIRD

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

An interesting book, well written.

Fernand Robichaud

Remarkable book!

Reviewed in Canada on April 4, 2018

Verified Purchase

Fantastic book, I learned a lot from it. Well researched and put together, it shows the French Revolution from a different perspective, that of those who tried to save Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette. I was impressed by the many links and intrigues involved. A must read for those interested in the French Revolution.

Roger Rappaz

Refreshing point of view

Reviewed in France on September 19, 2014

Verified Purchase

Interesting and well written.The English point of view and documentation bring new perspectives, specially in the role of le Baron de Breteuil

laughoutloud

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 26, 2015

Verified Purchase

Better than I expected

See all reviews

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

The Road from Versailles: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Fall of the French Monarchy Paperback – March 1, 2004

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries