Detailed and dramatic novel narrated by Agathe-Sidonie Laborde, companion and lectrice to Marie-Antoinette. On the day of her sixty-fifth birthday in Vienna 1810, Agathe looks back on the most tumultuous days of her life. The action begins on 14 July 1789 and details the last hours during which Louis XVI, the close associates of the royal family and most of the Court flee from Versailles. Told in a simple but pacy and engaging manner, the narrator recounts, in intimate detail, the last days of the queen and the various intrigues which are thrown up as the Court disintegrates. This is a fantastically commercial book which transports the reader back to 1789 and is written with great drive and narrative tension. Chantal Thomas is a specialist of the period so the novel is also based on years of historical research.
- ISBN10 0297645501
- ISBN13 9780297645504
- Publish Date 8 January 2004 (first published 17 May 2003)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 17 July 2007
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Orion Publishing Co
- Imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 256
- Language English