Confessions of Marie Antoinette

by Juliet Grey
Confessions of Marie Antoinette
Author: Juliet Grey
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2013-09-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0345523903
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A novel for fans of Philippa Gregory and Michelle Moran, Confessions of Marie Antoinette blends rich historical detail with searing drama, bringing to life the first years of the French Revolution and the final days of the legendary French queen. Versailles, 1789. As the burgeoning rebellion reaches the palace gates, Marie Antoinette finds her privileged and peaceful life swiftly upended by violence. Once her loyal subjects, the people of France now seek to overthrow the crown, placing the heirs of the Bourbon dynasty in mortal peril. Displaced to the Tuileries Palace in Paris, the royal family is propelled into the heart of the Revolution. There, despite a few staunch allies, they are surrounded by cunning spies and vicious enemies. Yet despite the political and personal threats against her, Marie Antoinette remains, above all, a devoted wife and mother, standing steadfastly by her husband, Louis XVI, and protecting their young son and daughter. And though the queen secretly attempts to arrange her family’s rescue from the clutches of the rebels, she finds that they can neither outrun the dangers encircling them nor escape their shocking fate. Advance praise for Confessions of Marie Antoinette “Juliet Grey brings her trilogy on Marie Antoinette’s life to a triumphant finale, depicting with sensitivity and compelling vividness the collapse of a bygone glamorous world and the courageous transformation of its ill-fated queen.”—C. W. Gortner, author of The Queen’s Vow “A heartfelt journey with Marie Antoinette in her wrenching last days . . . We see the end looming that is still veiled from her eyes, and knowing her hopes are in vain makes it all the more poignant. Far from the ‘let them eat cake’ woman of legend, Juliet Grey’s Marie Antoinette reveals herself to be a person we can admire for her courage, her loyalty, and her love of her family and her adopted country, France.”—Margaret George Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.

Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow

by Juliet Grey
Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow
Author: Juliet Grey
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2012-05-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 034552389X
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A captivating novel of rich spectacle and royal scandal, Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow spans fifteen years in the fateful reign of Marie Antoinette, France’s most legendary and notorious queen. Paris, 1774. At the tender age of eighteen, Marie Antoinette ascends to the French throne alongside her husband, Louis XVI. But behind the extravagance of the young queen’s elaborate silk gowns and dizzyingly high coiffures, she harbors deeper fears for her future and that of the Bourbon dynasty. From the early growing pains of marriage to the joy of conceiving a child, from her passion for Swedish military attaché Axel von Fersen to the devastating Affair of the Diamond Necklace, Marie Antoinette tries to rise above the gossip and rivalries that encircle her. But as revolution blossoms in America, a much larger threat looms beyond the gilded gates of Versailles—one that could sweep away the French monarchy forever.

Becoming Marie Antoinette

by Juliet Grey
Becoming Marie Antoinette
Author: Juliet Grey
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011-08-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0345523865
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This enthralling confection of a novel, the first in a new trilogy, follows the transformation of a coddled Austrian archduchess into the reckless, powerful, beautiful queen Marie Antoinette. Why must it be me? I wondered. When I am so clearly inadequate to my destiny? Raised alongside her numerous brothers and sisters by the formidable empress of Austria, ten-year-old Maria Antonia knew that her idyllic existence would one day be sacrificed to her mother’s political ambitions. What she never anticipated was that the day in question would come so soon. Before she can journey from sunlit picnics with her sisters in Vienna to the glitter, glamour, and gossip of Versailles, Antonia must change everything about herself in order to be accepted as dauphine of France and the wife of the awkward teenage boy who will one day be Louis XVI. Yet nothing can prepare her for the ingenuity and influence it will take to become queen. Filled with smart history, treacherous rivalries, lavish clothes, and sparkling jewels, Becoming Marie Antoinette will utterly captivate fiction and history lovers alike. Praise for Becoming Marie Antoinette “A thoroughly enjoyable novel, brimming with delightful details. Grey writes eloquently and with charming humor, bringing ‘Toinette’ vividly to life as she is schooled and groomed—molded, quite literally—for a future as Queen of France, an innocent pawn in a deadly political game.”—Sandra Gulland, bestselling author of Mistress of the Sun and the Josephine Bonaparte trilogy “In her richly imagined novel, Juliet Grey meticulously recreates the sumptuous court of France's most tragic queen. Beautifully written, with attention paid to even the smallest detail, Becoming Marie Antoinette will leave readers wanting more!"—Michelle Moran, bestselling author of Madame Tussaud “A lively and sensitive portrait of a young princess in a hostile court, and one of the most sympathetic portrayals of the doomed queen.”—Lauren Willig, bestselling author of the Pink Carnation series “Wonderfully delectable and lusciously rich, an elegant novel to truly savor. Juliet Grey’s Marie Antoinette is completely absorbing.”—Diane Haeger, author of The Queen’s Rival “[A] sympathetic take on the fascinating and doomed Marie Antoinette.”—Publishers Weekly

Waiting For Snow In Havana

by Carlos Eire
Waiting For Snow In Havana
Author: Carlos Eire
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 579
Release: 2012-12-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 147110835X
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A childhood in a privileged household in 1950s Havana was joyous and cruel, like any other-but with certain differences. The neighbour's monkey was liable to escape and run across your roof. Surfing was conducted by driving cars across the breakwater. Lizards and firecrackers made frequent contact. Carlos Eire's childhood was a little different from most. His father was convinced he had been Louis XVI in a past life. At school, classmates with fathers in the Batista government were attended by chauffeurs and bodyguards. At a home crammed with artifacts and paintings, portraits of Jesus spoke to him in dreams and nightmares. Then, in January 1959, the world changes: Batista is suddenly gone, a cigar-smoking guerrilla has taken his place, and Christmas is cancelled. The echo of firing squads is everywhere. And, one by one, the author's schoolmates begin to disappear-spirited away to the United States. Carlos will end up there himself, without his parents, never to see his father again. Narrated with the urgency of a confession, WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA is both an ode to a paradise lost and an exorcism. More than that, it captures the terrible beauty of those times in our lives when we are certain we have died-and then are somehow, miraculously, reborn.

Farewell, My Queen

by Chantal Thomas
Farewell, My Queen
Author: Chantal Thomas
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2012-07-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 147670645X
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Follows a woman whose function it once was to read books aloud to Marie Antoinette, as she recounts her memories of living at Versailles during the final days of the French revolution.

The Lacemaker and the Princess

by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
The Lacemaker and the Princess
Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2009-09-15
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1416985832
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This vivid portrait of France on the eve of the Revolution is also a touching tale of two friends torn apart by class and the powerful political force of democratic freedom.

The Queen's Lover

by Francine du Plessix Gray
The Queen's Lover
Author: Francine du Plessix Gray
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2013-05-28
Genre: France
ISBN: 0143123564
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"The Queen's Lover" reveals the untold love affair between Swedish aristocrat Count Axel von Fersen and Marie Antoinette.

The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette

by Carolly Erickson
The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette
Author: Carolly Erickson
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2007-04-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429904062
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Imagine that, on the night before she is to die under the blade of the guillotine, Marie Antoinette leaves behind in her prison cell a diary telling the story of her life—from her privileged childhood as Austrian Archduchess to her years as glamorous mistress of Versailles to the heartbreak of imprisonment and humiliation during the French Revolution. Carolly Erickson takes the reader deep into the psyche of France's doomed queen: her love affair with handsome Swedish diplomat Count Axel Fersen, who risked his life to save her; her fears on the terrifying night the Parisian mob broke into her palace bedroom intent on murdering her and her family; her harrowing attempted flight from France in disguise; her recapture and the grim months of harsh captivity; her agony when her beloved husband was guillotined and her young son was torn from her arms, never to be seen again. Erickson brilliantly captures the queen's voice, her hopes, her dreads, and her suffering. We follow, mesmerized, as she reveals every detail of her remarkable, eventful life—from her teenage years when she began keeping a diary to her final days when she awaited her own bloody appointment with the guillotine.