The Secret Wife of Louis XIV: Françoise d'Aubigné, Madame de Maintenon
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.39 (797 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0312430051 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 528 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-01-24 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon, was born in a French prison in 1635, her father a condemned traitor and murderer, her mother the warden's seduced daughter. Yet, armed with beauty, intellect, and shrewd judgment, she was to make her way to the center of power at Versailles, the most opulent and ambitious court in all Europe.Sparkling with irresistible wit, fine detail, and novelistic sweep, this exactingly researched biography is a pinnacle of the form.
Veronica Buckley was born and educated in New Zealand, and later studied at the Universities of London and Oxford. She lived in Paris while researching The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, and now lives in Vienna.. Christina, Queen of Sweden, was the subject of her much-praised first biography
bon francais said Good, but inaccuracies are worrying. Veronica Buckley's biography of Francoise d'Aubigne is readable and engaging, but has some flaws which make me hesitant about giving it a wholehearted recommendation. These relate to complete misunderstandings of French history. The recurring one is that the author seems to think that the French Parlements were the equivalent of the English Parliament. This occurs mostly during the chapters covering the Fronde, and again when she speaks of Louis XIV's contempt for Charles II being bound by his Parliament's control of supp. Loves the View said An Extraordinary Woman. I learned of Madame de Maintenon two years ago from Antonia Fraser's Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King. After all his flirtations, liaisons and children I was surprised that at the end of his life that he would have a very close relationship with a plain, older woman of substance. I looked for something more on her at the time, but found very little. I was glad to stumble on to this book.Veronica Buckley puts it all together. She has an excellent grasp of history and gives good descriptions of the . Wonderful Biography Decided to go very French themed for the first book in 2013 and boy was I not disappointed. How French and royal can you get than the secret wife of Louis XIV? In the past I read a book by Antonia Fraser called "Love and Louis XIV" which was also very good. For some reason I don't remember any solid details about Madame de Maintenon from that book, so reading this new one was like living a new experience from the French court. I definitely learned a lot more about the King himself, and of his family. It was really tragic
All rights reserved. A marriage of convenience to a renowned but crippled scholar brought her new social connections, which she, a lovely, popular young woman, exploited when she was widowed, becoming the governess of the secret illegitimate children of Louis XIV and Athenais de Montespan. Buckley (Christina, Queen of Sweden) serves up a superior biography of a remarkable woman who, most improbably, became the Sun King's second wife. These facts, and a financially uncertain childhood, including a three-year sojourn in the Caribbean, contributed to the intelligent Françoise's resilience but also to a deep emotional insecurity. (Sept.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. 16 pages of color illus. Buckley trains her intent gaze on 17th-century France—from the civil and religious wars that plagued