Marie Antoinette The Journey by Antonia Fraser & a Trip Planning Quirk

I love to read and learn about history. I love it so much that I majored in History Teaching and spent a few years teaching high school students all about United States History and Ancient World History. Sometimes this love history inspires me to read long books, very long books. Books that others might classify as "boring," or too "textbook." I can often get so caught up in these books, that I cannot put them down and end up neglecting things like housework, to-do lists, etc. Especially when I am preparing to travel to a new place I like to read anything I can about the history, so that I will know as much as I can about these places when I see them. I am currently fleshing out plans for an upcoming trip to London and Paris and since both of these places have such amazing and long histories, I have been caught up in the details of the history (rather than spending more time researching the logistics of the trip like should be doing.) Being side-tracked like this is probably one of my biggest quirks when it comes to preparing for a trip.

One book that I recently read and cannot stop thinking about, is Marie Antoinette The Journey, by Antonia Fraser. I also just watched the 2006 movie Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst. I found the details of Marie Antoinette's life fascinating and my desire to visit the Place of Versailles quadrupled. I have often heard her described as immoral, lavish, and a major cause of the French Revolution. I loved this book because I came away from reading it feeling like the author had done her best to present Marie Antoinette in an unbiased light and to detail who she was as a wife, mother, and queen. I finished this book feeling very sad for her and her family and the "unfairness" of the situation. The author doesn't deny her vices, but she makes the great point that the causes of the French Revolution were much greater than one woman could spend. I also was impressed by the bravery shown by both Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette. They were given several chances to escape and they did not take them because they felt it their duty to stay. 

Some of the most interesting parts included the details of her journey to France at the time of her marriage. She was not allowed to take anything from Austria into France. The hand-over was on the border of the two countries and she had to leave everything behind and use new things from France, including her clothes and her dog. She was age fourteen at the time, and the thought of being married at such a young age and being forced to leave everything behind is a very foreign concept to our current culture. 

Her relationship with her mother Maria Teresa was also very interesting to read about through snippets of the letters exchanged between the two. Maria Teresa put it best when she talked about her daughters as pawns. "They are born to obey and must learn to do so in good time." Empress Maria Teresa on her daughters, 1756 (p14) The undertone of every message from mother to daughter as all about duty. 

The rituals and norms of the court were described very-well. "I put on my rouge and wash my hands in front of the whole world." -Marie Antoinette on her daily routine, 12 July 1770 (p 72) There was a story included in which Marie Antoinette had to stand shivering during her daily dressing, because people with higher degrees of authority kept entering the room and taking their place in the ritual, making it impossible for getting dressed to occur at a decent pace.

The most common misconception about Marie Antoinette, is the attribution of the phrase "Let them eat cake." I have read this in textbooks before and I find it sad that the idea is still passed on, when historical evidence is readily available to discredit the idea. "Now, if at all, during the period of the Flour War, was the occasion when Marie Antoinette might have uttered the notorious phrase: "Let them eat cake". Instead, she indulged to her mother in a piece of reflection on the duties of royalty. Its tenor was the exact opposite of that phrase, at once callous and ignorant, so often ascribed to her. "It's quite certain," she wrote, "that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The King seems to understand this truth; as for myself, I know that in my whole life (even if I live for a hundred years) I shall never forget the day of the coronation." This was the tender-hearted Marie Antoinette who, alone among the French royal family, refused to ruin the peasants' cornfields by riding over them, because she was well aware of the minutiae of the lives of the poor. In fact that lethal phrase had been known for at least a century previously, when it was ascribed to the Spanish princes Marie Therese, bride of Louis XIV, in a slightly different form: if there was no bread, let the people eat the crust of the pate. It was known to Rousseau in 1737. It was credited to one of the royal aunts, Madame Sophie, in 1751, when reacting to the news that her brother the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand had been pestered with cries of "bread, bread" on a visit to Paris. . . . But the most convincing proof of Marie Antoinette's innocence came from the memoirs of the Comte de Provence, published in 1823. No gallant guardian of his sister-in-law's reputation, he remarked that eating pate en croute always reminded him of the saying of his own ancestress, Queen Maria Therese." (p135)

Just how much of an "outsider," Marie Antoinette always was, was portrayed best through all of the horrific attacks she endured through the press. They were constantly publishing stories and attacks with little evidence backing them, and she was always the "little Austrian." This may be crossing the an over generalization, but the criticisms that Marie Antoinette took, often from women, made me think about how catty women can sometimes be. And clearly it is not a new invention, it took place throughout history. Marie Antoinette is a prime example of suffering at the hands of female ill-will. I'm not saying that I believe the woman was a saint, but some of the details the author shares about the attacks she endured were outrageous. 

Obviously the ending of Marie Antoinette's life is well-known fact. I did find it interesting though that she was denied some of the dignities in her final hours that her husband received. He was given a few days to prepare for his trial, she was given a few hours. He was allowed to say goodbye to his family, she was not. She was forced to ride to the guillotine facing the crowd, etc. There are several more details that could be pointed out.

On one final note, if I had done my research prior to watching the movie I would have realized that the movie script was based on details from the book. I however did not realize that before-hand and so the whole time I was watching the movie I kept marveling about the similarities with the book. With the exception of a few things (some of the music, the inclusion of a Converse high-top sneaker in one scene) I thought the movie was excellent! And that is saying something because I don't normally love the lead actress. I loved how they kept the movie moving with snippets from the letters between Austria and France. I also loved the part of the story that they ended with--the royal family leaving Versailles. At first I wished that they had continued on and finished their story, however I think it was for the best because for the most part the movie had a very light-hearted vibe, and finishing their story would obviously turn the movie into a tragedy.