Recommendations from our site
“What has stuck with me is that Zweig’s Marie Antoinette is a human being, rather than a distant figure in a palace who eventually has her head chopped off. This is a psychological portrait. Zweig begins with her engagement, when a very young Marie Antoinette met her fiancé and future king Louis XVI near the border of Austria and France. She was just a frightened teenager. Throughout the book, she continues to be portrayed as a human – a very famous human with feelings and flaws. I felt that, wow, this reads like a novel but at the same time, I can learn about the French Revolution. It was a real eye-opener.” Read more...
The Best Biographies of 18th-Century Figures
Andrea Wulf, Historian
