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Francoise d'Aubigne, born in a bleak provincial prison, her father a condemned murderer and traitor to the state, rose from the depths of poverty to life at the vortex of power at Versailles. Married at fifteen to a tragically disfigured and scandalously popular poet, in his salon Francoise encountered all the brilliant characters of the seventeenth century's glitterati. After her husband's death, she led the life of a merry widow in the colourful Marais quarter of Paris, before becoming governess to the King's growing brood of royal batards. This is the extraordinary story of one woman's daring journey from beggar-girl, West Indian colonist and salonniere to royal mistress and thence, in secret, to the compromised position of Louis' uncrowned Queen. Through the rags-to-riches tale of the maquise de Maintenon, Veronica Buckley reveals every layer of the vibrant and shocking world that was France in the age of Louis XIV.… (more)
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I'd have liked this book more if it weren't so scattered. I felt like I knew all the political intrigue and how each battle went and how every single person at court felt about every single other person at court, and truthfully it got a bit uninteresting. A more focused book could have kept me glued to the page, because certainly she led a fascinating life. Still, it's pretty well-written and the author provides plenty of personage's opinions in their own words. I do appreciate that. Plus, it's a great source for bon mots popular in the French court at the time, and anecdotes to horrify your friends. Like the time the King of Spain peed into a beaver hat. Or that when the French peasants were starving because the king's army had forcibly taken all their grain, their Archbishop advised them to fast and pray for forgiveness. Hilarity!
This book is easy to follow and I would recommend it to French history buffs, especially anyone looking for the reasons behind the Fremch Revolution.