Madame de Pompadour

by Nancy Mitford

Other authorsAmanda Foreman (Introduction)
Paperback, 2001

Status

Available

Call number

944.034092

Collection

Publication

NYRB Classics (2001), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 296 pages

Description

When Jeanne-Antoinette was nine, she was told by a fortune teller that she would one day become the mistress of the handsome young Louix XV - from that day she was groomed to become 'a morsel fit for a King'. Nancy Mitford lovingly tells the story of how the little girl rose, against a backdrop of savage social-climbing, intrigue, excess and high drama, to become the most powerful women of the eighteenth century French court, Le Pompadour.

User reviews

LibraryThing member canalrat
Nancy Mitford at her best with a sparkling portrayal of court life. As a biography it's famously, delightfully biased, referring to various personages as "feather-brained" or "dull". But excusing MdP of ll wrongdoing.
LibraryThing member amerynth
Prior to reading this book, all I knew about Madame de Pompadour came from an episode of "Doctor Who" (Which is to say, given the episode involved a space ship that opened into her fireplace, I knew next to nothing.) So I can't really comment on the historical accuracy of Nancy Mitford's "Madame de
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Pompadour."

I can say that I was delighted by the coffee-table style of the book and Mitford's ability to pick out little, insightful details (a hallmark of her fiction as well.) The book has an almost gossipy style that is well-suited for a mistress of a king.

I've been absolutely spoiled by Alison Weir's wonderful books on the Tudors, where she backs up each and every detail and supposition with evidence from source material. Mitford makes a lot of snooty pronouncements but never produces any evidence, which drove me nuts. She also drops a lot of names but in a way that is still readable.

Overall, a pretty book that is better when it focuses on the more frivolous aspects of the lives of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour. Still, it made for an interesting read.
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LibraryThing member Imprinted
This is one of the liveliest and wittiest biographies ever written. How could anyone resist such an evocative opening line, "After the death of the great King, beautiful Versailles, fatal for France, lay empty seven years while fresh air blew through its golden rooms, blowing away the sorcery and
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bigotry which hung about the walls like a miasma, blowing away the old century and blowing in the new."
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LibraryThing member shalulah
I picked this up because I have a weakness for all things Mitford, but it proved to be a delightful read. A biography I really couldn't put down, though sometimes Nancy's non-linear approach had me flipping back chapters to remember where she left off with certain characters who disappeared &
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reappeared throughout the story.
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LibraryThing member hellbent
Entertaining history of French mistress.
LibraryThing member desiree85
This book was so eloquantly written, that you couldn't help fall in love with French history. It is easy to get dull and boring when writing about the past - especially when writing about wars, famine, revolutionaries, kings, treaties and the like - however, Mitford brings the characters to life
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and provides enough gossip to keep the book enjoyable to read.
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LibraryThing member KateSherrod
Reading Nancy Mitford's biography of "Reinette" Poisson, whom history knows as Madame de Pompadour, is like sidling up to a knowledgeable guest at a vast party full of strangers and asking her what's what. She's happy to tell you, but being Mitford, a Jazz Age aristocrat, a Bright Young Thing,
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she'll assume you know who all the people are already, and that you have a passing command of French, and focus on how they relate to the one she came to admire, La Pompadour.

In other words, it's a shame that NYRB Classics neglected to include a family tree or, better still, a dramatis personae, for the casual reader unfamiliar with the late Ancien Regime of Pompadour's lover, King Louis XV's France will likely be lost in a sea of unfamiliar names, political issues, and bewildering Versailles ettiquitte. I was fortunate to have numerous secondary sources at hand to answer my questions and help me remember what I did already know; those without such will want to have a browser window handy, as even just Wikipedia will be a help for which they'll be grateful.

That is not to say this is at all a bad book. Mitford is great fun to read, breezy, well-informed and opinionated. She feels her subject has been unfairly maligned by history and wants to redress that, in the process giving us all a wonderful look at a most fascinating woman.
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LibraryThing member Roarer
A sparkling account of Madame de Pompadour, with the telling final sentence - "After this a very great dulness fell upon the Chateau of Verseilles."
LibraryThing member Kiri
Awful. I know this is very well rated, and it is from vintage books, but this is simply tripe. I am reading the ebook version and hopefully it is a case of bad conversion from print. Having stated that, this version has terrible and nonsensical sentences, bad structure, the tenses do not even agree
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- and that is just the tip of the iceberg. I am left wondering about Ms. Mitford's education (or more likely lack thereof) and if she was a native English speaker. Yes it is that bad.

Sadly I have several other novels from her here in my tbr, and now am very reluctant to even consider opening them.

1 star. would give this a negative rating if possible. A real shame as the topic is interesting.
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Language

Original publication date

1954

Physical description

296 p.; 7.8 inches

ISBN

094032265X / 9780940322653
Page: 0.5366 seconds