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Love and Louis XIV:The Women in the Life of the Sun King |
While purporting to be a study of his women, this is also a revealing study of the Sun King himself. Impressively researched, it is less dynamic and brilliant than some of Fraser's other books, as if the struggle to cope with such a plethora of information shows beneath the scholarship. However, cope she does and it gains brilliance and momentum towards the end, portraying the deaths of many of the protagonists in a deeply felt and affecting way.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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Marie Antoinette |
When Marie Antoinette, after a happy and relatively free royal family upbringing, left Austria to marry the dauphin Louis, she vowed to become completely French and, as a future queen, joint guardian of the interests of everything French. She was only fourteen. Despite the stultifying formality of the Versailles court and the gradual demonising of her when queen, culminating in trial and execution, she never betrayed that trust. This riveting account is both illuminating and heartbreaking.
(James Baker - bwl 10 August 2001) |
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Perilous Question: The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832 |
This book is curiously disjointed, repetitive and somewhat patchily written. I suspect the author relied too heavily on her research assistants and failed to bring her accustomed flair to the narrative account of what was a very dramatic episode in British history. Too harsh? Perhaps a little but I was left with an empty feeling after reading her book and although better informed, I was no more engaged by the subject.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 70 Autumn 2013) |
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The Six Wives of Henry VIII |
A learned, perceptive survey and analysis of Henry's marital problems and the prevailing religious and European political issues which made providing a proper and lawful succession of such paramount importance, both for Kings and aristocrats. Although written from the woman's perspective - and Fraser details the status and everyday lives of women in general as well as the royal wives - she is unbiased ("a miracle of impartiality" - A L Rowse). A wonderfully entertaining and instructive read.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 77 Summer 2015) |
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