Published in 2006, 537 pages in this updated version, paperback. I have had it on my shelf for sometime and as visible on the cover found it used for only 99 cents.
I'd read other novels by this author and enjoy historical fiction, so thought this would be a good read for me. But my thinking did not gel with reality. I struggled reading through Page 254 before giving up. I just could not get interested. The writing is good so it was not that but the long drawn out references to the suffering about the Dauphin's lack of desire and inability to perform. Despite the reviews and my initial interest in reading about Marie Antoinette this wasn't for me.
It seems to focus on lamentations about Marie, a child of 14 sent by her mother the Empress of Austria to wed the Dauphin (next in line to become King) of France to cement the Austrian Empire with the French. Marie does so as an obedient daughter and immediately though relinquishing all her ties to home, she embraces France and speaks only French. She will become queen as the Dauphin becomes King. But the central theme is that the Dauphin is impotent and they never become intimate, nor produce and heir.
Unlike King Louis XV, the grandfather of the Dauphin, with his mistresses, currently Madame du Barry the Dauphin prefers to hunt. Marie does everything she can to please him even taking up the sport of the hunt. The King is very pleased with her. Marie becomes close to the aunts and especially to the Princesses. Her mother has ears in the royal abodes through Count Mercy.
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| Marie seeks advice through Count Mercy excerpt 1 |
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| Count Mercy continued |
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