Marie Antoinette by Haslip, J

George Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, first edition, 1988. Cloth, 8vo, 24 cm,. Contents age-toned, otherwise Very Good in slightly chipped dustwrapper. xiv, 306 pp, [8] pp of plates. An interesting biography, fleshing out the bare facts generally known about Marie-Antoinette : "how when she arrived in France in 1770, naive and hardly more than a child, she was quite unprepared for her future role as Queen of France and wife of the hopelessly gauche Dauphin; how, at first, she was adored for her bewitching charm and good looks, but alone and desperately unhappy, a foreigner in the French court, her pride and her passion for extravagance grew. As resentment of her mounted in a people crippled by taxation, she increasingly took refuge in her fantasy world, oblivious of criticism. Joan Haslip captures the mixture of charm and arrogance beautifully in a character which will always fascinate. She concentrates especially on the Queen's little-explored early life and the circumstances of her long- unconsummated marriage." - from the blurb.