Absolutely my favorite book on the final days of Marie Antoinette. I found this book at The Dollar Tree - obviously for a $1.00 - and what a find it was. I realized there were two other books in the series before this but I couldn't pass it up. I have read several other books on Antionette so I know the story fairly well. However, this book gives, in my opinion, the best recount, albeit historical fiction recount, of what life was like for her and her family from the time of the attack on Versailles to her death. The author does a terrific job of making you feel her hopes, frustrations, and fears right along with her. Excellent book! ( )

It was very detailed and very well researched. I do not necessarily agree with the author's interpretation of history but she very clearly researched well. I think this would have been better not told in first person narrative. This is the most complete fictional account of her life I have read. ( )

Marie Antoinette had a tragic life. Taken from her home country of Austria at the young age of fourteen to become the dauphine of France, she was thrust into a world that was extremely different from what she had always known. Joined in marriage to a young man, the dauphin, who was withdrawn and in his own world and who knew nothing of the relationship between a man and a woman, she was maligned from the start for her failure to produce an heir. She was constantly ridiculed for her frivolities and expenditures (although true), which I believe were her way of filling the great hole she had in her life. The tragedy continues when she loses two of her children and then, finally, she is made the scapegoat for all that is wrong in France...for the starving people, for her negative influence on the king, and so on.

I have always been sympathetic toward Marie Antoinette. I feel like she has been treated unfairly historically. Propaganda and gossip of the time shoved her into a false light. There is a great quote from Voltaire in the opening pages of the book that I believe sum up what happened with Antoinette...what led to her misconstrued reputation.

Posterity should pay no heed to those secret legends which are spread about a Prince in his lifetime out of spite, or a mere love of gossip, which a mistaken public believes to be true and which, in a few more years, are adopted by the historians who thus deceive themselves and the generations to come.

--Voltaire, Eloge Funebre, written during the reign of Louis XV


Juliet Grey has written a fine trilogy about Antoinette. In this, the final book, she depicts the harrowing days leading up to the final outcome we all know so well. The imprisonment at the Tuileries, the ill treatment by the people of the revolution, the fickle nature of the public...it is all here in stunning detail. Antoinette is portrayed here as very brave, showing unswerving loyal support to her husband and a fierce love for her children. This is a poignant finale to the series. It's a book that will stay with me for many years to come. ( )

Confessions of Marie Antoinette is the third and final installment in Juliet Grey's Marie Antoinette trilogy, following Becoming Marie Antoinette and Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow (click on the titles to read my reviews). The focus of this novel is on the final years of Marie Antoinette's life, which coincides with the downfall of France's Bourbon dynasty. Told primarily from Marie Antoinette's perspective, Confessions takes place at the height of the French Revolution.

Much like the previous two novels in the Marie Antoinette trilogy, Confessions of Marie Antoinette is filled with rich period detail that brings revolutionary France and the tumultuous French court to life. While I was already familiar with the basic events and key figures of the French Revolution prior to reading this trilogy, the plight of the French royal family during the final years of Louis XVI's reign was relatively new to me. One of this novel's greatest strengths is Grey's ability to successfully capture the fear and despair of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI as they unsuccessfully try to keep the French monarchy from falling.

Although Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI are not historical figures I've previously been particularly curious to learn more about, this novel has changed that. While I thought the book started out a little slowly, by the halfway point I was completely riveted by the story and eager to learn more about the events leading up to first Louis XVI's, and then Marie Antoinette's, deaths. Grey does such a good job of conveying the immense difficulties that they faced during their final years that I couldn't help but feel sympathy and sadness for their treatment at the hands of the revolutionaries, and I often found myself appalled at the level of hatred directed at Marie Antoinette in particular. One of the things I liked best about this novel, and indeed of the trilogy in general, is Grey's characterization of Marie Antoinette. In Grey's deft hands Marie comes across as a caring wife and mother, one who, although she has flaws, does not deserve the reputation given to her by history.

Recommended to fans of historical fiction set in France, especially those interested in the Bourbon monarchy and the French Revolution.

Source: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. ( )

Bellissimo e intenso. Ho dovuto leggerlo in più riprese, soprattutto le ultime pagine, a causa dell'estremo realismo del racconto. ( )