The Rivals of Versailles: A Novel (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy)
2 journalers for this copy...
Received this to review.
From Goodreads:
And you thought sisters were a thing to fear. In this compelling follow-up to Sally Christie's clever and absorbing debut, we meet none other than the Marquise de Pompadour, one of the greatest beauties of her generation and the first bourgeois mistress ever to grace the hallowed halls of Versailles.
I write this before her blood is even cold. She is dead, suddenly, from a high fever. The King is inconsolable, but the way is now clear.
The way is now clear.
The year is 1745. Marie-Anne, the youngest of the infamous Nesle sisters and King Louis XV's most beloved mistress, is gone, making room for the next Royal Favorite.
Enter Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, a stunningly beautiful girl from the middle classes. Fifteen years prior, a fortune teller had mapped out young Jeanne's destiny: she would become the lover of a king and the most powerful woman in the land. Eventually connections, luck, and a little scheming pave her way to Versailles and into the King's arms.
All too soon, conniving politicians and hopeful beauties seek to replace the bourgeois interloper with a more suitable mistress. As Jeanne, now the Marquise de Pompadour, takes on her many rivals - including a lustful lady-in-waiting; a precocious fourteen-year-old prostitute, and even a cousin of the notorious Nesle sisters - she helps the king give himself over to a life of luxury and depravity. Around them, war rages, discontent grows, and France inches ever closer to the Revolution.
Enigmatic beauty, social climber, actress, trendsetter, patron of the arts, spendthrift, whoremonger, friend, lover, foe. History books may say many things about the famous Marquise de Pompadour, but one thing is clear: for almost twenty years, she ruled France and the King's heart.
Told in Christie's witty and modern style, this second book in the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy will delight and entrance fans as it once again brings to life the world of eighteenth century Versailles in all its pride, pestilence and glory.
From Goodreads:
And you thought sisters were a thing to fear. In this compelling follow-up to Sally Christie's clever and absorbing debut, we meet none other than the Marquise de Pompadour, one of the greatest beauties of her generation and the first bourgeois mistress ever to grace the hallowed halls of Versailles.
I write this before her blood is even cold. She is dead, suddenly, from a high fever. The King is inconsolable, but the way is now clear.
The way is now clear.
The year is 1745. Marie-Anne, the youngest of the infamous Nesle sisters and King Louis XV's most beloved mistress, is gone, making room for the next Royal Favorite.
Enter Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, a stunningly beautiful girl from the middle classes. Fifteen years prior, a fortune teller had mapped out young Jeanne's destiny: she would become the lover of a king and the most powerful woman in the land. Eventually connections, luck, and a little scheming pave her way to Versailles and into the King's arms.
All too soon, conniving politicians and hopeful beauties seek to replace the bourgeois interloper with a more suitable mistress. As Jeanne, now the Marquise de Pompadour, takes on her many rivals - including a lustful lady-in-waiting; a precocious fourteen-year-old prostitute, and even a cousin of the notorious Nesle sisters - she helps the king give himself over to a life of luxury and depravity. Around them, war rages, discontent grows, and France inches ever closer to the Revolution.
Enigmatic beauty, social climber, actress, trendsetter, patron of the arts, spendthrift, whoremonger, friend, lover, foe. History books may say many things about the famous Marquise de Pompadour, but one thing is clear: for almost twenty years, she ruled France and the King's heart.
Told in Christie's witty and modern style, this second book in the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy will delight and entrance fans as it once again brings to life the world of eighteenth century Versailles in all its pride, pestilence and glory.
This book picks up right after the first in the series, though can be read as a standalone, and is told from the perspective of a few of Louis XV's mistresses. After the Nesle's sisters are no longer part of court, Louis' next mistress is Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson. Jeanne is naive and not popular at all because she's middle-class; the court looks down on her and suspects she won't last long. But Jeanne has staying power and survives for much longer than anyone expects. Other women come in and out of the picture. Some faster than others. Louis XV seems to have an insatiable appetite for sex and the court has to stoop to finding prostitutes.
Since Jeanne is a long-term mistress of Louis XV, we learn much about her perspective. What she has to do to appease the king, what she tries to do to make friends, and how the court entertained themselves back in the 1700s. The characters are shallow, which I'm sure is true to the time. And yet I'm amazed by how these shallow, naive women seem to so easily dally in the world of royalty and, for the most part, survive. It's a game of chess and all about playing the right move at the right time. This is where the intrigue is in the novel; how these women survive and thrive in this environment.
The book reads a bit like a soap opera at times, though less cheesy, and would make for a great summer read.
I can't wait for the next one!
Since Jeanne is a long-term mistress of Louis XV, we learn much about her perspective. What she has to do to appease the king, what she tries to do to make friends, and how the court entertained themselves back in the 1700s. The characters are shallow, which I'm sure is true to the time. And yet I'm amazed by how these shallow, naive women seem to so easily dally in the world of royalty and, for the most part, survive. It's a game of chess and all about playing the right move at the right time. This is where the intrigue is in the novel; how these women survive and thrive in this environment.
The book reads a bit like a soap opera at times, though less cheesy, and would make for a great summer read.
I can't wait for the next one!
Mailed to Terra who won this in the HF swap
Again Sorry Lauren! I have them I promise.
