Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette

So my not so secret guilty pleasure books are those historical novels detailing which people in various royal courts are getting it on, scheming against each other, and plotting for their own ascension to the throne. Philippa Gregory specializes in this genre and is responsible for such fun reads as The Other Boleyn Girl, The Constant Princess, and The Queen’s Fool, among many others. I recently picked up Abundance, expecting something similar and found, instead, a beautifully written account of Marie Antoinette’s successes and failures as dauphine and then queen of France.

Sena Jeter Naslund, who also wrote the extraordinary Four Spirits, approaches Tointette’s (as her intimates call her) story from a very personal perspective. We travel with her as she crosses the border from her native Austria and is reborn as French royalty. We feel her desire to charm and please everyone around her, even as she finds ever luxurious ways to also please herself. Marie Antoinette is presented as selfish, yes, but also as both innocent and determined. Told from this personal perspective, readers are presented with Marie Antoinette’s considerations about her fashion choices, hair styles, and favorite artists more often than the state of French economics and politics. The approach allows us to revel at her early successes and sympathize with her later plight; what we can’t do, is rationally understand what prompts the populace’s about-face. Instead, Naslund richly explores Marie Antoinette’s emotional response to mob mentality, her love and appreciation for her friends and supporters, her sensitivities to both kindness and callousness, and the strength upon which she draws when faced with imprisonment, separation from her family, and, ultimately, the guillotine.

Naslund is a gifted writer, and her talent does not go wasted here. For anyone with an interest in this subject matter or type of character study Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette is a wonderful read.