Review: The Queen's Dressmaker by Meghan Masterson

The Queen’s Dressmaker is a well-paced story of loyalty, espionage and love set in the turmoil of the French Revolution.

Masterson’s fictitious heroine, Giselle Aubry, offers a gripping and highly plausible first person insight into what it might have been like to serve Marie-Antoinette as wardrobe mistress in the years leading to the queen of France’s imprisonment and beheading.

With meticulous research, the author brilliantly highlights the often absurd transitions of this period, and the tightly wound relationships between French dress, overt political stance, intense social pressure and death itself. I adored the attention to detail placed on clothing and its social symbols.

Gowns as seen in Sofia Coppola's Marie-Antoinette

Conciergerie exhibition, Dec 2019

The plot, deftly entwined with Marie-Antoinette’s tragic fate from 1789 to 1793, follows the romantic relationship between a dressmaker working in Versailles Palace and a republican watchmaker, Léon Gauvain. Giselle’s inner conflict and her torn loyalties are well-executed, lending a cerebral quality to her romance which rather than being thwarted by emotions or jealousy, is imperilled by opposing values.

Encouraged to spy on the queen by her uncle, Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (author of Le Mariage de Figaro), it was interesting to witness Giselle’s stint into espionage evolve from a source of pride – in her own worth, knowledge and intelligence — to a source of shame. An activity begun as voyeurism, and which mirrors the curiosity we modern readers feel for Marie-Antoinette’s life, it, and all other espionage takes on a dangerous quality as the Revolution unfolds.

Portrait of Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais 

Jean-Marc Nattier, 1755

From the point of view of character development, I also appreciated how a pure initial fervour into the French republican cause, as held by Léon, could later be tempered once France entered the Terror.

I loved this book. Having studied the French Revolution created added suspense due to my anticipation of upcoming historical events. I worried in advance for the character and was curious to live precariously though her. Those unfamiliar with the French Revolution and with Marie-Antoinette’s fate, would still be highly captivated by this novel as it artfully explains the events and brings them to life in a unique, intimate manner.

Marie-Antoinette (1783) by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Versailles Palace

The novel’s cast of real life characters, including the heart-warming Madame Campan, General Lafayette, Maximilien Robespierre and journalist, Camille Desmoulins, further grounds this historical novel into the world of the French Revolution. There was a cute cameo from Talleyrand which I appreciated.

Highly recommended for lovers of France, Marie-Antoinette, clothing, and historical fiction.

Versailles Palace, door details

Many thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC.