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.

Review: Quatrevingt-treize by Victor Hugo

“Au-dessus de l'absolu révolutionnaire, il y a l'absolu humain.” 
"Beyond the revolutionary absolute, there is a human absolute."

To me, the above statement perfectly summarises the theme of this amazing book set in France's terror years during the French Revolution.

Written in 1874, Quatrevingt-treize is Victor Hugo's last novel. He was 72 years old when it was published. Consider that Hugo was only 29 when he published Notre Dame de Paris.

In Quatrevingt-treize, Hugo reprises the thorny question of what one should choose when faced with a moral decision. At the climax of this story, three men encounter situations that will challenge their core beliefs. Two of them choose to uphold humanitarian principles over and above any revolutionary concerns-even at the cost of their own lives or mission. The third, however, cannot override his convictions, and as a result, his conscience and his failure to act in a humanitarian manner will lead to his demise.

Illustration for Quatrevingt-treize, 

by Caumont, Robert (circa 1922 - 1924)

The third man, Cimourdain, also functions as an anti-Javert while meeting the same end as Javert.
At the end of Les Misérables, Inspector Javert, who has shown humanity in letting Jean Valjean escape, will suffer enormous cognitive dissonance; through his lenience, he has acted against the grain of his perceived moral duty and cannot reconcile his benevolent behavior with the opposing rigid lawful attitude. His subsequent suicide is a desperate means to escape from a fraught self-integrity.

On the other hand, in Quatrevingt-treize, the character, Cimourdain does not allow humanitarian concerns overtake duty; but here again, dissonance arises because deep down, his emotional attachment to Gauvain reminds him over and over again that he has made the wrong decision. Facing the impasse between his broken conscience and the duty he was forced to obey, Cimourdain takes the same deathly path as Javert.

Danton, Robespierre, and Marat at the wine shop

Quatrevingt-treize

Wood engraving by Paterson.

What is revealed in his writings is that Hugo was painfully conscious of moral dilemmas and of the human distress that surfaces when people are forced into a choice that offers no solution - whether the choice is in line or goes against strongly held beliefs. Could this have resulted from his upbringing? I mentioned this before in an earlier post - Victor Hugo's parents could not have been more at odds. Could this tension between opposites have created a domestic climate of guilt where every decision was fraught with anxiety?

It is easy to imagine it. His father, Joseph Léopold Hugo was loyal to the French army. In his earlier years, long before the family lived in Spain where his son spent his early childhood, Joseph Hugo had fought in Western France against Bretons rebels, or Chouans, as these were called. Meanwhile his mother, Sophie Hugo, a Breton royalist from Nantes was firmly against the revolutionaries - she sheltered counter-revolutionaries - like the Chouans.

Or perhaps, the tumultuous times during which the author's parents lived were filled with stories that later inspired Victor Hugo? I noted that while depicting the tragic war and violence pitting Chouans against Republication soldiers, Victor Hugo emerges from his narrator's voice and chooses to remind the reader of Quatrevingt-treize that his father fought this war. It is intimate and marked with emphasis.

No matter its origins or the inspiration behind it, I felt that, more strongly than in Les Misérables, Quatrevingt-treize is the author's attempt to reiterate that we are doomed if we hold on too tightly to our convictions. Fanaticism harms the human soul and the human absolute must prevail.

La Tourgue, 1835

llustration by Victor Hugo for Quatrevingt-treize

The book is beautifully written. Like L'Homme qui rit, each chapter stands alone as a masterpiece. Through Hugo's vivid descriptions, I was fascinated by the landscape of Brittany's forests and the extensive network of subterranean caves, some of which date to the 9th century. I found a book published on this same subject, and which covers the terrain in La Roche-sur-Yon, not far from where my uncle lives today. Curious about Western France's subterranean network, I began to research the underground caves of the Vendée and have since featured these in my historical novel, Julien's Terror.

Beyond the rich historical insights of Quatrevingt-treize and the author's deep understanding of moral conflicts, I enjoyed Victor Hugo's rendering of the Breton culture and his colorful, immersive writing. It was a pleasure to read this book and to rediscover my grandfather's homeland. It was enriching to be inspired and moved by this great author.

Review: Insatiable - A Macabre History of France by Ginger Myrick

My first meeting with Marie-Antoinette was at age eight upon reading Alexandre Dumas' excellent Le Chevalier de Maison Rouge.

While I felt sorry for the sad lady in the prison du Temple, I wondered at length why anyone would grow so in love with her to the point of staging the intricate Carnation Plot and endangering the lives of many to rescue her.

From then on, I read many books about Marie-Antoinette, and while each time I grew more sensitive to her plight and more unsettled at her terrible fate, I still could not understand the romantic infatuation with the Queen.

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Well, Insatiable changed my feelings. I absolutely loved Ginger Myrick's characterisation of Marie-Antoinette. This book is in essence a biography of her life set in a horror paradigm. I loved it.

Everything about this novel was not only painstakingly researched and fascinating, but the prose was also immensely enjoyable. 

The macabre aspects were stylish and suspenseful. (The key and secret passage escape scene had me on the edge of my seat - so to speak!) In short, I loved the author's deft merging of the horror and historical genre. The paradigm was well staged with great attention to detail which rendered it quite plausible.

Yet the true strength of this book's horror dimension is not that it plays an added entertaining role, but rather that it achieves an unsettling social commentary in an almost satirical manner. As the novel progressed into the well-known reign of Terror, the story's supernatural horror elements became overshadowed by the horrors of reality. It was reality, not fiction, that gutted me. And here lies the social commentary - during certain historical events, we witness human horror on such unprecedented scale that one might wonder whether these might as well have resulted from macabre supernatural forces.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

This is one of my favourite novels about the french revolution.

Review: Spirit of Lost Angels by Liza Perrat

I loved this book and highly recommend it to those who wish a glimpse of the poorer classes on the eve of France's revolution. It is a passionate and well-told story of survival and of overcoming obstacles faced by every day French women in the late 18th century. 

But it is much more - it vividly depicts Paris during that period, with a keen knowledge of the city's geography and of the injustices which saw the classes pitted against one another. It is also a mystery - where the main character's integrity comes under question. And last, it is a triumphant affirmation of the bond between women and of the power some women can have to better the lives of their sisters - a theme not often explored.

The main character is Victoire, a young woman from the country, who suffers tragic losses, mistreatment, betrayal, imprisonment, and as a mother, the worse tortures of the mind. Perhaps it was the author's background in nursing but I felt that the passages depicting Victoire's growing emotional instability during a difficult period in her life, were believable and evocative. I enjoyed the medical attention to detail around Victoire's ordeal and her dramatic passage into the very darkness of Paris. 

Jeanne de la Motte 

painted by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Without spoiling it for readers, I want to say how much I enjoyed the entertaining and saucy intrigue which begins with the appearance of Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy in the story. Though I had read about l'Affaire du Collier and the scandal it created around Marie-Antoinette, I ignored much about Jeanne. The adventuress can be credited for much of the spice and reversal of fortune injected into this wonderful tale. I love when authors take daring approaches to speculative history and this was perhaps my favorite passage in the book. 

One detail that stood out for me is the author's sensitive attention to nature, a considerate touch given the main character's country origin. Nature's presence is pervasive in this novel, not only through weather and its effects on crops and the socio-economic upheavals of the time, but also through what the main character glimpses from her surroundings, as these reflect her mood and consciousness. 

Victoire's touching letters to her daughter Lucie, her beautiful and enterprising relationship with her husband, Armand - who was my favorite character - gave much heart to this novel. The love of a mother shines in many passages. 

In all, a well-researched and highly enjoyable read.