Book Review: The Queen's Confession

I love to read, so I thought I would start doing some book reviews to put here. I plan to do book reviews every week. If you would like to submit a book review for posting, feel free to contact me using the contact information here and in my profile.


Review of The Queen’s Confession

By Kathy Foust

This fictional biography by Victoria Holt offers a glimpse into the personal thoughts and life of Marie Antoinette. This tale of personal correspondence, fears, faults and relationships begins in the early teen years of Marie Antoinette, whose name was changed from Maria Antonio, signifying the transition from an Austrian child to the Queen Marie Antoinette of France.

This journey is not only about the life of the Queen of France, known for her spending habits and haughty attitude, but about France itself as the country changes from one of hope to the beginning and end of the French Revolution. From the crowning of the King who could not perform husbandly duties to the death of 2 out of 4 of the royal couple’s children as well as the beheading of the King himself, this account of the life of Marie Antoinette is written in such a way that the reader is carried along through family relationships, forbidden love and a misunderstood Queen of France.

The story begins with a young child and ends with Marie Antoinette seemingly writing her own history as she waits for judgment from the people, a judgment that will place her neck under the axe even as she maintains her dignity and duty to her people. This is not just a tale of a Queen, but of a woman whose downfall was sparked off by her innocence in an affair involving an extravagant necklace. A life of royalty and extravagance built a reputation that could only end in tragedy.