Marie Antoinette

The Journey

By: Antonia Fraser

Narrated by: Donada Peters

Length: 20 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

France's iconic queen, Marie Antoinette, wrongly accused of uttering the infamous "Let them eat cake", was alternately revered and reviled during her lifetime. For centuries since, she has been the object of debate, speculation, and the fascination so often accorded illustrious figures in history. Married in mere girlhood, this essentially lighthearted child was thrust onto the royal stage and commanded by circumstance to play a significant role in European history. Antonia Fraser's lavish and engaging portrait excites compassion and regard for all aspects of the queen, immersing the listener not only in the coming-of-age of a graceful woman, but in the culture of an unparalleled time and place.

©2001 Antonia Fraser (P)2001 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The portrait is drawn delicately, with pleasant touches of humor...Fraser's approach is controlled and thoughtful." (Publishers Weekly)
"Absorbing as ever. Fraser's blend of insight and research persuade us that this unfortunate queen deserves neither the vilification nor the idealization she has received." (The New Yorker)
"Donada Peters...excels at injecting subtle irony into seemingly flat narrative. She handles the snotty comments and the lewd scandal-mongering of the court with equal aplomb. Fraser is one of the most highly respected and best-selling biographers of our time, and it's easy to see why in this enlightening glimpse into the turbulent France of the 1770s." (AudioFile)

Great story with lot of fun details!

Great story with lot of fun details! ignore a good job of humanizing a very iconic character, and making the historical details relatable to the modern audience.

Fascinating & enlightening

I had very little-to-no background of French history, so this book was a little overwhelming (albeit interesting ). A well researched and detailed book about this fascinating (yet unfortunate queen). I will definitely be listening to it again, so I might retain more information. Overall, I quite enjoyed the book as well as the narrator.

Fantastic

Very informative and well read as well as written. I love fact based books and this was one !

Fantastic Narrator

Ms.Peters did an excellent job of bringing the characters to life while giving an intriguing historical account.

love love

being a fan and having read this book some 10 years earlier , not only I loved it more but the will listen again.

A complete story of the life of Marie Antoinette

I have read the hard copy of this book a few times and felt silly for downloading the audible version (at first that is). I enjoyed hearing the story so much. Donada Peters gives a wonderful voice to this book. Since I have never studied French, I was not sure about some of the proununciations which the narrator smoothed through nicely. The author gives quite a bit of detail I never knew about Marie Antoinette and the time she lived in. Even though I knew how the story would end, I found myself very sad at the conclusion of the book. An enjoyable listen that I will listen to again.

Loved this portrait of Marie Antoinette

I am horrified and deeply saddened by the atrocities that plagued this woman's life. What a tragic saga. I hate life. Also I hate the guillotine. F**king gross, France. Gross. Um good narration. I enjoyed this woman's voice. Another insightful historical novel I will recommend to anyone.

Antonia Fraser is a great biographer!

I was largely ignorant of the details of Marie Antoinette's life. This book was a revelation not only about Marie but about the times in which she lived. Fraser does not idolize her subject, but she makes a superb case that Marie deserves better than the conventional image of the woman who said let them eat cake. As for the atrocities committed by the revolutionaries, no one should ever have had to endure those.

Intriguing

I didn't know much about Marie Antoinette before reading this. I found it a fascinating if also sad story. I couldn't help but think how we judge people in much the same way Marie Antoinette was judged - based on circumstances or through our own lens of experience without knowing all of the information. The author seemed to make some assumptions that the reader would know certain things about various points of history or ceremonies. I had to stop and look several things up to understand the context. And I found that listening to it made it difficult to keep track of various people because many of the names sounded similar or they had more than one name for the same person. However I loved learning more about this woman and now can't wait to visit France.

I loved this book

Any additional comments?

Donada Peters did an incredible job narrating this book! I listened to it through a second time. I'm so intrigued with M.A. and I think Fraser did an amazing job portraying her class and beauty.