Great French Kings: from Louis XII to Louis-Philippe

By: JM Gardner

Narrated by: Katie Haigh

Length: 1 hr and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Understand a crucial part of the history of French monarchy, with this collection of portraits of some of the most spectacular rulers of France. This catalog lists the kings named Louis, from Louis XIII the Just who stood up against political intrigues, to Louis XVIII who reigned during the Restauration of the French Monarchy after the fall of Emperor Napoleon. For each one of these Kings, you will find a detailed description of the style of his reign and his political achievements.
They are, in order:

• Louis I the Debonaire,
• Louis II the Stammerer,
• Louis III,
• Louis IV from Outremer,
• Louis V the Lazy,
• Louis VI the Fat,
• Louis VII the Young,
• Louis VIII the Lion,
• Louis IX the Saint,
• Louis X the Quarreller,
• Louis XI the Cunning, or the Universal Spider,
• Louis XII the Father of the People,
• Louis XIII the Just,
• Louis XIV the Sun King,
• Louis XV the Beloved,
• Louis XVI the Restorer of French Liberty,
• and Louis XVIII the Desired (Louis XVII having died in prison without receiving the sacrament).

©Compagnie du Savoir (P)2016 Astorg Audio

Unutterable twaddle

I was looking for a short review of this particular range of French kings. I wasn’t expecting magisterial history. Even so, this listen was atrocious.

1. Each section is introduced by the same ominous music, like a horror movie, as if one is going to be attacked or guillotined. It would be laughable if it were not so annoying.

2. There is a continuous suggestion to see the article on France. What article would this be? There’s no pdf.

3. I don’t know if the author is AI. They use a different name when introducing the author at the beginning of chapters. I can find no J.M. Gardner online, only dozens of titles under his alleged authorship which bear no relation to one another in subject matter,

4. I don’t know if the narrator is AI, but I haven’t ever heard a human say the word repudiate as if it had two d’s nor mispronounce Agincourt while pronouncing other words in impeccable French. It sounds a lot like the kind of weird mix you get from computer speech.

5. The errors…I could be here all day. The most egregious presentations are on Louis XVI and Louis XVII. These could be direct press releases from Jacobin propgandists. The Louis XVI information is the usual dreck, long refuted by scholars, and the lies about his son were forever silenced by Cadbury’s research. In fine, whoever it was who wrote this nonsense, it is evident the only Bourbon of which he would approve is the pourable kind. The bias is evident in other kings as well. This one was good, that one was bad, etc.

6. There are pompous pronouncements with zero, and I mean, zero, context. To name but one: Under Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour had a disastrous effect on politics. Full stop. Why?

TLDR: Save your money. Audible will not accept returns on books of this price. You are far better off reading a slapdash wiki than this twaddle.