Marie-Antoinette

The Making of a French Queen

By: John Hardman

Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley

Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

A new look which fundamentally overturns our understanding of this famously "out of touch" queen  

Who was the real Marie-Antoinette? She was mistrusted and reviled in her own time, and today she is portrayed as a lightweight incapable of understanding the events that engulfed her. In this new account, John Hardman redresses the balance and sheds fresh light on Marie-Antoinette's story.  

Hardman shows how Marie-Antoinette played a significant but misunderstood role in the crisis of the monarchy. Drawing on new sources, he describes how, from the outset, Marie-Antoinette refused to prioritize the aggressive foreign policy of her mother, Maria-Theresa, bravely took over the helm from Louis XVI after the collapse of his morale, and, when revolution broke out, listened to the Third Estate and worked closely with repentant radicals to give the constitutional monarchy a fighting chance. For the first time, Hardman demonstrates exactly what influence Marie-Antoinette had and when and how she exerted it.

©2019 John Hardman (P)2019 Tantor

I didn't enjoy the book and won't finish it.

I am not judging the accuracy of the book, but its organization. I feel the book is a collection and disgorgement of infomation, without the flow I expected. Too often the content jumped around in time period, and I lost track. I could not stay interested.

Dreadful Narration

So disappointed by the reader. Was really looking forward to listening to this but found Jonathan Crowley’s narration unbearable. For a start, a professional reader who consistently pronounces the word ‘a’ as ‘A’ should know better or at least should have been corrected by a producer. I do wonder if Audible just churn books out without a producer or director on board. This should have been fascinating given that it sheds new light on the French monarchy during the revolution, but Crpwley fails to make it so. There are no changes of pace, no sense of insight, no real engagement with the text and it’s incredibly boring as a result. Really disappointed to have wasted a credit on this.

Ruined by rubbish narration

As another reviewer has already noted, the narration of this book is quite awful. It lacks any performance and is so full of mispronunciations that it spoils the listening experience. The audio quality is also very poor. John Hardman's book is interesting and important and it deserves much better treatment than this.