Versailles

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ★ ★ ★ ★
𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: November 12, 2024
𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪:

I loved this. This was my very first book by Kathryn Davis and I will now have to find all the books they put out. The writing style is beautiful, and our author has such a beautiful way of writing and leaving you with vivid images through the entire book, each transition of this book flows so well and moves you along. I loved that our narrator in this book is Marie Antoinettes spirit, I thought this was a neat concept. This book will find its people and those will fall in love with every single part of this book. I cannot wait for its release for people to have this on their TBRs and enjoy it as much as I did.

Kathryn Davis is a brilliant writer and this book is her at her best.. She uses many voices and different voices, smoothly pivoting amongst varying genres and characters.

I took many notes while reading in preparation for writing this review but when I sat down to write but when I sat down to write this review, I was overwhelmed by how much I had written. The text is rich and the prose beautiful.

Davis wrote an afterward which I found fascinating--it made me want to read the book all over again. She explains the why and a bit of the how--some of the decisions she made about how to write an historical novel in which there is no suspense since we all know how the story ends! But I also realized that she had achieved her purpose so well the afterward mostly affirmed my interpretations.

The book is about several things--primarily, of course, Marie Antoinette, but equally--as can be inferred from the title--about Versailles itself. The opulence, the decadence, the beauty--but also the ways in which it entraps the people who live in it. Versailles is a character in the novel--probably the most powerful presence in it.

Davis shows how the 14-year-old child Marie Antoinette was when she arrived in France from their enemy country Austria and her development into the woman we know about. Davis is neither sympathetic nor condemning. She shows the forces which helped shape the queen as well as the choices she made which contributed to her downfall.

There are many beautiful descriptive passages, settings in nature, in the highly ornamental and controlled palace grounds with vivid descriptions of the palace itself. Davis uses many voices--poetic, vulgar--and forms, as I said: poetic, dramatic (scenes written in the form of plays or opera) as well as the more expected types of narrative.

The book is carefully and exhaustively researched--I checked many of the details, all of which were accurte. I also googled pictures suggested by the text but I realized after a few times that in fact the writing itself gave me all the pictures I needed.

The book is a tour de force. I went to Versailles many years ago and was indifferent to its charms--now, in the light of this book, I wish I could return to see it through the eyes of Davis.

A brilliant work that I strongly recommend. I am grateful to Greywolf Press, NetGalley, and the author for providing me with a copy of this book.