Ernest Daudet

Ernest Daudet biography of Madame Royale – Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette’s daughter – covers the horrific time she spent as a teenager imprisoned by the monsters of the French Revolution, through to her eventual marriage to her cousin, the son of the future Charles X.

I didn’t know much at all about Madame Royale before reading this. After reading reproductions of her letters she strikes me as a loving, genuine, and wonderful human being. She endured a hard life. After three years of having no knowledge of the world outside her prison door she suddenly learned all at once of her mother’s, brother’s, and aunt’s death – or rather their murders.

After spending most of her teenage years imprisoned by monsters in the shape of men, Madame Royale was eventually released and spent time in Austria with her cousins. During this time she wrote many a letter to her exiled uncle, Louis XVIII – a king without a country – and many of their letters have been reproduced in this book.

Louis loved his niece like a daughter – he had no children himself – and she in turn treated him as a second father. Their correspondence is touching, while their use of language is of the highest eloquence. They had a long time to wait before reuniting. Their eventual reunion, which took place in Russia, is a touching scene.

The letters and relationship between Madame Royale and Louis XVIII are the main theme of this bio. At times this is the book’s strength, but at some points it is its weakness, as some of the letters are repetitive, especially the amount of those regarding the planned marriage between Madame Royale and her cousin.

Some of the other elements also proved repetitive. I think that if this tome had been edited to feature fewer letters on the same subjects whilst extending Madame Royale’s story rather than summarising events following her marriage, then the reader would’ve had a fuller and more varied picture of this unfortunate yet admirable woman’s life.… (mere)

Opening in France, 1770, a half-dead yet beautiful Bohemian woman, carrying a baby girl, arrives at a nobleman’s house, where the pair are taken in. This is an engaging opening, but for me the rest of the book is up and down.

I feel there is too much narration explaining what’s happened and that some of this could’ve been improved by showing the characters going through events and by using more dialogue.

“Which?” or “Between Two Women” is not, as the title suggests, a tale of two women competing for the same man, despite them both loving the same man. So, rather than being love-triangle-type of story, the romantic aspects only fill about half of the novel. The events of the French Revolution are the dominant themes of the book.… (mere)