Marie Antoinette: The Journey

Orion Publishing Group

Marie Antoinette: The Journey is a sympathetic 2001 biography of archduchess Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France (1774–1792) by Antonia Fraser. It is the basis for the 2006 Sofia Coppola film Marie Antoinette.

The book, which was relaunched to coincide with the release of the related film, has had considerable success. It has been translated into French and Italian, been awarded the Enid McLeod Literary Prize, received critical praise including being described "definitive" by British historian, Amanda Foreman, author of a bestselling biography of Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire. It is considered, by some modern historians, as the most thorough and balanced biography of the queen, though it naturally builds upon earlier biographies, first hand accounts, and even the infamous libelles which destroyed the queen's reputation.

Summary

Beginning with Marie Antoinette's mother, Empress Maria Theresa, the book chronicles the life of Marie Antoinette and how she, though the youngest of her mother's daughters, was selected to marry the future king of France.

Fraser depicts a young dauphine, and eventual queen, unfairly maligned due to decades of anti-Austrian sentiment and xenophobia who was never comfortable in her role as influencer and ambassadress to Austria in a French court in which she was treated with derision and hostility.

Reception

Upon release, Marie Antoinette: The Journey was generally well-received amongst British press.

First editions

• London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001. ISBN 0-297-81908-9
• New York: Doubleday, 2001. ISBN 0-385-48948-X

Paperback edition

• London: Orion Publishing Group, 2006. ISBN 0-7538-2140-0 (10). ISBN 978-0-7538-2140-4 (13).