Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford, Amanda Foreman (Introduction)

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(Paperback)

Average Customer Rating: Customer Rating for this product is 3 out of 5 (2 ratings)

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Synopsis

When Madame de Pompadour became the mistress of Louis XV, no one expected her to retain his affections for long. A member of the bourgeoisie rather than an aristocrat, she was physically too cold for the carnal Bourbon king, and had so many enemies that she could not travel publicly without risking a pelting of mud and stones. History has loved her little better. Nancy Mitford’s delightfully candid biography re-creates the spirit of eighteenth-century Versailles with its love of pleasure and treachery. We learn that the Queen was a “bore,” the Dauphin a “prig,” and see France increasingly overcome with class conflict. With a fiction writer’s felicity, Mitford restores the royal mistress and celebrates her as a survivor, unsurpassed in “the art of living,” who reigned as the most powerful woman in France for nearly twenty years. "No historian writing in English has given a better pen-picture of Versailles in its heyday." — Time

Customer Reviews

Number of Reviews: 2
Average Rating: Customer Rating for this product is 3 out of 5
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Customer Rating for this product is 5 out of 5 Well Worth Reading
A reviewer, A reviewer, 04/12/2004

I looked forward to reading this book with great interest. Not only was I interested in the subject, but the author as well. I found the book to be extremely intelligent, insightful, witty and sympathetic to the subject and her circumstances. I have read many books on on this and related subjects, and there is something particularly charming and graceful about this book. It is,consequently,one of my favorites on this subject.

Customer Rating for this product is 1 out of 5 Surely Madame de Pompadour wasn't this boring!
Anne, A reviewer, 04/16/2001

Although I can agree with the publisher's view that no 'historian writing in English' can give a better 'pen-picture of Versailles', this statement must be referring to Ms. Mitford's study of Louis XIV in her 'The Sun King'. No way does her Madame de Pompadour compare. It was very disappointing and my interest was lost quite quickly. Except for naming every name under the sun that ever had anything to do with Madame, there isn't substance. Madame's personality is not clearly defined, the descriptions of her relationship with Louis XV makes me wonder why he ever bothered with her, and there was no sense of the grandeur of Versailles and the court life at all. For a truly excellent read on that time period, PLEASE enjoy 'The Sun King'.