Marie Antoinette

Tells the story of Marie Antoinette, who became the Queen of France at the age of fifteen. This title analyzes the chemistry of a woman's soul from her intimate pleasures to her public suffering as a Queen under the weight of misfortune and history. It describes Marie Antoinette in the King's bedroom, and with her children.

'Excellent biography' New York Times

Bringing to life one of the most complex characters in European history

Stefan Zweig's definitive biography gives us Marie Antoinette in the King's bedroom, in the enchanted and extravagant worlds of the Trianon and Versailles, and with her children. And in his account of 'The Revolution', he describes her resolve during the failed escape to Varennes, her imprisonment in the Conciergerie and her final tragic destiny under the guillotine. Sensitively and acutely, Zweig analyzes the chemistry of a woman's soul from her intimate pleasures to her public suffering as a Queen under the weight of misfortune and history.

Zweig based his biography of Marie Antoinette, who became the Queen of France at the age of fifteen, on the correspondence between her and her mother, and her great love the Count Axel von Fersen. His account has become the definitive biography of Marie Antoinette since its publication, inspiring Antonia Fraser and Sofia Coppola's film adaptation.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Eden and Cedar Paul.

Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was born in Vienna, into a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and was first known as a poet and translator, then as a biographer. Zweig travelled widely, living in Salzburg between the wars, and was an international bestseller with a string of hugely popular novellas including Letter from an Unknown Woman, Amok and Fear.

In 1934, with the rise of Nazism, he moved to London, where he wrote his only novel Beware of Pity. He later moved on to Bath, taking British citizenship after the outbreak of the Second World War. With the fall of France in 1940 Zweig left Britain for New York, before settling in Brazil, where in 1942 he and his wife were found dead in an apparent double suicide.

Much of his work is available from Pushkin Press.

Contributor: Eden Paul (Translated by), Cedar Paul (Translated by)

Translator: Eden Paul, Cedar Paul

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