Marie Antoinette

出版者:St Martin;s Griffin

作者:Evelyne Lever

页数:357

译者:Catherine Temerson

出版时间:2001

价格:US$16.95

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780312283339

具体描述

This highly readable translation of French historian Evelyne Lever's 1991 biography captures all the drama and pathos of Marie Antoinette's short life. Born in 1755, this carefree, fun-loving daughter of Austrian empress Maria Theresa inherited neither her mother's political shrewdness nor her sense of duty. She was married off at 14 to the stolid, clumsy French Dauphin, who would not fully consummate their marriage for another seven years, at which point he was King Louis XVI and their marital difficulties were the subject of public ridicule. She consoled herself by retreating to the artificial village she constructed at Trianon, where she could be free of the court etiquette she hated and indulge in expensive amusements that only increased her unpopularity. Her rare incursions into politics were just as ill judged; she alienated the French nobility with attempts to further Austria's diplomatic goals, and from the first rumblings of revolution in 1788, she influenced Louis to take a hard line on royal power when compromise might have saved the monarchy and prevented their executions in 1793. Lever does not soften Marie Antoinette's faults or downplay her poor judgment, but most readers will finish this absorbing narrative feeling very sorry for a pretty, goodhearted, but fundamentally frivolous woman thrown into a historical moment whose demands were beyond her. --Wendy Smith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

This romantic portrait of the queen who was reviledAand eventually executedAby the French revolutionaries transforms the woman who supposedly said "Let them eat cake" from a symbol of the cruelty of class politics into a quaint sovereign. Lever, a French historian who has written biographies of Madame de Pompadour and other figures of the French court, sees Marie Antoinette as a fashionable and frivolous victim of salacious rumors. While she admits that her subject had a "complete lack of insight into the aspirations of the majority of the French people," Lever portrays Antoinette as the novelistic heroine she always wanted to beAnot an actor on the political stage. Her "voluptuous bosom," "fleshy mouth" and "supple neck," Lever writes, were unspoiled by her "slightly protruding blue eyes," and she "knew better than any other sovereign how to bring to perfection the aristocratic art of living of prerevolutionary France." Although a compelling narrative, the book doesn't do justice to the weighty moral and political themes Marie Antoinette's life and death raise. The queen, it is clear, was a political disaster, managing to alienate both a sizeable section of the courtly aristocracy and the starving masses. Her extravagance and counter-revolutionary impulses provoked "incredibly venomous" lampoons (and, of course, her death). But Lever never takes up these components of her life. Rather, she repeatedly ascribes acts of revolutionary violence to "madness" perpetrated by "madmen." Energetically researched in Paris, Vienna, even Sweden (the home of the queen's dark, handsome beau, who also "looked exactly like the hero of a novel"), the book is evocative, but romance, rather than historical analysis, takes precedence here. 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. (July)

Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

用户评价

这本书的叙事节奏把握得极其精妙，张弛有度，绝不拖沓。如果说前几章是华丽的序曲，那么当凡尔赛宫的灯火开始摇曳时，笔锋就变得越来越沉重和紧凑。我特别欣赏作者在处理革命爆发后的情节时，所展现出的那种冷静和克制。没有煽情的泪水，没有对暴力的控诉，而是冷静地记录下权力真空下，个体如何无助地被推向审判席的过程。特别是对她被囚禁期间的心理描写，简直是心理学上的杰作。从一个习惯了众星捧月、被鲜花和甜食包围的女人，到一个必须面对死亡威胁、失去所有特权和尊严的囚犯，这种精神上的剧变，作者捕捉得丝丝入扣。书中的一些信件摘录，虽然简短，却字字泣血，展现出她后期作为母亲和妻子那种近乎本能的、超越王权的温情和坚韧。这使得她不再是一个政治符号，而是一个有血有肉、最终走向毁灭的女性。

读完这本书，我感觉我的历史观又被重塑了一遍。它远不止是一本关于法国大革命前夕的宫廷八卦集，更是一部深刻剖析“符号化”个体如何被大众舆论吞噬的悲剧。作者巧妙地将“个人命运”与“时代洪流”紧密交织，让你在为她个人的悲剧叹息时，也对整个旧制度的腐朽有了更清晰的认识。书中对凡尔赛宫内派系斗争的描述，简直比任何悬疑小说都要精彩，那些贵族们为了争夺一点点恩宠而进行的暗箭伤人，让人看得既心惊又过瘾。最让我震撼的是关于“公共形象”的部分。她的一切行为——无论是无心之举还是精心策划的——都被无限放大，并被不怀好意的媒体和煽动者扭曲成了反面教材。作者细致地展示了“羊毛党事件”、“项链事件”是如何一步步将一个被政治需要的王后，变成了被民众唾弃的“赤字夫人”。这种从神坛跌落到泥潭的过程，既是她个人的不幸，也是那个时代信息传播和民意形成的残酷写照。阅读过程中，我好几次停下来，思考，如果我生在那个时代，是否也会被那些流言蜚语所裹挟。

这是一部读完后会让人感到既满足又沉重的作品。满足于作者对史实的详尽梳理和精彩的论证，沉重于对人性在极端压力下所表现出的脆弱与局限的深刻洞察。我尤其赞赏书中对那个时代艺术和哲学思潮的穿插描写，它帮助读者理解，为何那个被启蒙思想洗礼的社会，最终却以如此野蛮的方式结束了一个时代。作者对审判过程的描述令人不寒而栗，那种法律形式下的正义，是如何沦为政治清算的工具。她不再是那个在凡尔赛宫里无忧无虑的少女，而是一个承载了所有失败和矛盾的个体，被推到历史的聚光灯下接受审判。书中对她最后时刻的描绘，虽然没有过多渲染恐怖，但那种宁静而坚定的接受，反而比任何戏剧化的描写都更有力量。这本书不仅仅是关于一位王后的故事，它更像是一部关于权力、公众认知以及历史叙事建构的教科书，引人入胜，发人深省。

这本传记简直是打开了一扇通往凡尔赛宫奢华与苍凉的密室之窗。作者的笔触细腻入微，仿佛能让你闻到空气中弥漫的法式香水和丝绸摩擦的窸窣声。读这本书，我最大的感受是，我们对这位奥地利公主的刻板印象——那个只知道“让他们吃蛋糕”的肤浅王后——是多么的片面和残忍。书中对她童年时期的描绘尤其引人入胜，一个小女孩，从维也纳的宫廷被嫁接到一个充满陈规陋习、冷眼旁观的法国宫廷，那种文化冲击和深度的孤独感，让人不禁心生怜悯。她并非天生是政治家，她只是一个在权力漩涡中挣扎的女性，用她能理解的方式去适应和生活。作者对路易十六和她的关系处理得非常到位，没有过度浪漫化，也没有刻意丑化，而是展现了一种在政治联姻下，逐渐发展出的、带着责任感和依赖性的夫妻情感。我尤其佩服作者对细节的考据，那些关于服装、宴会、沙龙辩论的描写，都极大地增强了历史的真实感和沉浸感，仿佛我就是那个在镜厅里，看着她一次次被时尚和礼仪困住的旁观者。

坦白说，我一开始对这种经典的欧洲王室题材有点敬而远之，总觉得会是那种干巴巴的史料堆砌。但这本书完全颠覆了我的预期。作者采用了非常现代的叙事视角，使得数百年前的历史事件读起来毫无隔阂感，仿佛作者就是她的私人历史学家，跟在她身边记录下每一个细节。她对十八世纪法国社会结构和贵族阶层的讽刺是尖锐而智慧的，那种贵族阶层内部自我消耗的愚蠢，被刻画得入木三分。让我印象最深的是，书中对“政治正确”和“文化偏见”的探讨。一个来自异国的王后，无论她如何努力融入，她身上带着的“异邦人”标签，就注定了她的结局会被过度解读。作者用大量的篇幅来展现，当一个社会需要一个替罪羊时，无论其本性如何，这个替罪羊的形象构建是如何轻而易举的。读完后我一直在回味，一个人的命运，到底有多少是自我选择，又有多少是历史舞台的安排？这本书提供了很多值得深思的维度。