...He needs, and he appreciates what he receives, but he is not strong enough to give."
- Marie Antoinette on her husband Louis Auguste in Sena Jeter Naslund's Abundance
So I just finished reading the aforementioned novel. Every review quoted on the cover was accurate: it was indeed "opulent," "rich," "enchanting," "fabulous," "illuminating," "poignant," "vivid," "detailed," "exquisite," "intimate," and of course, "beautiful." What I admired most about the novel, though, was that it was also "sympathetic."
The novel opens with this quote:
"Oh, you women of all countries, of all classes of society, listen to me with all the emotion I am feeling in telling you: the Fate of Marie Antoinette contains everything that is relevant to your own heart. If you are happy, so was she....If you have known unhappiness, if you have needed pity, if the future for you raises in your thoughts any sort of fear, unite as human beings, all of you, to save her!"
- Germaine de Stael, from Reflexions sur le proces de la reine ("Reflections on the Trial of the Queen"), 1793.
Divided into five acts, one review said it was like a Shakespearean tragedy. While the first act depicts the young Dauphine when she first arrives in France and is adjusting to her new life, the second act delves into her court life and explores her pain over her unconsummated marriage. The third act begins with the coronation of herself and her husband as monarchs and the birth of their first daughter. The fourth act is the queen in early motherhood and the beginning of her downfall, and the fifth is the royal family's imprisonment in Paris and the eventual execution of the king and his wife.
While the first two acts paint a charming picture of the young Marie Antoinette (from when she was 14 - 19), and explore the roots of her extravagant nature, it is the last two acts that emphasize her humanity and really present a different perspective of her life. Everyone knows the Marie Antoinette that the poor of late-18th century France knew: the queen who cared so little about how gossip sketched her, but supposedly cared only for her own desires and nothing for her people. Abundance, though, portrays her as a naive, ignorant young royal who loved her people but was incapable of acting in their best interests.
The story of Marie Antoinette has always held a certain fascination for me, ever since I was little and had a book, one of the Royal Diaries series, about her. It was written as though it were the diary of hers from the time she was 11 or so, in Austria, until she moved to France, if I recall. There was an afterward that explained her tragic downfall. Since it was a children's book, it was written in a much more sympathetic manner than I think most other history texts of the time regarded the queen, and I never quite believed she was the terrible, cruel monarch history made her out to be. Which I guess is another reason I really liked this sympathetic view of her.
"Do so much good to the French people that they can say that I have sent them an angel," Empress Maria Theresa of the Austrian empire told her daughter when she sent her away to Paris. Throughout her entire time in France, this novel demonstrates how she so wanted her people to love her. She wanted to care for them. She prayed for peace in her country always, safety and good health and happiness for all her people, and when she wasn't indulging in different escapes from the realities of her unconsummated marriage and her difficulties as queen.
If I had to choose a favorite quote of all time, it would probably be Celine in Before Sunrise: "Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?" Even here it's true. It fits everything - it's the ultimate motivation. We give so much love that we want it in return, and everything we do, in some way or another, begs others for love. In Holiday, when Julia tells Johnny she loves him and he asks her, "That's the main thing, isn't it?" she replies, "Darling, that's everything." And I guess it is. Perhaps I'll expand on this another time.
Okay. One last passage. Sorry this is so long again. I ramble when it's late.
"All of them conspire to bring me a priest of the old type, whose allegiance is to Rome and not the republic, and I receive much comfort from confession and communion. I learn that the wars are not going well for France, and the priest holds out some hope that the republic will be crushed and the old regime reinstated. I do not think that the foreign armies will reach me in time, and if they do arrive at the gates of Paris, I will promptly be butchered - still my only hope is for foreign rescue, and I know for this cause Fersen is working night and day.
"I whisper, 'Father, is it not ironic that in my greatest hope also lies my greatest danger?'
"'The human condition is defined by irony,' he murmurs. 'From that prison, there is no escape except through faith in the ultimate goodness of God.'"
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