Evelyn Lever draws on a variety of resources, including diaries, letters, and firsthand accounts, to write this account of Marie Antoinette's life. From family life in Vienna to the choke of the guillotine, this work combines a historical narrative with all the elements of scandalous fiction: Marie's wedding at Versailles to Louis XVI, the French court, boredom, hypocrisy, loneliness, allies, enemies, scandal, intrigue, sex, peasant riots, the fall of the Bastille, mob rule in Paris, imprisonment, and, finally, execution.

First published: London : Piatkus, 2000.