Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles

Part of Scholastic's The Royal Diaries series, this historical fiction novel takes the form of a diary kept by 13-year-old Archduchess Maria Antonia, the youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Habsburg and the late Emperor Francis of Lorraine. Set primarily between January 1769 and January 1771, the diary chronicles Antonia's transformation from a carefree Austrian girl into Marie Antoinette, Dauphine of France, the title given to the wife of the French heir to the throne.

On January 1, 1769, Antonia begins her diary at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. The diary is a gift from her French tutor, Abbé de Vermond, who hopes private writing will improve her poor spelling. She has been chosen to marry Louis Auguste, the Dauphin (heir) of France and eldest grandson of King Louis XV. To prepare, she must master French, gambling, dancing, and walking gracefully in enormous panniers, the wide side hoops worn beneath French court dresses. She describes Mama as relentlessly industrious and devoted to the family motto: "Others make war, but thou, oh happy Austria, make marriages." Mama's strategy is to marry her children into powerful royal families to strengthen the Empire's alliances. Antonia deeply misses her closest sister, Caroline, who was forced to marry Ferdinand, King of Naples. Another sister, Elizabeth, once a great beauty, lives in seclusion behind veils after smallpox scarred her face.

Through the winter, Antonia undergoes intensive grooming. A Parisian hairdresser corrects her receding hairline, and for a series of balls she endures four-hour hair sessions, then sleeps on a wooden block to preserve the style. Mama takes her to her late father's tomb to pray for the marriage and seats her prominently at the opera before French diplomats. While playing dolls with her seven-year-old niece Theresa, whom she calls Titi, Antonia discovers a hidden letter from Mama to Caroline forbidding secret contact and calling Antonia's opposition to the Naples marriage "a disservice to the Empire." She realizes both sisters are constantly spied upon and resolves to hide her diary as her only private outlet, concluding she must always "sparkle" so no one sees her real self.

When the Court moves to the summer palace of Schönbrunn, Antonia relishes horseback riding astride, against Mama's wishes. One day she rides through a creek and arrives mud-splattered before Mama and the French ambassador's delegation. Mama's punishment is devastating in its silence: She twists her wedding ring and the diamond ring of the Holy Roman Empire, gestures signaling that Antonia has endangered both her marriage and the Empire. Elizabeth delivers a transformative speech during Antonia's penance, telling her not to let Mama fill her mind. Antonia sinned not against Austria, Elizabeth insists, but against "Mama's idea of Austria." Antonia recognizes Elizabeth as secretly the freest woman in the Empire and resolves to maintain her own nature.

In June 1769, the official marriage proposal arrives from Louis XV. Fashion dolls arrive from France showing designs by modiste (fashionable dressmaker) Rose Bertin, including a wedding dress of white brocade with 4,000 diamonds. Detailed etiquette instructions pour in from the Countess de Noailles, who will serve as Antonia's Lady of Honor, the senior noblewoman overseeing her household and conduct. On a hot night, Mama joins Antonia and Titi wading barefoot in a fountain. The next morning, she declares that Antonia will henceforth be known as Marie Antoinette: "Antonia is the name of a girl. Marie Antoinette is the name of a Queen."

Antonia writes a warm personal letter to Louis Auguste, but Mama intercepts it, rewrites it as stiff diplomatic prose, and sends it under Antonia's name. Devastated, Antonia refuses for a month to cooperate, feeling reduced to an instrument of empire. Elizabeth tells her sharply to stop sulking and get on with her life. Meanwhile, Antonia's beloved governess, Countess Lerchenfeld, whom she calls Lulu, grows gravely ill, and her riding lessons become her greatest solace. In January 1770, Titi dies of pneumonia. Antonia feels frozen with grief. She sets Titi's mechanical theater to the child's favorite scene and instructs it never be changed. Weeks later, Lulu dies, and Antonia imagines her dancing through the constellations.

Mama tests Antonia by appointing Countess Krautzinger, a fraud, as her new Grand Mistress, the senior female household officer. Antonia sees through the woman's arrogance, dismisses her with queenly authority, and earns Mama's praise for passing the test. Through weeks of card playing, Antonia and Elizabeth study the Countess's cheating methods; finally, Antonia's dog Schnitzel chews the woman's shoe and two hidden trump cards fall out.

In March 1770, French Ambassador Durfort delivers portraits of Louis Auguste. Antonia finds his face somewhat heavy but believes his mouth could easily smile. In April, she signs the Acts of Renunciation, giving up all claims to the Habsburg throne, and marries by proxy with her brother Ferdinand standing in for the Dauphin. She cannot take Austrian servants or possessions into France, only the Abbé and, after begging, Schnitzel. Her goodbye to Elizabeth is agonizing.

During the remise, the formal ceremony transferring her from Austrian to French custody on an island in the Rhine, Antonia is ordered to remove every stitch of Austrian clothing and walk naked through a doorway into France. She snatches a golden robe from the Countess de Noailles rather than standing exposed. At La Compiègne, she meets Louis Auguste and is horrified: He is fat, pimpled, and refuses to make eye contact, looking nothing like his portrait. At a family supper, she notices the King's mistress, Madame du Barry, and is deeply offended by her presence.

The wedding at Versailles takes place on May 16, 1770, Marie Antoinette's gown blazing with 4,000 diamonds. Louis Auguste squeezes her hand during the ceremony, and she sees in his eyes a fear matching her own. She resolves to be his friend. Court life proves suffocating: Nearly 200 servants attend her, she must bathe before eight women and dine publicly before 1,000 spectators.

Marie Antoinette befriends King Louis XV's three unmarried daughters, known as the Aunts, and bonds with Madame Campan, their Reader, who reveals secret private rooms connected to Marie Antoinette's apartments. When the Dauphin's tutor intercepts her messages to Louis Auguste, Campan smuggles a note to the Dauphin, who is furious to learn his messages were blocked. He and Marie Antoinette begin spending time together in his locksmithing forge and her private rooms, and he tells her she has helped him see the Court's falseness.

The du Barry crisis dominates the following months. Marie Antoinette hears the slur L'Austrichienne, a pun combining "Austrian" and the French word for "female dog," whispered by du Barry's allies. She refuses to acknowledge the King's mistress, caught between Mama's instructions to show civility and the Aunts' insistence that speaking to du Barry would be disloyal. She falls seriously ill, possibly from poisoning, and Count Mercy, the Austrian ambassador, warns that the alliance is tottering and divorce is being discussed.

On New Year's Day 1771, Marie Antoinette finally speaks. At a small ball, wearing no jewels and her simplest gown, she slips in front of du Barry and says, "There are a lot of people today at Versailles." She watches the light drain from du Barry's eyes as the woman realizes her triumph is hollow: The King is old and ailing, and her power is temporary. Marie Antoinette feels herself become "a bright and shining woman" needing no crown, resplendent in her own being.

The epilogue recounts Marie Antoinette's tragic later years. Louis XV dies in 1774, Louis Auguste becomes King Louis XVI, and she becomes Queen. She becomes consumed by gambling and extravagance, earning the nickname "Madame Déficit," while the French people endure hunger and financial crisis. The French Revolution erupts in 1789. The Royal Family is arrested, and Louis XVI is publicly beheaded on January 21, 1793. Marie Antoinette is executed on October 16, 1793, her last words an apology to her executioner for stepping on his foot. Of their four children, only one survives to adulthood.