Antonia Fraser Livres

Marie-Antoinette : une figure mythique. jugée sévèrement par ses contemporains, et par l'Histoire, perçue tour à tour comme une reine "scélérate", puis une victime expiatoire, elle a pourtant toujours été unanimement admirée pour son inébranlable courage face aux grands cataclysmes du siècle. Devenue reine de France à peine sortie de l'adolescence, elle est investie par sa mère, la puissante impératrice Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche, de la mission de protéger les intérêts de son pays auprès du roi. Toute sa vie elle jouera un rôle politique ambigu, s'attirant d'abord la méfiance et bientôt la haine du peuple français. Avec l'objectivité et la précision qui caractérisent toute son œuvre d'historienne, Antonia Fraser retrace le voyage initiatique de la reine. Elle examine, avec un foisonnement de détails, sa personnalité et son parcours : l'enfance, l'influence des liens familiaux, les relations conjugales marquées par un mariage longtemps non consommé, la venue tant attendue de ses enfants, son idylle avec le comte Axel Fersen, ses contacts avec de grandes figures de la Révolution, et enfin ses efforts héroïques pour sauver sa famille, et la monarchie, de la tempête révolutionnaire.

The memoir explores the author's Oxford childhood and youth while reflecting on her lifelong passion for history, which began as a private joy in the 1930s. It aims to recapture past experiences and highlight how her love for history has intertwined with her life, influencing her perspective and writing. Fraser's narrative offers a personal account of how history has shaped her enjoyment of life, making it a unique blend of memoir and historical reflection.

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What were the women of the Civil War era like? What could they expect beyond marriage and childbirth in an age where infant and maternal mortality was frequent and contraception unknown? Antonia Fraser brings to life the many women she has researched.

Each of Antonia Fraser’s four Jemima Shore mysteries has enlarged the audience for that redoubtable and unpremeditated sleuth. This new one is set against a theatrical background and shows all the narrative skills that have marked the works of its distinguished author along with an ever-increasing quality of suspense. It is the chilling story of Christobel, a beautiful and profligate actress, who thought she could just come back, repent, and resume with impunity the life she had deserted.

The New York Times bestselling history of the legendary six wives of Henry VIII--from the acclaimed author of Marie Antoinette. Under Antonia Fraser's intent scrutiny, Catherine of Aragon emerges as a scholar-queen who steadfastly refused to grant a divorce to her royal husband; Anne Boleyn is absolved of everything but a sharp tongue and an inability to produce a male heir; and Catherine Parr is revealed as a religious reformer with the good sense to tack with the treacherous winds of the Tudor court. And we gain fresh understanding of Jane Seymour's circumspect wisdom, the touching dignity of Anna of Cleves, and the youthful naivete that led to Katherine Howard's fatal indiscretions. The Wives of Henry VIII interweaves passion and power, personality and politics, into a superb work of history.

A unique testimony to modern literature's most celebrated and enduring marriage.

The scandal of nineteenth-century Britain: the sensational trial of Caroline Norton for adultery with the first Victorian Prime Minister

Mistresses and wives, mothers and daughters - Antonia Fraser brilliantly explores the relationships which existed between The Sun King and the women in his life. This includes not only Louis XIV's mistresses, principally Louise de La Vallière, Athénaïs de Montespan, and the puritanical Madame de Maintenon, but also the wider story of his relationships with women in general, including his mother Anne of Austria, his two sisters-in-law who were Duchesses d'Orléans in succession, Henriette-Anne and Liselotte, his wayward illegitimate daughters, and lastly Adelaide, the beloved child-wife of his grandson.