Athenais: The Life Of Louis XIV's Mistress, The Real Queen Of France (2004) - Plot & Excerpts
This is the first book review I have done in awhile due to a long and sad few months during which I lost my beloved uncle and I just have not felt like doing much but grieving. He was a book lover and always inspired me to read and continue to learn my whole life so I know he would want me to get back on the proverbial book horse. I have always found Madame de Montespan an interesting subject, but this is the first book I have come across that was specifically about her. When I started the book I found it a bit chatty for a serious biography--it had a kind of odd modernity about it's descriptions that put me off at first. That dissipated pretty quickly. The book was well written and informative and fairly well balanced. It loses some points for a bit too much opinion for my liking (a problem I have with most biographies lately--I don't really like to feel the author is judging the subject) and for not enough illustrations for such a lush subject. Athenais de Montespan is probably best known for being the greatest of the Sun King's mistresses and also being caught up in what is known as "The Affair of the Poisons" which involved witchcraft, poison and loads and loads of innuendo. Historians have gone between believing Montepsan guilty of the darkest crimes to believing she was the victim of a witch hunt. The author does a decent job of clearing up what was clearly a smear job against Madame de Montespan but she falters at the end of the book, falling into fancy when describing King Louis final thoughts--describing what sounds like a scene from a Jean Rollin movie (for those not in the know, Rollin is famous for his soft core horror films with nubile lady vampires, witches and the like). Other than that and a few other missteps, the book was fantastic. I always wish for a larger photo section in these types of books (my gawd, there are paintings out the wazoo for all of the people involved here) and because I like to have art in my books..(totally a personal preference which I will admit). I have to say I fell madly in love with the fair de Montespan. One of the great beauties of her time, and the most famous maitresse en titre in French history, Athenais was much more than that. She was complicated, intelligent, creative, and imperious. She was as royal as the Sun King who loved her and much more constant. Her influence in the beautification of Versailles and the French court in general is immeasurable. Even once she was no longer his lover, Louis continued to consult her on matters of design and architecture. Her life is amazing to observe and full of love, intrigue, sorrow and repentance. At her height, she was known as "The Real Queen of France" and held great personal influence over King Louis and his tastes. Despite the glory and excess that she was deeply entrenched in, when all was said and done her story is deeply sad in parts. She enjoyed every material luxury that could be heaped upon her lovely head but was unable to raise her own children due to the rules and regulations of the time and was betrayed by one of her own children cruelly once she could no longer achieve more glory for him. She was deposed by the strange and for me, quite despicable Madame de Maintenon who became Louis's morganatic wife in his old age. The fact that Maintenon was also the governess for Athenais children by Louis only makes her betrayal even uglier and more despicable. Despite what might appear on the surface, Athenais is a very sympathetic person. She truly loved Louis and never aspired to be more than his lover and companion, did not try to influence politics (except to help her friends and relatives and then mainly socially)and to protect the children she had by Louis and be sure they received what she felt was their due as both royal children and descendants of her own proud family. To be totally honest, I fell in love with her deeply. It's not hard to see what caused Louis to adore her so extravagantly that he built beautiful gardens and homes for her and proclaimed his love for her through art and amazing entertainments. The descriptions of the exquisite little charms Louis built for her==private Roman style baths carved from enormous chunks of marble with PERFUMED hot water flowing from their decorative taps, a tiny hideaway in Versailles made of Delft porcelain tiles and surrounded by scented flowers where they could make love and enjoy the beauty of Versailles, rows and rows of her beloved orange trees--these are so enchanting to read about that you almost feel as if you can smell the jasmine and tuberoses. The author does a good job of capturing the beauty and vitality of Versailles and France in general during Athenais reign. Her downfall and the way her life unraveled is very hard to read--you would not think she would be a sympathetic character but she truly is--you want her to win, despite knowing she would lose to the woman she trusted to raise her children and keep her secrets. The biggest villain of this piece is King Louis himself. Despite his long and mostly successful reign, he seemed to have little to recommend him as a human beyond his royal lineage and love of the arts. He picked up and tossed away people (women especially) as if they were one of the flowers in his garden and less valuable to him. He seems to have lacked loyalty to much of anyone and honestly shows little to no depth in terms of his feelings. He took good care of his bastard progeny, legitimizing them and arranging good marriages for them, but he seemed to care nothing for the women who gave them to him and expected his mistresses to retire to a convent after he finished with them, whether they wanted to or not. He comes off as a shallow, vain and sometimes callous person who spent most of his life pleasing himself without concern for those around him. It is very hard to like him in any way. Unlike King Charles II (whose beloved sister Henriette d'Angleterre was an early love of Louis and his sister in law) he does not seem to have had any care for the women in his life (least of all his poor wife) and saw everyone around him as a tool to make him happy. He had little of the kindness and sentiment that made King Charles II (as profligate as he was) a very sympathetic person. Overall, I really enjoyed the book and felt that Athenais was done as much justice as she could be in this time so long after her reign. The best part for me is that I have a new obsession to pursue and that is always a good thing.
Heads up: this is NOT a porn or an erotic novel. This is a well documented, academically thorough research novel of the famous, Marquise de Montespan, aka Athenais the Real Queen of France.The author, Lisa Hilton, does a really GREAT job of presenting us with information about Athenais. It's easy to follow and not at ALL boring to read. We really get to see the EVERYDAY life of Athenias as she grew up, competed to get into court, won Louis XIV's affection and became his official mistress. Hilton shows us Athenais' impact on culture, theatre, Moliere, fashion, hairstyle, clothing, architecture from Versailles to Clagny to many other buildings that she commissioned or had THE BIGGEST role in creating/decorating. We see her POWER (something that many women at the time didn't have) by her word, her control of the king, and her many children. What I love about Hilton's account of Athenias, is that it's neither an all positive nor all negative one - meaning we see the WHOLE truth.We also see her demise, and it's such a profoundly sad one. We see the impact that society has on the love between the king and Athenais. We see the ridiculousness that is the FRENCH court, the stupid, excessive, ridiculous "etiquette" of all the players in the court, from where their apartments are located to what chair they sit on. We see the overindulgence of the court, the impact of court lifestyle on Athenais' children, and their children.Hilton shows us the impact left behind by Athenias, not just during the time that France was prosperous but also the poverty that slowly followed, and how Athenias really did have a good heart. She built many schools and convents for girls and really tried to give back to society all she had taken. I think Hilton did a FANTASTIC job of showing Athenais life, and we REALLY get to see it come alive. The photos, charts and diagrams were also INTENSELY helpful in following along. My only gripe? the book was a little long. But overall, a VERY good book.
What do You think about Athenais: The Life Of Louis XIV's Mistress, The Real Queen Of France (2004)?
This was a very "chewy" book. Highly detailed, the book appears to have been well researched (I am not a scholar on this topic). The style of the writing is a bit on the dry side, but otherwise, it is a worthwhile book for those interested in history, famous (Royal) mistresses, a look at how the other 1% lived, and those who might be intersted in a look into a long-lost era of France.For those with limited knowledge of social customs prior to the modern age, this book would be especially worthwhile.
—Heather
Well, this is one of most disappointing and horribly written pieces of pop history I've read yet. The cover is pretty, the inside is ugly. Do not read this. Do not waste your time. Seek anyone or anything BUT this book.While this author has something approaching a thesis, she doesn't tend to stick with it. Indeed there are times when she's so set on describing the material and cultural minutiae that she loses the plot entirely. More to the point, what organizational prowess she does have doesn't serve to illuminate or tell a story that hasn't been told 50000 times already by all the other people writing about this king and his various ladies. For reasons passing understanding, she quotes poems and sayings in French with no translation throughout because apparently you either better read very fluent French or take her word for it. It's annoying and there's no reason for it in an English language edition. Or any non-French edition, really. There are also terribly rank moments of obvious prejudice on the author's part. First being that she uses the word "shibboleth" when she means "kibbutz" because apparently it's not worth taking five seconds to google that mess and make sure she's using the right word. It's just words that relate to the culture of people who have been demonized and persecuted in European and American history. No big, right?Not to mention that awkward moment when the author says (summed up): "Sure, Athenais's husband BEAT her, terrified her, threatened her, took all her money and left her in crushing debt, deprived her of her children, was beyond cruel to her, and caused her no end of deep humiliation, but she could've been nicer to him in the divorce settlement because she was banging the king and had money now."REALLY, AUTHOR? REALLY? You're seriously analyzing this part of a woman's life and saying "okay, so he PHYSICALLY ABUSED HER, but..." as if she's just being petty by not being "generous" when she's finally in a position of power and not actively being beaten? This author literally waggled her finger at a woman for not being nicer to her abuser. That is probably one of the most disgusting things I have ever read. Anyone who can write this in all seriousness is not fit to be a historian or an author. I also found it really offensive the way the author posits that Scarron being disabled is what caused Madame de Maintenon to become celibate and unwilling to have sex later on in life, because having to be with a disabled man must have been SO disgusting. The ableism and prejudice against disabled people in that is so rank that I almost stopped the book there. There's no evidence that Madame de Maintenon had all that much sexual contact with her husband and there's no evidence that her reasons for not having sex were anything but tactical or just a personal preference. God, the author has no business being a historian.The writing over all is nothing to get excited about. It's facile at it's best, and does not serve the meandering, lackluster narrative. It's adequately researched up to a point, but honestly I've seen much better when it comes to really getting into those sources, examining them and weighing them. This author writes as if the court of Louis XIV was some kind of soap opera, and that might be interesting in the hands of someone willing to really do the work. But not this author. Whether you're a historian or just a person who likes history and casually reads about favorite personalities throughout time, you're better off finding anything from anyone else than wasting a minute on this book.
—Meg
I'm giving Lisa Hilton two stars for the actual information in this book, but was not at all impressed with her talent as a historian. I understand it's close to impossible to be completely neutral and unbiased when writing about events and people of the past, but the opinions of Hilton came through loud and clear, and to her, Athenais de Montespan practically walked on water. No other woman besides Athenais was worthy of the King, and when other women of the court were able to attract the attention of Louis XIV, they were "manipulative, cunning, hypocritical, and ungrateful." Read how Hilton explains away Athenais's own cruelty - for cruel she definitely was - by blaming the receiving parties, in this case, the former favorite mistress: "A great deal has been made of Athenais's cruelty to the fallen favorite; of how she turned all her capacity for bitchy wit on to poor Louise and forced her to act as a ladies' maid...If Athenais really was so unkind...then surely Louise's infuriating lack of dignity provides some excuse?" Really? You, the historian, blaming a victim for the actions of your subject? The ironic twist to this author's obvious subjectivity is that she herself warns against OTHER authors' agendas in her notes: In reading any of the primary sources, "The reader must therefore be alert not only to factual discrepancies in the work of the writers of letters or memoirs, but also to the peculiar subjectivity of the authors, their personal motivations and characters...". I read the whole book just to see how far Hilton would carry her vendetta against Athenais's rivals, but it was clear from the beginning that this would not be a fair and balanced portrait of this certainly very fascinating, but flawed, woman. Not recommended.
—Vivian
