The wicked queen
Subtitle: the origins of the myth of Marie-Antoinette
By: by Chantal Thomas ; translated by Julie Rose.
Publisher: Zone Books
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 255
Subjects: Marie Antoinette, Queen, consort of Louis XVI, King of France, 1755-1793; Queens -- France -- Biography; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Pamphlets
Description: The Wicked Queen is not a biography of one of the most infamous queens in all history. Rather, Chantal Thomas presents the history of the verbal and visual representations of Marie-Antoinette, a history of her mythification. Almost as soon as Marie-Antoinette, archduchess of Austria was brought to France in 1771 as the bride of Louis XVI, she was smothered in images.

In a monarchy increasingly under assault, the charm and horror of her feminine body and her destructive political power as a foreign intruder turned Marie-Antoinette into an alien otherthe bestial "archtigress of Austria." Working as a historian and writing as a novelist, Thomas reveals how Marie-Antoinette came to symbolize the marginalization and negation of women in French society before the French Revolution.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-163).