Subscribe to feed- Let Them Eat Brioche! | A Guest Post by Leslie Carroll October 18, 2011
- Review: Before Versailles by Karleen Koen August 8, 2011
- Author Interview | Ellen Horan, author of 31 Bond Street June 23, 2011
- Julia Morgan and A Race to Splendor | A Guest Post by Ciji Ware June 16, 2011
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Category Archives: 18th Century
Harrowing Historicals: Let Them Eat…Ectoplasm?* | A Guest Post by Kris Waldherr
When Empress Joséphine moved into Marie Antoinette’s apartment at the Tuileries apré le revolution, she confessed, “I can never be happy here. I can feel the queen’s ghost asking me what I am doing in her bed.” Napoléon’s consort was not the only one to have experienced a royal haunting from the guillotined queen. In 1901 two English lady scholars, Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, claimed to have seen Marie’s specter at Versailles while searching for her beloved Petit Trianon. Their famed encounter later became known as the Moberly–Jourdain incident… Continue reading...
Women in the 18th Century | A Guest Post by Rose Melikan, PLUS Giveaway
Far be it from me to criticize Jane Austen, but an unfortunate consequence of her popularity has been the assumption that Englishwomen living during the reign of George III spent all their time writing letters, attending card parties, and striving to make a “good match”. Admittedly, the Bennets, Elliots, Dashwoods et al. represent a particular segment of society, the provincial middle class, but even so, were these women… Continue reading...
Review | Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors
Hardcover: 464 pagesPublisher: DuttonRelease Date: March 13th, 2008 Source: Personal collection, I purchased this book.
Mistress of the Revolution delves into two main themes I found fascinating: the role of women/the “mistress”, and the great power shift that took place between the nobles and the common people during the Revolution. I went into this book without first reading the synopsis in… Continue reading...
Saturday Satire: “A French gentleman of the court of Louis XVIth – A French gentleman of the court of Egalite, 1799″
Satirized by: James Gillray (1757-1815)Date Published: 1799Historical Context: An English perspective contrasting the old government of France with the new. Here, Gillray recalls the delicate manners of the Ancien Régime, a term referring to the “Old Regime” of France, a political system consisting of an absolute monarchy and members of the nobility, which was violently abolished by the Revolutionaries during the… Continue reading...
The Sunday Salon: Book Blogger Withdrawal
By now, the commotion and craziness that was BEA 2010 has finally dissipated. I posted I Survived BEA 2010! Pt I and Pt II, and have Pt III waiting in the wings; this last and final BEA summary will focus on the Book Blogger Convention. Since I live in NYC and have attended many conferences at the Javits Center before, I knew… Continue reading...
Cover Art Alert! Michelle Moran’s Madame Tussaud
I love the colors displayed here – the yellow, blue and green will definitely grab the attention of browsers at the bookstore. And those colors tend to give off a sense of calm and serenity; a nice ironic touch of what is to come – as this is, after all, a novel of the French Revolution. I believe the book begins… Continue reading...
Saturday Satire: “A Cognocenti contemplating ye beauties of ye antique”
The aging ambassador Sir William Hamilton, an antiques enthusiast and antiquarian, reviewing his vast collection. The particular antiques portrayed in this cartoon have a double meaning: each is symbolic of the scandalous public affair Hamilton’s wife Emma shared with war hero Admiral Horatio Nelson. Satirized by: James Gillray (1757-1815)Title: “A Cognocenti contemplating ye beauties of ye antique”Date Published: 1801Context: According to Historical… Continue reading...
Saturday Satire: “Merry Making on the Regent’s Birthday 1812″
George, the Prince Regent of England, drunkenly dancing and openly flirting with another man’s wife.Satirized by: George Cruikshank (1792-1878)Title: “Merry Making on the Regent’s Birthday 1812″Date Published: 1812Context: The libertine Prince of Wales (later George IV of England) was known for his womanizing debauchery, something that made him an especially favorite target of political cartoonists of the day. One can understand… Continue reading...
Saturday Satire: “The Plumb-pudding in danger”
William Pitt, Prime Minister of England, and Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, carving up the world.Satirized by: James Gillray (1757-1815)Title: “The Plumb-pudding in danger, or, State epicures taking un petit souper…”Sub-text: “‘the great Globe itself and all which it inherit’ is too small to satisfy such insatiable appetites.”Date Published: 1805Context: According to Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of… Continue reading...
Giveaway: *Autographed* Copy of The Queen’s Dollmaker by Christine Trent
Giveaway
The Queen’s Dollmakerby Christine Trent(Click here to read my review of The Queen’s Dollmaker)Synopsis: “On the brink of revolution, with a tide of hate turned against the decadant royal court, France is in turmoil—as is the life of one young woman forced to leave her beloved Paris. After a fire destroys her home and family, Claudette Laurent is struggling to… Continue reading...