Review and Giveaway: The Sisters of Versailles
Title: The Sisters of Versailles
Author: Sally Christie
Pub Date: September 1, 2015
Publisher: Atria Books
How obtained: Via TLC Book Tours (Edelweiss)
What is it about: Goodness, but sisters are a thing to fear.
Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sisters—Louise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anne—four of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail.
Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife. The race is on to find a mistress for the royal bed as various factions put their best foot—and women—forward. The King’s scheming ministers push Louise, the eldest of the aristocratic Nesle sisters, into the arms of the King. Over the following decade, the four sisters—sweet, naïve Louise; ambitious Pauline; complacent Diane, and cunning Marie Anne—will conspire, betray, suffer, and triumph in a desperate fight for both love and power.
Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sisters—Louise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anne—four of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail.
Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife. The race is on to find a mistress for the royal bed as various factions put their best foot—and women—forward. The King’s scheming ministers push Louise, the eldest of the aristocratic Nesle sisters, into the arms of the King. Over the following decade, the four sisters—sweet, naïve Louise; ambitious Pauline; complacent Diane, and cunning Marie Anne—will conspire, betray, suffer, and triumph in a desperate fight for both love and power.
My Thoughts:
I first heard about the
Mailly-Nesle sisters when I was researching Hortense Mancini, one of Charles II’s
mistresses, for a blog post that I ended up not writing. I was intrigued to
discover that Hortense’s great granddaughters had also been royal mistresses to
Louis XV. Not just one great granddaughter but four of them! You don’t come
across that very often while researching Scandalous Women in history!
Unfortunately there wasn’t very much information about the sisters. For some
reason, no one had written a biography about the sisters which seems a shame.
They seem to have been overshadowed in history by Louis’s other mistresses,
Madame de Pompadour and Madame de Barry.
Thank goodness, Sally
Christie, decided to write The Sisters of
Versailles to rescue these fascinating women from the murky depths of
history. Anyone who has read my blog
over the years has heard me bitch and moan about the plethora of books set
during the Tudor period in England when the court of Versailles is even more
fascinating. The rigorous adherence to
court etiquette combined with the endless backstabbing and jockeying for
position for power, along with the loose morals of almost everyone at
Versailles should be catnip for historical fiction writers. The Sisters of Versailles gives the
reader an intimate look at the French court, peeling back the curtain to show
the rot underneath. Once I started this book, I couldn’t put it down, I devoured
it like a particularly tasty salted caramel macaron. I stayed up until past
midnight last night to finish it, and when I was done, I felt bereft. I didn’t
want to leave this intriguing but dangerous world. I wanted to continue to savor
this story and these women.
The book is narrated by all
five sisters, using first person POV.
Christie does a masterful job at delineating each sister so that even
without the heading for each chapter, the reader knows instantly who is
narrating the story at any given time. It’s a remarkably accomplishment for a
first time novelist. They are so vibrant, they fairly leap off the page.
Although
the sisters come from the noblest backgrounds, they start the novel of with a
disadvantage, they are poor by aristocratic standards. Their father has pretty
much gambled away their inheritances, each of them can only expect 7,500 livres
for a dowry. Their mother who is beautiful
but feckless, spends most of her time at Versailles, leaving the sisters under
the supervision of their governess. Louise, the eldest, is sweet, idealistic
and naïve.
She is married off to a
distant cousin who neglects her, her mother-in-law despises her for being
unable to produce an heir. Louise longs to be part of the glittering court, for
her life to start. She gets her wish when she is appointed a lady-in-waiting to
the Queen. When it looks like the King’s interest in the Queen is waning,
Louise is pushed to become the King’s first mistress. Although she knows that
she is committing a sin, Louise falls hopelessly in love with Louis. She
reminds me very much of another Louise, Louise de la Valliere, the mistress of
Louis XIV. Louise de la Valliere was
also pushed into the arms of Louis XIV to combat the rumors of the King’s
relationship with his sister-in-law. Both women loved the King more as a man
than a sovereign, and both love affairs end unhappily.
When their mother dies, the
four remaining sisters are split up.
Pauline and Diane are sent to a convent and Hortense and Marie-Anne are
sent to live with their Tante Mazarin. Pauline’s letters to Louise at court are
hilarious as she takes every opportunity to try and convince Louise to bring
her to court or to find her a husband. Pauline is ambitious for power and
advancement, to make her mark on the world.
She’s also intelligent and bossy. She’s that girl in school who gets
things done but who is also a pain in the ass.
What I love about Pauline is that she doesn’t really care about making
friends or people liking her. She has
one goal and she achieves it, even at the expense of her sister.
The heart of the book is
really about sisterhood, what do you do when the people who should have your
back, your family, stab you in the back? Even before the sisters are torn apart
by the deaths of their mother, there is a clear divide in the family, and how
they remember their childhoods. Marie-Anne, the youngest, is a hard, glittering
diamond, who will stop at nothing to achieve power when the King sets his
sights on her. And then there is poor
Diane, not the sharpest tool in the shed, silly, sweet Diane who loves
everyone, even the unlovable Pauline. I
think Diane was one of my favorite characters in the book, she only wants to be
happy and to have lovely things to eat, to gossip and wear pretty clothes. She’s
probably the most uncomplicated of the five sisters. And there is Hortense, the
good one, the only one to survive to a ripe old age.
Christie offers a wealth of
period detail, from the descriptions of the rooms at Versailles, to the
clothing, the backstairs maneuvering, all offered in a lively, modern tone. She doesn’t try to mimic the intricate writing style of the 18th
century. Instead imagine an 18th century version of Vanity
Fair magazine. If you love period films or novels like Ridicule or Les
Liaisons dangereuses, you will love The
Sisters of Versailles.
Giveaway (US only)
Giveaway (US only)
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Good luck!
- If you tweet about the giveaway, you get an extra entry.
- If you like my Scandalous Women Facebook page, you get an extra entry.
Good luck!
- Giveaway ends on August 26th.
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