Marie-Therese

In December 1795, seventeen-year-old Marie-Therese, the only surviving child of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, fled Paris's notorious Temple Prison. Kept in solitary confinement after her parents' brutal execution during the Terror, she had been unaware of the fate of her family, save the cries she heard of her young brother being tortured in an adjacent cell. She emerged to an uncertain future: an orphan, exile and focus of political plots and marriage schemes of the crowned heads of Europe. Susan Nagel tells a remarkable story of an astonishing woman whose life was shrouded in mystery, from her birth in front of rowdy crowds at Versailles, to her upbringing by doting parents, through to Revolution, imprisonment, exile, Restoration and, finally, her reincarnation as Saint and Matriarch.

“PRAISE FOR MISTRESS OF THE ELGIN MARBLES: 'A sympathetic and emotionally charged portrait of Mary ... [written] with insight and compassion yet without sentimentality.'”

'A poignant biography that recreates royalty, terror, tragedy, revolution, and restoration with verve and vividness' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'A powerful story told with wonderful verve: a triumph' Amanda Foreman 'Masterly and compelling ... a triumph' Tina Brown, author of The Diana Chronicles 'An utterly compelling biography' Daily Express

Susan Nagel is the author of Mistress of the Elgin Marbles, a critically acclaimed biography of Mary Nisbet, the Countess of Elgin. A professor in the humanities department of Marymount Manhattan College, she lives in New York.

In December 1795, seventeen-year-old Marie-Therese, the only surviving child of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, fled Paris's notorious Temple Prison. Kept in solitary confinement after her parents' brutal execution during the Terror, she had been unaware of the fate of her family, save the cries she heard of her young brother being tortured in an adjacent cell. She emerged to an uncertain future: an orphan, exile and focus on political plots and marriage schemes of the crowned heads of Europe...Susan Nagel tells a remarkable story of an astonishing woman whose life was shrouded in mystery, from her birth in front of rowdy crowds at Versailles, to her upbringing by her doting parents, through to Revolution, imprisonment, exile, Restoration and, finally, her reincarnation as Saint and Matriarch.

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