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I am giving for stars to this book which I cannot in conscience recommend to anyone. Fraser's extensive research and brilliant discernment ultimately prove beyond a doubt that Marie Antoinette was a non-entity who did not affect the cataclysmic events of her era either one way or the other. Fraser's nominal objective was to show that was made the scapegoat for the sins of several generations of the Bourbon dynasty of which she bore none of the responsibility. However, Marie Antoinette's critics were so highly disreputable and such obvious liars that it is questionable that any defense of hers was ever needed.
A strong point of Fraser's book is the remarkable portrait of the elaborate protocols and rituals of the Bourbon court that prevented Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis XV I from seeing what was happening in the world. Fraser is similarly brilliant at describing the how the courtiers at Versailles swarmed about Marie Antoinette extracting privileges and appointments for their family members while giving nothing in return neither warning her of the approaching dangers nor doing anything to save her once the revolution had begun.
Although quite aware Fraser neglects to point out that the elaborate rituals and practices of the Bourbon court had been created to undermine the power of the aristocracy of France by Louis XIV. By calling the nobles to his court, he cut them off from their power bases and through his complex protocol he had them scurrying about like rates in a labyrinth. Unfortunately his dimwitted grandson Louis XVI fell into the trap created for the nobles and perished.
Fraser does however spend a great deal of time on the incompetency of Louis XVI in bed and the psychological distress that it caused Marie Antoinette. Anyone who enjoys good writing about sex will enjoy this book.
A major thesis of Fraser is that the extravagance of Marie Antoinette has been exaggerated since her day to the present time. Her spending was quite in line with the traditions of both the Bourbon dynasty and her own Habsburg dynasty. The spending of the Versailles court accounted for a modest 7% of the Royal Budget. The real problem was that the interest on the debt created to fund the Seven Years War and the American Revolution ate up 41% of revenues.
The depth of the research and the quality of insight make "Marie Antoinette" an excellent book. The problem for me was that Marie Antoinette truly was not a player of any significance in the great events. Fraser demonstrates clearly that she was badly treated by her family, her husband, her friends and her adopted country. Moreover she was unjustly blamed for many things by the propagandists of the Revolution and by later historians. All of this makes her a victim not a person of historical importance.