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Article: `Marie Antoinette: The Journey,' by Antonia Fraser; Nan A. Talese/Doubleday.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- December 26, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Marie Antoinette certainly had her flaws. Politically, she was not the brightest light in the French royal chandelier. Personally, she was naive, perhaps too frivolous, certainly too free with her spending. But her greatest fault was not of her own doing: The doomed queen of France was born into a time and family situation over which she had no control, and in which she never had a chance of surviving.
This is the central theme of a new biography by Antonia Fraser. The surprise is not so much that the author's argument holds up _ Fraser is, after all, the British biographer and novelist whose string of acclaimed works began with "Mary, Queen of Scots" more than ...