Marie Antoinette's Hidden Life

So I have just finished another book!!! Yah go me!

Ok now here is the info about it

Title: The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette: A Novel
Author: Carolly Erickson

Mass Market Paperback: 341 pages (plus 14-16 pages for reading group questions)

Publisher: St. Matrin's Griffins, New York

Genere: Fiction/Historical Fiction

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

For all of those that love the French Revolution Era, Marie Antoinette, or just French History in general. This is a great book.

Carolly Erickson, author of 20 biographies writes the historical fiction The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette: A Novel. It is, of course, writen like a diary. The story line is that this Diary was left behind in her prision cell as she was going to her death. The reason she wanted people to know her side of the story. This book shows Antoinette in a light that for some of us, history has not shown. We will learn to see her as a young girl that had to leave her culture, country, and family behind and go off to France to get married to a man she never met. Upon her arrival she is met with disdain, distrust, and confusion. She doesn't know who to trust and has to learn of all the customs, while at the same time looked down upon because of her heritage. Despite all of this she stays strong and learns her way. Dealing with a timid husband and a failing kingdom, we see the strength of Marie Antoinette being displayed in this historical fiction.

It has a prolgue and chapters, which was one of the few reasons why the rating was lower. I think that having the chapters in there was a little off, seeing how this was said that this would be in diary form. It can help space out the Diary entires and mark a change in the topic and what is going on, but if she had kept it in just in the diary form, I think it would have been better. The reason why it would have been better is because I want to be lost in the book and be able to use my imagination and imagine that this is literally a diary taken from the prison cell where Marie Antionette spent her last days. I know it isn't but I want to be able to get lost in the book for a while.

Althought there have been debates over the book by Marie Antionette fans about some of the characters that don't exist and some of the events that didn't take place. Please remember that this is historical fiction, this is not an accurate telliong of it. It's not a non fiction book, it is fiction.

Overall this book gets 4 out of 5 stars. It was creativly done, written well, and very enjoyable. Defintly a book for those that love historical fiction.