Author: Francoise Chandernagor
Year: 1981
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Genres/categories:
Historical fiction
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ISBNs:
9780140076998
9782260002604
0140076999
2260002609 |
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« Je ne mets point de borne à mes desirs », disait celle qui fut presque reine de France... De sa naissance dans la prison de Niort à sa mort dans la douce retraite de Saint-Cyr, de l'obscure pauvrete de son enfance antillaise à la magnificence de la Cour, de la couche d'un poete infirme à celle du Roi-Soleil, de la compagnie joyeuse de Ninon de Lenclos et de ses amants au parti pris de devotion de l'age mur, quel roman que cette vie !
À partir d'une documentation considerable et en recourant aux ecrits, souvent inedits, de la marquise de Maintenon, Francoise Chandernagor a su restituer, à travers des « memoires apocryphes » qui ont la seduction de la langue du XVIIe siecle, le vrai visage d'une femme meconnue, temoin sans pareil d'une epoque fascinante.
After an impoverished childhood and a brief marriage to a crippled poet many years her senior, Madame de Maintenon, at the age of 24, found herself widowed and penniless. But she had retained her wit, her charm, and her important circle of acquaintances. Relying on all of these, she secured the position of governess to Louis XIV's bastard children. Thus Madame de Maintenon began her ascent, through the tangled amorous and political intrigues of the French court to the side of the Sun King, as his mistress and, for thirty years, his secret wife.
In this dazzling novel, based on Madame de Maintenon's own diaries and correspondence, Francoise Chandernagor has captured the ambitious, passionate, complex personality of a fascinating woman at the fabulous court of Versailles.
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