Love and Louis XIV by Antonia Fraser

Love and Louis XIV by Antonia Fraser

Louis XIV, the highly-feted Sun King, was renowned for his political and cultural influence and for raising France to a new level of prominence in seventeenth-century Europe. And yet, as Antonia Fraser keenly describes, he was equally legendary in the domestic sphere. Indeed, a panoply of women--his mother, Anne; mistresses such as Louise de la Valli re, Ath na s de Montespan, and the puritanical Madame de Maintenon; and an array of courtesans--moved in and out of the court. The highly visible presence of these women raises many questions about their position in both Louis XIV's life and in France at large. With careful research and vivid, engaging prose, Fraser makes the multifaceted life of one of the most famous European monarchs accessible and vibrantly current.

Love and Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette (which was adapted into a film by Sofia Coppola), The Wives of Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, Faith and Treason: The Tale of the Gunpowder Plot, and Perilous Question: Reform or Revolution? are among Antonia Fraser's numerous worldwide bestselling historical writings. She's also the author of the book Do You Have to Go? She has won the Wolfson Award for History, the Norton Medlicott Medal of the British Historical Association in 2000, and the Enid McLeod Literary Prize of the Franco-British Society. In 2011, she was named a Dame of the British Empire for her contributions to literature.