Tea at Trianon: The Sweetest Thing

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, November 25, 2011

The Sweetest Thing

Elizabeth Musser’s eighth novel, set in Atlanta during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, is a story of faith, friendship and love. Two young girls become unlikely friends after each suffers tragedy and loss. Perri, a banker’s daughter and debutante, reigns over Atlanta’s belles as the “girl of a thousand dates.” Dobbs, a preacher’s daughter, is determined to free the world from injustice and set souls on fire for Christ. Dobbs decides to begin her mission by reforming the worldly young ladies of the private academy where she and Perri are students. As Dobbs helps Perri to be more spiritual, she finds herself beginning to have serious doubts about her previously unflinching beliefs. As the girls deal with their personal problems, including ups and downs with boys, they are confronted with a mystery which may hold the key to many of the troubles in their community. With a distinct Southern flavor, the novel is replete with descriptions of stately homes, lavish soirées, gowns and gardens. In spite of its title there is nothing saccharine about the book which looks realistically at the bitterness of life, the dark nights of the soul, and the heartbreak and the joy of genuine love.

(*NOTE: This review was originally published in the November 2011 issue of the Historical Novels Review. The Sweetest Thing was sent to me by the Historical Novel Society in exchange for my honest opinion.)