Tea at Trianon: Behind the Shattered Glass

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

Monday, November 11, 2013

Behind the Shattered Glass

The English countryside is the setting of Tasha Alexander’s latest Lady Emily mystery, set in Victorian times. Lady Emily, the eccentric heroine of the series, has settled into domestic bliss with her husband Colin, their twin baby boys and their infant ward at Colin’s ancestral estate. Emily’s only problem is her mother, whose traditional ideas are in constant war with Colin’s Socialist convictions.

Suddenly, the local philandering marquess walks into Emily and Colin’s drawing room and drops dead. Finding themselves with a corpse on their hands, they undertake to investigate the fate of the unfortunate marquess, who, naturally, turns out to have been murdered. There are several suspects, the victim having wreaked havoc with the virtue of many young women, leaving a web of seductions and lies in his wake. As Colin and Emily make inquiries near and far, there is drama close to home, as a previously unknown heir arrives to claim the deceased’s estate as his inheritance. In spite of their love of new trends and ideas, both hero and heroine embody the best of noblesse oblige, and the wit and insight they use in solving the crime make for an entertaining read.

This review originally appeared in the November 2013 edition of the Historical Novels Review.

(*NOTE: This book was sent to me by the Historical Novels Society in exchange for my honest opinion.)

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