Tea at Trianon: Gathering the Book Club

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

Thursday, January 26, 2023

Gathering the Book Club

From Victoria:

Much like our initial 2023 book club selection, for our initial book selection of 2021, the Victoria Classics Book Club chose to indulge in not one but two noteworthy titles. Both At Home in Mitford and Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good are hinge books in Jan Karon’s beloved Mitford series. We celebrated the author as Victoria’s 2021 Writer-in-Residence as we explored the pages of these volumes alongside both newcomers to the series and already dedicated fans, ideally in the presence of a well-brewed cup of tea! An homage to Esther Bolick’s signature dessert in the treasured Mitford series, our Mini Orange Marmalade Cakes feature ribbons of marmalade between layers of fluffy cake crowned with creamy vanilla frosting and fresh begonias. In one of our initial book club selections for 2023, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, a fantastical wintry treat tempts our hearts as it did Edmund’s within the pages of the story. Turkish Delight beckons dreams of Narnia with notes of Chambord, rosewater, and raspberry. (Read more.)