Tea at Trianon: A Voyage Into the Past

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

Sunday, August 27, 2023

A Voyage Into the Past

In which I am interviewed by my Alma Mater in Frederick, Maryland. From Hood College:

You publish under the nom de plume “Elena Maria Vidal.” How did you choose your pen name?
I took as my pen name a variation of the name of my Spanish grandmother, Maria Magdalena Vidal, to honor her. She was in the Philippines during WW2, and while her husband was captive in a Japanese concentration camp, she worked with the underground, hiding guerrilla soldiers from the invaders. She is one of the bravest people I have ever known.
In 1998, you came Home to Hood to host a book signing for your first Trianon book; had the campus changed much since 1984? What memories were conjured when you stepped back on campus?
Yes, the campus had changed dramatically. Everything was very elegant. Not that it wasn’t elegant before, just more upscale. It was 1998, and I graduated in 1984. There was a brand-new library, a student center with a coffee shop, a huge new bookstore and other new buildings. At the time, I could not help remembering that my first public speech occurred while I was a senior at Hood, at a Learning Lunch arranged by my history professor Dr. Len Latkovski. I spoke on the murder of the Russian imperial family and the mystery of Anastasia. So, returning there as a published author was a thrill as well as a way of validating the confidence that my professors had placed in me.
You shared in an earlier email that your French and history professors were your “favorites.” Who were they and what made them so special to you?
I was a psych major, but I received better grades in history and French, so I began taking more classes in those subjects to boost my average. My favorite professor was Dr. Latkovski, who did a lot to encourage me to change my course of studies to history. I also am grateful to Dr. Mindel, another history professor, who wrote many recommendation letters for me. And I will forever be grateful for the superb training in French I received from Dr. Kantor and Mademoiselle Moran. Knowledge of French has been indispensable in my travels and my research; I would not have accomplished anything without it. (Read more.)