Tea at Trianon: Ruffled Feathers

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

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Ruffled Feathers

The real Capote at his Black and White Ball in 1966

Yet another movie about Truman Capote. The new film starring Tom Hollander and Naomi Watts is based on the book Capote's Women by Laurence Leamer. From Tatler:

For years, Truman Capote had been proudly telling anyone within hearing that he was writing the ‘greatest novel of the age’. The book was about a group of the richest, most elegant women in the world. They were fictional, of course, but everyone knew these characters were based on his closest friends, the coterie of gorgeous, witty and fabulously rich women he called his ‘swans’.
Answered Prayers would be a daring literary feat, an exposé of upper-class society that blended the fictional flourishes of Breakfast at Tiffany’s with the closely observed narrative nonfiction of In Cold Blood. No one had ever gotten that close to these women and their elusive, secretive world.
Barbara ‘Babe’ Paley was first in Truman’s mind. She was often called the most beautiful woman in the world, and Truman just liked looking at her, admiring her incredible panache. Babe was not only the most beautiful woman he had ever seen but ‘the most beautiful woman of the 20th century’. As he saw it, you could not have beauty without class, and Babe was the epitome of class. (Read more.)

Also from Tatler:

Truman Capote (born Truman Streckfus Persons) was one of the dominant literary figures of the 20th century. Born in 1924 in New Orleans, he was childhood friends with famed writer Harper Lee. In her famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee based the protagonist Scout’s best friend Dill on Capote.
With an exceptional talent for writing, he is best known for his novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the inspiration for the stylish Audrey Hepburn classic of the same name and the non-fiction book In Cold Blood. Known for his flamboyant manner, high-pitched voice and his unique style, he is widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Capote died of liver disease, shortly before his 60th birthday in 1984. (Read more.)