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Title details for Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund - Wait list

Abundance

A Novel of Marie Antoinette

by Sena Jeter Naslund
Susanna Burney
Audiobook
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Marie Antoinette was a child of 14 when her mother, the Empress of Austria, arranged for her to leave her family, her country, and her home to become the wife of the 15-year-old Dauphin, the future King Louis XVI of France. Far from home and thrust into the role of woman, wife, and queen, Marie Antoinette lived a brief-but astonishing-life. Based on impeccable historical research, Abundance reveals a Marie Antoinette who rebelled against the formality and rigid protocol of the court; an outsider who became the target of a revolution that ultimately decided her fate. Naslund has created a portrait of a woman very different from the figure we think we know.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    October 1, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780792745914
      • File size: 527950 KB
      • Duration: 18:19:53

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Contrary to the title's implications, this is a rather ordinary novel. Instead of an abundance of intrigue or passion, this audiobook remains flat and superficial. Susanna Burney's narration is adequate, but pauses between sentences are frequently long to the point of awkwardness. Her pacing, too, is slow--but the novel itself seems so, creaking along like a carriage on a rocky road. Burney enlivens some of the characters with subtle voice shifts, but overall the result is a plodding story with few peaks and valleys. Devotees of Marie Antoinette and her life may find the plot appealing but should be aware that flaws that may go unnoticed on the page seem glaring when heard aloud. L.B.F. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from May 29, 2006
      The opening sentence of Naslund's fictional memoir of Marie Antoinette ("Like everyone, I am born naked") sets a hypnotically intimate tone that never wavers as the much-maligned Austrian princess recounts her life from baptism in the Rhine and rebirth as French citizen to appointment with the guillotine. In Naslund's (Ahab's Wife
      ) sympathetic portrayal, 14-year-old "Toinette" arrives in France a pretty-mannered naïf determined to please the king, the court and, most importantly, her husband, the Dauphin. The novel provides a wealth of detail as Toinette savors the food, architecture, music and gardens of Versailles; indulges in hair and clothing rituals; gets acquainted with her indifferent partner and her scheming new relations; and experiences motherhood and loss. Her story unfolds like classical tragedy—the outcome known, the account riveting—as famous incidents are reinterpreted (the affair of the necklace, the flight to Varennes), culminating in a heartbreaking description of the bloody head of the Princess de Lamballe held aloft on a pike for the deposed queen to see. With vivid detail and exquisite narrative technique, Naslund exemplifies the best of historical fiction, finding the woman beneath the pose, a queen facing history as it rises up against her.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Engaged to the 15-year-old dauphin, 'Toinette, the high-spirited 14-year-old daughter of the empress of Austria, arrives in France with enthusiasm for new sights, sounds, and the French people who welcome her. Susanna Burney uses an elevated pitch and fast pace to convey this na•ve excitement. By the age of 16, Marie Antoinette, still unbedded and better schooled on political etiquette, has matured, and Burney marks the change by adopting a lower timbre and more moderate tempo. Burney also dramatizes the young queen's growing pleasure in earthly delights and her surprise at the displeasure of the French populace. As the end approaches, Burney's calm voice portrays a woman who has accepted a violent death. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 4, 2006
      Appropriately, Burney begins her performance in the adorable upper registers of the 14-year-old Marie Antoinette, shipped to France by her mother, the Empress of Austria, to marry the 15-year-old Dauphin and peacefully conjoin France and Austria. Unfortunately, Burney continues in this insipid tone throughout her reading, which is understandable as Naslund (Ahab's Wife
      ) portrays Marie as Little Mary Sunshine until the moment of her death by guillotine at age 38. Her love affair with a Swedish diplomat is strictly platonic and her inability to empathize with the French people is laid to her paternalistic advisers. All this may or may not be historically true, but it leaves listeners with Marie's diary-style descriptions of her personal and court life: the Dauphin's sexual limitations, the birth of her children, her clothes and hairstyles, girlish friendships and expensive banquets. The abridgment reinforces this focus by cutting little early on, then skipping quickly from one incident to another as the revolution evolves. Naslund's writing is clear and vivid, but offers little for those seeking a deeper understanding of the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Simultaneous release with the William Morrow hardcover (Reviews, May 29).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Funding for additional materials was made possible by a grant from the New Hampshire Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.