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    The Enemies of Versailles: A Novel
    The Enemies of Versailles: A Novel
    The Enemies of Versailles: A Novel
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Enemies of Versailles: A Novel

    Written by Sally Christie

    Narrated by Elizabeth Wiley

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    "That beastly bourgeois Pompadour was one thing; a common prostitute is quite another kettle of fish."

    After decades of suffering the King's endless stream of Royal Favorites, the princesses of the Court have reached a breaking point. Horrified that he would bring the lowborn Comtesse du Barry into the hallowed halls of Versailles, Louis XV's daughters, led by the indomitable Madame Adelaide, vow eternal enmity and enlist the young dauphiness Marie Antoinette in their fight against the new mistress. But as tensions rise and the French Revolution draws closer, a prostitute in the palace soon becomes the least of the nobility's concerns.

    Told in Christie's witty and engaging style, the final book in the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy will delight and entrance fans as it once again brings to life the sumptuous and cruel world of eighteenth century Versailles, and France as it approaches irrevocable change.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 21, 2017
    ISBN9781515974017
    Author

    Sally Christie

    Sally Christie is the author of The Sisters of Versailles and The Rivals of Versailles. She was born in England and grew up around the world, attending eight schools in three different languages. She spent most of her career working in international development and currently lives in Toronto. Visit SallyChristieAuthor.com to find out more about Sally and the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy.

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    Reviews for The Enemies of Versailles

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    • 4/5
      The last of Louis XV's mistresses - Madame du Barry - comes to life in this final installment of the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy. Born an illegitimate child into the lowest social order, Jeanne du Barry rose to become the mistress of the French king during his last few years - a position which placed her in opposition to the king's daughters and the young queen-to-be Marie Antoinette. I enjoyed Jeanne's spirit, which I feel the author captured well, and I was saddened by her end. This is a must-read for historical fiction fans!
    • 3/5
      The book focuses on the last official mistress of Louis XV, Jeanne Becu, better known as Comtesse du Barry. Coming from humble origins she gets a lot of enemies on her way to Versailles and one of them is Madame Adelaide, daughter of the king.I’ve never liked the women in these books but still somehow loved the books. I don’t know why but here it didn’t work out so well. They were both selfish and wanted the easy life. Adelaide might know Greek but knows nothing about real life. And Jeanne practically grew on the streets; you would think that kicked some sense into her but no. She certainly wasn’t picked for her wits for sure… Even Marie Antoinette was silly and frivolous but even she grew up a bit (too late but still) when needed.I did feel sad about Louis XV, though. I haven’t been a huge fan of him but I could feel his frustrations with his grandson. Of course, he didn’t help his grandson’s time as a king. Getting a kingdom on a brink of a revolution and debauched life Louis lived and money spending…I would have liked if it was better stated in what year we were because suddenly you notice the story jumped 2 years, 10 years…Overall I think this was ok. Which is a shame because I really loved the previous books and in this, I didn’t really care if people got guillotined or not.
    • 4/5
      This is the third and final volume in the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy. The series has focused on the court of Louis XV and his rather extensive list of ladies. This chapter closes out his life with his last mistress, the woman who history knows as the Comtesse du Barry. She was far from noble, in fact her early life was very hard. Her only asset was her amazing beauty and she used it as soon as she could to get out of the lower class – although she became a prostitute for lack of a better word. While living with the Comte du Barry she catches the eye of the king who was a bit afloat after the loss of his last mistress. Our heroine with her quick wit and great beauty soon is all the king can think about.She is not at all popular with the nobility in place despite the fact that she makes the king happy. Nor is she welcomed by the extremely uptight royal sisters. They must of course, remain sororal at all times. The eldest of the sisters, Adelaide plays a significant role in this tale as she tries to steer her father down a more righteous path but he is not exactly a man that would choose to ignore his earthly erm, pleasures.I found this trip back to the court of Louis XV to be time well spent at least for the pages that were inhabited by the delightful Comtesse – for her life before and after her rise to the heights of power. When the pages were driven by Adelaide I wanted to choke her. I really do not like this character and that has held firm through all three books. That is a testament to Ms. Christie and she must have been one obnoxious woman. Not Ms. Christie but Madame Adelaide. The book ends at the height of the French Revolution so it does not end happy – but I’m not spoiling any tales as all of this is history. The ending stayed with me, I will note that.
    • 4/5
      Although Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were the King and Queen beheaded during the French Revolution, much of the discontent of the populace that led to their execution was set during Louis-Auguste's grandfather, Louis XV's reign. Nowhere is this more apparent than in XV's final years, the years in which, ironically enough, he takes a common woman, in fact a low born, illegitimate Paris prostitute not only into his bed but into Versailles itself. Sally Christie's final installment in the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy (after The Sisters of Versailles and The Rivals of Versailles) details not only the rumblings of Louis XV's court as the unpopular monarch ages but also the life of his last, doomed mistress, Jeanne, Madame du Barry and that of his daughter, Madame Adelaide. Jeanne Becu is an angelic looking child who grows into a beautiful woman. Daughter of a cook, she "models", although perhaps entices is a better term, in a fashionable dress shop when she falls in love with the Comte du Barry, one of the store's wealthy patrons. He makes the fresh looking beauty his mistress, awakening her sexuality and trying to curb what he sees as her frivolity and low class antics. Once she is presentable enough, Barry becomes her pimp, securing her high class lovers. This development shatters young Jeanne's dreams of a monogamous life with her adored Barry and although reluctant, she has no choice but to do his bidding. His ambitions will eventually bring her to the attention of the King, who is still mourning the loss of his beloved Madame de Pompadour. As much as Louis is enchanted with this new lovely temptress, his family and the court at Versailles has no interest in this common Paris courtesan, resolving to effectively ignore the King's latest plaything. Told in chapters alternating between Madame du Barry's rise to grace the highest bed in the land and chapters centered on Madame Adelaide, one of Louis's daughters who is vehemently against du Barry and what she sees as an attack on her and her sisters' very royalty, the story pits the two women against each other. Adelaide's loathing and her entitlement as a daughter of France makes it clear just what forces Jeanne is up against and how she will be ostracized, even with the King on her side. Jeanne is a much less political creature than the mistresses who preceded her and she is less able to play the games required at court, presenting herself simply as herself, a stunningly beautiful, sweetly kind woman who wants very much to be accepted and liked. Madame Adelaide, by contrast, is not only much higher in the hierarchy but very aware of her own consequence, certain of what she is owed, commanding and rigid and determined to make life for this palace interloper unpleasant. Beneath her haughty and unpleasant manner though, is the heart of a girl who doesn't understand why her father no longer holds her in the esteem he once did and who desperately seeks to regain the love she has lost. The power games within the sheltered walls of the court start to take on a brittle tone as the clamor for a more populace focused government becomes louder and louder, occasionally even leaking into the otherwise sheltered palace. Christie has deftly juxtaposed the rigid piety of Adelaide with the sensual profligacy that brings du Barry to court in the last years of Louis XV's life. But she also shows the insularity of the court, not only in regards to protecting their own consequence but also as regards the feelings of the majority outside the walls of their unreal world. People starve for want of bread while the princesses royale spend millions of livres on vacations and other frivolities and du Barry accepts fantastically expensive jewels and the lavish lifestyle she certainly knows from her own upbringing to be excessive. Both women are sheltered from the reality of the outside world because of their residence in Versailles and although Madame Adelaide sees and resents some of the seeds of the coming revolution, she cannot conceive of a general public who would truly destroy everything she's ever known. Jeanne, for all her sexual knowledge, is rather naive and so she too fails to discern the mood outside the gates, focused as she is first on Adelaide's dislike of her and then on the young dauphine, Marie Antoinette's. This final book doesn't finish with the death of Louis XV and Jeanne's banishment from court but instead follows both Jeanne and Adelaide as the Revolution swirls around them, changing the trajectory of their lives forever. This allows the reader to see how Louis XV's reign, his choices and his attitude, led so clearly to the brutal bloodbath that was the Revolution in full flower. This is a fitting conclusion to the trilogy for sure, a fascinating and engrossing read. Those who have read and enjoyed the first two will definitely want to read this. Those who haven't yet read the first two can jump into the history and the story here without missing a beat.
    • 5/5
      Having read the two previous books from the Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy, I was ecstatic when asked if I'd read and review the third and final instalment. I thoroughly enjoyed the previous two books and this one did not disappoint. The Enemies of Versailles begins with Jeanne Becu leaving the convent as a young teen. Because of her beauty she is quickly snapped up to sell ladies finery to the nobility of France. Jeanne becomes enamoured of the Compte du Barry who seduces her into a lifestyle of debauchery. He quickly sees her value in enticing the nobility to his salon and card games at which point he offers her to the many men who attend in the hope of an invitation to Versailles. When this happens, Jeanne quickly comes to the attention of Louis XV who is mourning the death of the Pompadour but also awaiting the death of his pious Queen. Du Barry marries Jeanne to his brother so that she can be presented to the King, thus begins their love affair that ends only with his death.Whilst Madame du Barry is the primary character of equal standing in this story is Louis's daughter Adelaide. The two stories are intertwined beautifully to create an understanding of the intrigue, politics and etiquette of a debauched French Court. Adelaide's hatred of Jeanne is relentless until the final moments of Louis's life where there is an understanding of Jeanne's love of her father. But the story does not end with the death of Louis. It is during this component of the story that you feel the impending doom creeping up as the story continues through the French Revolution and the final days and eventual fall of the Bourbon family. Jeanne's life after Louis, then her eventual imprisonment and her death are both heartwarming and sad. Adelaide and her sister were able to escape France to Italy where they lived until their eventual deaths. Despite survival, you feel the sadness of their situation and the loss of most of their family members. The Enemies of Versailles is a wonderful end to a brilliant series. I thoroughly enjoyed all three books and this final instalment was a fitting epitaph to a very sad time in history.