Crimson Velvet Heart
Set in late 17th-century France under King Louis XIV, this novel portrays the remarkable life of Princess Marie Adélaïde of the House of Savoy, born in Turin in 1685. News of her birth is relayed to the King of France as her marriage to his grandson, Louis, Duke of Bourgogne, has been arranged in the Treaty of Turin with her father, Victor Amadeus II. She marries Louis in 1697 at the age of 12, when she becomes fecund. The Sun King, now her grandfather, adores her and lavishes his attentions on her.
Marie Adélaïde’s life as the Duchess of Bourgogne is narrated from two alternating viewpoints. Her childhood friend, Clotilde, a classmate at the college of St. Cyr, becomes a nun, Sister Clare. She begins writing her intimate Memoir at the convent of Sainte-Odile four years after Adélaïde’s death. We learn that Clotilde’s first and only love, Jean-Jacques, is killed in the Battle of Cassano during the War of Spanish Succession.
In contrast to this intimate portrait, the omniscient narrator paints a brilliantly vivid and panoramic picture of royal life at the Palace of Versailles, with its numerous fairy-tale aspects, including menageries, the hall of mirrors, fountains, balls, music, theater, operas, and fireworks. At the same time, constant religious and succession wars, malicious court gossip, savage political pamphlets and cartoons that make fun of the King, constant public observance of Adélaïde’s daily life, and crude medicinal treatments inflicted upon its subjects reveal the darker side of palace life. In 1710 Adélaïde gives birth to her third and sole surviving son, the future King Louis XV.
A prolific author, Carmel Bird’s first historical novel, Crimson Velvet Heart, is meticulously researched, and its themes of love, loss, adventure, mystery and intrigue are as artfully written as Dumas. It is a tour de force.
