Madame de Pompadour
As a child, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson went to a fortuneteller who told her that one day she would reign over the heart of a king. In 1745, the unlikely prophecy came true. Jeanne-Antoinette became the Marquise de Pompadour and mistress of Louis XV, a position she would not relinquish until her death 20 years later.
The elevation of the Marquise created an uproar at Versailles. No French monarch had ever so distinguished a commoner, and in a world where power was measured by one’s access to the king, few people wielded as much of it as his mistress. Through Mitford’s writing, the Marquise emerges as a charming, outgoing woman who genuinely loved Louis XV and spent the remainder of her life as his lover, companion, and friend.
Mitford truly shines in her depiction of the French court. In an amusing and informative manner, she writes of the elaborate and often ridiculous etiquette that governed every waking moment at Versailles, whose inhabitants were dedicated to advancing their own privileges, preventing others from overstepping theirs, and avoiding the dreaded fate worse than death: banishment to the country. This is a book not to be missed by anyone remotely interested in France or the period.
