The Enemies of Versailles
This is the last of the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy, focusing on the rivalry between Madame Adelaide, daughter of Louis XV, and the Comtesse du Barry, Louis’s last mistress. The chapters alternate between the two women as narrators.
Adelaide is pleased when La Pompadour dies, hoping her father will become closer to his legitimate children now that he has fewer distractions. But soon Jeanne Becu, later created Comtesse du Barry, comes to the king’s attention. Adelaide’s attempts to reproach the king for bringing a prostitute to his court make him angry, and he refuses to listen. When Marie Antoinette arrives from Austria to marry the king’s grandson, she is adamant about not speaking to the low-born Du Barry. Meanwhile, Adelaide is no longer officially “Madame,” since her place in the strict hierarchy is now below Marie Antoinette’s as the wife of the Dauphin. Du Barry hopes to obtain a divorce from her absent husband so she will be free to marry the king, but the Pope is reluctant. And while the intrigue and backbiting continues, the Revolution is looming.
Books set in the rarified world of Versailles have an undercurrent of doom, at least for those readers versed in the basics of French history and who know what’s coming. For those unfamiliar with the period, Christie skillfully foreshadows hints of social change, so that the collapse of Du Barry’s and Adelaide’s world of privilege is not a surprise. Du Barry is probably the more sympathetic character for modern readers. Madame Adelaide, while true to the period, is so unbending about court etiquette and the importance of birth status that she is a first-class snob for most of the story. The details of life at Versailles are absorbing. I enjoyed the novel and plan to read the others in the series.
