And the winner is....

The winner of the 400th post Giveway is...

Deb Maher!

Congratulations Deb, I will be emailing you shortly for your address. Again, thank you to everyone who entered to win this fabulous book!

400th Post and Giveaway: PARIS TO DIE FOR

Hard to believe but this marks my 400th post and to celebrate I'm giving away a copy of the delicious new spy mystery PARIS TO DIE FOR, featuring the one and only Jacqueline Bouvier as the sleuth! Truthfully when I saw this book in my local Barnes and Noble (on Jackie's birthday no less) I thought "Jackie Kennedy as a sleuth, get out of here."  But there was something about the Audrey Hepburnesque cover that drew me in, and I bought it.  I'm very glad that I did because this was a a rollicking good novel, with fun cameos by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Francois Truffaut, Ian Fleming, and Audrey Hepburn herself!

This isn't James Bond or even John Le Carre, this is light espionage novel with loads of thrills that will keep the reader on the edge of his/her seat.  Yes, the book bogs down a little as one of the characters spends way too much time revealing his backstory, but the chemistry between Jacques and Jackie (too cute) is palpable. The authors have clearly done their homework, because they've captured Jackie's personality perfectly, at least from all the biographies that I have read about the former First Lady.  Since Jackie was always so mysterious, it's not too much of a leap of faith to believe that she was secretly working for the CIA. I look forward to the next book in the series HAVANA TO DIE FOR.

Synopsis:

Inspired by an actual letter in the John F. Kennedy Library written by Jackie and revealing her job offer from the newly formed CIA



Young Jacqueline Bouvier's first CIA assignment was supposed to be simple: Meet with a high-ranking Russian while he's in Paris and help him defect. But when the Comrade ends up dead, and Jackie-in her black satin peep-toe stiletto heels-barely escapes his killer, it's time to get some assistance. Enter Jacques Rivage, a French photographer and freelance CIA agent who seems too brash and carefree to grapple with spies, though he's all too able to make Jackie's heart skip a beat.


Together the two infiltrate 1951 high society in the City of Lights, rubbing shoulders with the likes of the Duchess of Windsor, Audrey Hepburn, and Evelyn Waugh. Jackie, no longer a pampered debutante, draws on her quick intelligence, equestrian skills, and even her Chanel No. 5 atomizer as a weapon to stay alive in the shadowy world of international intrigue-and to keep her date with a certain up-and-coming, young Congressman from Massachusetts . . . .

About the Author:

Maxine Kenneth is the writing team of Maxine Schnall and Kenneth Salikof.


Ken Salikof is a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, an award-winning screenwriter, and an independent book editor. Ken has sold scripts to New World Cinema, HBO, Nickelodeon, and several independent producers and has edited many bestselling novels. His blog, Ken Salikof's Cinema Esoterica, can be found at http://kss2361.blogspot.com/.

Maxine Schnall is the author of six non-fiction books and one novel, including What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger (Da Capo, 2003); a Pulitzer Prize nominee (Limits: A Search for New Values, Clarkson Potter, 1982); a former contributing editor with Woman's Day and CBS radio talk show host; and a popular media personality with six appearances on Oprah. Please visit her website at maxineschnall.com.

One lucky winner will receive a copy of the book PARIS TO DIE FOR. Here are the rules for the giveaway. This giveaway is open solely to my American readers! The contest runs from today through Monday, August 29th:



1. Leave your name and email in the comments. Email is very important so that I can contact you for your address.
2. If you are not a follower and become one, you get an extra entry
3. If you tweet about the giveaway, you get an extra entry.


Good luck!

Queen Ranavalona I - The Mad Monarch of Madagascar (1782 - 1861)

‘She is certainly one of the proudest and cruel women on the face of the earth, and her whole history is a record of bloodshed and deeds of horror.’ – Ida Pfeiffer (explorer)


Once upon a time in the Indian Ocean, there was a magical land called Madagascar located off the south east coast of Africa. This lush, ravishingly beautiful tropical island, ‘a paradise on earth’ which is now known mainly for its vanilla beans and cuddly cartoon animals, was teeming with vast tracks of rain forest and rich arable land. But there was a serpent in this Garden of Eden, and her name was Ranavalona. In her 33 year reign, she proved to be just as ruthless and cruel as any male tyrant that had sat on a throne. She established a reign of terror in the name of preserving its traditions and independence which resulted in the death of more than a 1/3 of her subjects.

After years of internal warfare, many of the warring tribes were finally united under the leadership of the wise King Andrianampoinimerina (1787–1810) as the Kingdom of Merina bringing peace and prosperity. He honored his people by giving them their own piece of land, so that no one would ever go hungry. That wasn’t the only change for the tiny island. For centuries Madagascar was virtually unknown to foreign invaders. By the 18th century, this unspoiled and untamed land was discovered by European explorers who scrambled to claim the prime real estate for their very own. For the English, Madagascar was the perfect pit-stop on the long voyage to India. The French were eager to add Madagascar to their already burgeoning African portfolio.

King Andrianampoinimerina believed that learning from the West would help his country. However, traditionalists and the priests weren’t too keen on the idea. His uncle took it one step further and tried to assassinate him. He was saved by the intervention of a local tribesman who alerted him to the plot. To say ‘thank you,’ the King decided to adopt the tribesman’s daughter, Ranavalona, bringing her to court as a possible wife for his son, Prince Radama. Soon Ranavalona became the first of Prince Radama’s 12 wives, which I guess is sort of an honor. The prince paid little attention to his new bride; he just wasn’t that in to her. Pissed off, Ranavalona became incredibly mouthy, loudly arguing with her husband who agreed with his father’s policies, especially when it came to foreigners. This didn’t endear her to Prince Radama who preferred a more docile and sweet woman or at least one who didn’t try to push all his buttons. Due to their mutual antipathy, no children were born during their marriage.

In 1810, Prince Radama succeeded his father as King. Ranavalona became increasingly frustrated at her inability to check her husband’s modernizing ideas. He was eager to bring his country into the 19th century. King Radama began to allow more foreigners onto the island, particularly British missionaries, who began efforts to convert the natives to Christianity. They built schools, and helped to develop a written language. Ranavalona watched in horror as the new religion slowly took root threatening the worship of the Malagasy gods.

In1828, King Radama died after a long, debilitating illness. Two of his officers decided to keep the news on ice until they could place his nephew, Prince Rakatobe on the throne. But Ranavalona got wind of the plan and mobilized her supporters, which included the priests and the hard-core traditionalists. She spread rumors that the gods were telling her that she was destined to be the next ruler. She was aided and abetted by a young army officer named Adriamihaja who served as her first minister (and may also have been her lover and the father of her son, Rakoto, who was born 11 months after Radama’s death) until he got on her bad side and was summarily executed. After declaring herself Queen, she had all immediate rivals to the throne captured and put to death, including Rakatobe.

Once that was out of the way, Ranavalona turned her sights on the foreigners polluting her kingdom. As far as Ranavalona was concerned, the only good foreigner was a dead one. She broke treaties with both the English and the French and banned Christianity. With a fanaticism that would have made Mary Tudor proud, she came up with creative and inventive ways to eliminate any one caught practicing Christianity. They were tortured, flung from cliffs, boiled in water, poisoned, flung off cliffs or beheaded if they didn’t recant. She also got rid of trial by jury and brought back good old fashioned ‘Trial by Ordeal’ which was decided by forcing the accused to drink the poisonous juice of the tanguena plant. If they survived, they were innocent. Both the French and the British spent considerable time and effort trying to dislodge Ranavalona from the throne but to no avail. After one successful battle against an invasion, Ranavalona cut off the heads of the dead Europeans, stuck them on pikes, and lined them up on the beach, to repel any future invaders. After that little display, the French and the English decided that were better off concentrating their efforts on other third world countries not ruled by insane females.

There was one European invention she had any use for, which strangely enough, was soap. When the French brought it to the island, Ranavalona became obsessed, and determined to discover how it was made. Once she obtained the recipe, she had no more use for the people who gave it to her. Like Cleopatra, Ranavalona was a master at propaganda and ritual. Once a year, she would take a public bath on her balcony. People would come from miles around to see it; it was the best ticket in town. After her bath, she would pour the water over the balcony to sprinkle the spectators. It was her way of allying herself with the ancient Malagasy gods.

Things weren’t all bad in Madagascar. Ranavalona wanted her people to be self-sufficient. Divine providence brought her a French arms manufacturer whose boat was shipwrecked off the coast. He helped her to build up her arsenal, and became her lover as well. Before long Madagascar had built factories to produce guns, bullets, sugar, clothing and booze. She founded cities, and was one of the few African rulers to successfully hold off colonial rule. However, it came at a high prize. To boost the economy, Ranavalona turned to selling her own subjects into slavery. Those who were sold were considered traitors, spoils of war, or Christians caught practicing their religion in secret. She continued the wars of expansion, determined to bring the entire island under her thumb. Her actions decimated the population from a high of 5 million people down to 2.5 million at the end of her reign. It was estimated that 20,000 to 30,000 were killed a year for various offenses.

Ranavalona died peacefully in her bed at the age of 79 in 1861, managing to survive a coup by her son. The European powers rejoice, they had generally condemned her policies, whispering that she was insane. In 1898, during the reign of Ranavalona III, the French finally managed to colonize Madagascar. Today, Ranavalona’s actions are seen in a different light, not those of a despot but those of a Queen attempting to protect her people and their culture against European domination.


Sources

Klein, Shelley. (2003). The Most Evil Women in History. London, England: Michael O’Mara Books Limited.

Laidler, Keith (2005) Female Caligula: Ranavalona: the Mad Queen of Madagascar. London: John Wiley & Sons.

Stradling, Jan. (2008). Bad Girls: The Most Powerful, Shocking, Amazing, Thrilling and Dangerous Women of all Time. New York, New York: Metro Books.

The Ones That Got Away

When my agent called to tell me that we had sold Scandalous Women to Perigee, I couldn’t have been more ecstatic. This was a dream come true for me after almost a decade of writing, but now came the hard part, what women would make it into the book? The book needed to be a mix of women that people were familiar with, but also women who for whatever reason were not as well known. My initial list consisted of forty women. Unfortunately due to that pesky word count, some of them had to end up on the cutting room floor. Here are five of the women who unfortunately got away.

Isabella, Queen Consort to Edward II (1295-1358): called the She-Wolf of France by her enemies, this strong-willed Queen refused to play second fiddle to her husband Edward II’s male lovers who were showered not only with gifts and but with power. Aided by her lover, Roger de Mortimer, she stole the throne from her husband for her son, and possibly ordered the murder of her husband as well.

Belle Starr (1848-1889): The daughter of a wealthy innkeeper who was ruined by the Civil War, she developed a reputation as the "Bandit Queen" of the Old West, hobnobbing with some of the most famous outlaws of her day such as Jesse James and Cole Younger. Although homely, she had a sense of style, riding while wearing a black velvet gown and a plumed hat. However, her bad taste in men led her into a life of crime. Ambushed by an unknown assailant, her foolish choices left her dying alone in the dust. But her sensational legend soon began to take shape in the dime-novel westerns of the era.

Veronica Franco (1546-1591): The daughter of a courtesan, this dangerous beauty followed in her mother’s footsteps, becoming the toast of Venice not just with her body but by her wit and skill in debating at a time when most women were illiterate. She quickly rose to consort with some of the leading notables of her day and even entranced the future King Henry III of France, who only wanted to meet her on his visit to Venice. A noted poet, Veronica used her poems to argue in support of defenseless women. She later managed to survive charges of witchcraft brought by the Inquisition. Veronica's insight into the age-old conflicts between men and women and her awareness of the threat she posed to men is what makes her so pertinent today

Anna Nicole Smith (1967–2007): This bodacious Texan remade herself into the centerfold of the world. She was a "dumb blonde," a stripper, a Playboy Playmate, who boldly took her case against her billionaire husband's family all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her tragic life and untimely death still evoke an odd mix of fascination, shock, and dismay four years later.

Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689): The eccentric crossing dressing Queen who gave up her throne for freedom. Raised by her father as a more of a Prince than a Princess, Christina inherited the throne after her father’s death at the age of 6. During her ten years on the throne, Christina absolutely refused to marry despite pressure to fulfill her duty to give Sweden an heir. She secretly converted to Catholicism which contributed to her decision to abdicate. The rest of her life was spent in France and Rome, where she was buried in St. Peter's Basilica. Her complex character has inspired numerous plays, books, and operatic works since her death including the 1933 MGM film Queen Christina starring the luminous Greta Garbo.

Hopefully, these women will end up in another book one day or here on Scandalous Women.

Authors Night at the East Hampton Library

I was delighted to spend this past Saturday on the South Fork of Long Island at the Authors Night benefit for the East Hampton Library. As a native New Yorker, it was fun for me to get a chance to not only sign books but also help support a good cause, libraries,  and I got to do it my own home state.  It was just a short jitney ride (okay it was a 3 hour jitney ride) out to beautiful East Hampton for the event. I brought my good friend Mala out with me to help record the event.  It was her first tip out to the Hamptons so it was nice to be able to share this event with her.

And what an event it was! Talk about star-studded! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw some of the authors who would also be signing that night.  Robert Caro, who has written well-regarded biographies of Lyndon Johnson, Barbara Goldsmith who was signing copies of her biography of Marie Curie, Annette Blaugrund who has written a biography of Harriet Hubbard Ayer (one of the first women to found a cosmetics company.), David S. Reynolds, who has written MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD, about Harriet Beecher Stowe and UNCLE TOM's CABIN. The list goes on and on. I felt humble just being under the same tent as some of these authors.

The authors were asked to arrive at 4:30 to get settled in.  To my great surprise, I was seated next to film critic Jeffrey Lyons.  I grew up watching Mr. Lyons on Channel 4 News as well as the TV show he did with Richard Roeper on PBS.  And the icing on the cake was that Susan Lucci was sitting two seats down from me. It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Susan and of ALL MY CHILDREN, so I felt especially privileged. However, it was getting to hear the fascinating stories that Jeffrey Lyons told about some of the celebrities that his father knew that really made my night.  Leonard Lyons knew everyone from Orson Welles to Marilyn Monroe.  I was lucky enough to snag a copy of his book STORIES MY FATHER TOLD ME, and to give him a copy of my book SCANDALOUS WOMEN.

I managed to reconnect with an old friend an fellow author Jennifer Belle who runs a fabulous writer's workshop in New York that I hope to get back to.  I have a historical fiction novel that I have been working on, but I really need a weekly workshop to get it kicked into the shape that I know it needs to be in, before I hand it in to my agent.  Alec Baldwin was there, he stopped by to say hello to Jeffrey Lyons, so that was a squealworthy moment. My friend Mala did triple duty as wine bearer, official tweeter, as well as photographer. The food was fabulous, all donated by local restaurants, and I had a delicious glass of rose wine from a Long Island winery.

My one regret was that I didn't really get a chance to meet the other authors, nor was I invited to attend one of the author dinners that they held that night after the event. Since I don't know anyone at the library, nor am I a big enough name, I wasn't included.  My only quibble with the event was that not one of the organizers greeted the authors as they arrived.  When I arrived at the library, I was told rather rudely by a gentleman to just 'go in the back' to the tent. I found that kind of appalling. Nor did I get a lovely Authors Night bag that some of the other authors seemed to have.

Still it was a lovely evening, and I felt privileged to be apart of it. I hope that as my writing career continues, that I get another chance to be part of this lovely event.

The Winner of the Marie Antoinette Giveaway is.....

I'm so pleased by how many people stopped by and left comments on Juliet Grey's excellent post.  I wish I could give you all copies of this wonderful book, but unfortunately I can't!  Using random.org, I can announce that the winner of BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE is....

Laura Kay

Congratulations Laura!  I will be emailing you shortly to get your address.

Thank you to everyone who entered! I hope you will keep coming back to Scandalous Women, as I bring you more scintillating stories about some of history's most fascinating women.

Scandalous Book Review: Lady of the English

Title: Lady of the English
Author: Elizabeth Chadwick
Pub. Date: September 2011
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
Format: Paperback , 544pp

Synopsis:    Royal wives and royal widows, Queen Adeliza and her stepdaughter, Empress Matilda, are the only two women to be titled "Lady of the English," a title that does not come cheap. Adeliza, widowed queen and peacemaker, is married to a warrior who supports Stephen, grandson of the Conqueror. Matilda, daughter of the last king and a fierce fighter, is determined to win her inheritance against all odds and despite all men, including Stephen. Both are women who, in their different ways, will stand and fight for what they know is right. But for Matilda, pride comes before a fall. And for Adeliza, even the deepest love is no proof against fate.

About the author:

Elizabeth Chadwick is the author of 17 historical novels, including The Greatest Knight, The Scarlet Lion, A Place Beyond Courage, For the King's Favor, Shadows and Strongholds, The Winter Mantle, The Falcons of Montabard, and To Defy a King, six of which have been shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Awards.


Dear Ms. Chadwick,


When Sourcebooks offered me the chance to review your new book LADY OF THE ENGLISH, I did a happy dance. As I have mentioned on my blog before, I am a total Plantangenetaholic, and LADY OF THE ENGLISH is the Holy Grail. I have always found Matilda one of the most fascinating women in a family full of fascinating women (Plantagenet men certainly married interesting women!). If my word count for SCANDALOUS WOMEN had been bigger, she would have definitely been in my chapter of Warrior Queens.

This is the first novel of yours that I have read, and it will definitely not be the last. All I can say is where have you been all my life? My dream is to one day write historical fiction with the depth, breadth and clarity that you do. I don’t think that there was a wasted word in the entire book. Your portrait of the Middle Ages is so vivid, and you write with such ease about the reality of daily life in Medieval England and France that it makes me wonder if you were perhaps channeling some past life as you write. I can see why the HISTORICAL NOVEL REVIEW callsyou "The best writer of medieval fiction currently around." I certainly won't quibble with that!


You manage to convey the complex personalities of your characters with deft brush strokes, without letting the complex plot and who is betraying who get in the way. By the end of the novel, I felt that I knew these characters as intimately as if I were sharing a trencher with them in the great hall at Castle Rising.

What made this book such a joy was getting to know historical figures that I knew little about such as Henry I’s widow Adeliza of Louvain, Matilda’s second husband, Geoffrey of Anjou and Brian FitzCount. I disagree heartily with the Publisher’s Weekly reviewer who claimed that Geoffrey of Anjou was greedy and unpleasant. The poor kid was told at the age of 13 that he was marrying a woman twice his age; cut the poor boy some slack. Matilda and Geoffrey were two strong personalities who were always going to rub each other the wrong way. I loved that their relationship wasn’t totally black and white. There were shades of grey, shades that Matilda had difficulty dealing with. I enjoyed watching her despise Geoffrey at the same time that she was incredibly attracted to him. It’s a shame that she never really took the time to get to know her husband better. Henry I is such a dominating personality that I almost forgot that he had remarried again. Thank you for introducing me to Adeliza, a woman who appears fragile on the surface but has hidden strength. At first I thought she was going to be just a milque toast pious goody two shoes, but she had depths that I never realized. I rejoiced that she received her happily ever after even though it was short-lived. The contrast between Adeliza, who seems to be the personification of a medieval woman, and Matilda who bangs her fists on the cage door, was fascinating.

I felt for Matilda although I don’t know that I could ever have been friends with her. To be that intelligent and to be treated like a second class citizen, to constantly have to prove that you not only deserve the right to rule, but that you shouldn’t be discounted just because she was female. Her pride and ambition launches England into a bloody civil war but really who can blame her? Why shouldn’t she have fought for her right to the crown? It was lovely to see the relationship grow and build between two such different women.

The book started off a little slowly for me, but as I kept reading the pace picked up and I couldn't put the book down because I had to know what happened even though this period of history is very familiar to me. However, I felt as if I was reading about this period for the very first time. While the story of THE LADY OF THE ENGLISH is epic in scope spanning over a decade, what I will remember the most are the personal scenes between the characters particularly the scene between Adeliza and William D’Albini (whose descendent is played by Brian Cox in IRONCLAD) at the end of the book which I found heartbreaking. You aptly conveyed the toll that a civil war takes on the families of the men who go to war.

I hope that if the Plantagenet’s are ever given THE TUDORS treatment by a TV network, that they hire you as a consultant. Although I'm a little frightened to put that out in the ether, given what I've seen of THE BORGIAs thus far.

Guest Post - Author Juliet Grey on Marie Antoinette et Madame du Barry: Scandalous Women - Scandalous Rivalry

Scandalous Women is very pleased to welcome historical fiction author Juliet Grey to the blog.  Juliet is the author of the new trilogy about Marie Antoinette, the first book BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE is released today.  Regular readers of my blog know that I am a huge fan of Marie Antoinette, in fact I'm a tad obsessed and have been ever since I learned that she and I shared a birthday. So I was very excited to hear that there was going to be new trilogy that examined her life from her childhood to her death. Isn't the cover gorgeous?

Above the strains of the violins and the tinkling of crystal and porcelain, a silvery laugh pierced the air, drawing all attention toward the head of the table. The woman seated at the king’s right had grabbed a morsel off the royal plate with a heavily jeweled hand and popped it into her own mouth. She wore no powder in her flaxen hair, a shade or two more yellow than my own. Her complexion was the color of fresh dairy cream—the better to show off her enviable poitrine in a gown of silver tissue spun with gold and spangled with rubies from a sprinkling of them on her sleeves to a crimson crust that framed her deep décolleté. The sapphires in her ears and the triumph in her eyes lent her more airs of an empress than Maman ever had. My eyes strayed downwards. Immediately I felt inadequate and wished that my own bosom was as pulchritudinous and had been molded to such perfection.

I gazed at her coiffure, which sparkled with emerald combs. Perfectly applied circles of rouge enhanced her natural blush. I surveyed the length of the table; here sat the highest-ranking nobility of France and yet none of the women were so bedecked in brilliants as this fascinating creature, who was so bold as to eat off the king’s plate. I could not take my eyes off her. She took another bit of squab from His Majesty’s dish and fed it to him. Louis took not only the pigeon but her fingers into his mouth, enjoying both with gustatory relish. He shared a full-bellied laugh with the woman.


“What an intriguing person!” I exclaimed. I turned to address Madame de Noailles. “S’il vous plait, madame la comtesse, dîtes -moi—qui est cette belle dame-là? Tell me, who is that very beautiful woman—and what is her office here at court?”


My dining companions grew silent. Madame Etiquette’s back stiffened perceptibly. At the far end of the room, Louis of France and his personal guest of honor paid no heed to anything other than their amusing little game of feeding each other. Mesdames tantes muttered behind their fans in voices too low for me to discern the gist of their discourse. All I could hear, and the word was uttered repeatedly with a derisive intonation, was “elle”—her.


The aunts looked to the comtesse de Noailles to furnish a reply; after all, I had posed the question to her directly. All three, Adélaïde, Victoire, and Sophie, had screwed their mouths into odd little smirks that I did not understand. The dauphin coughed quite audibly into his napkin. His younger brothers stifled a snicker and collectively regarded my dame d’honneur through narrowed eyes, waiting with undisguised amusement for her answer.


“That woman,” began the comtesse, speaking with painstaking deliberateness—and I had yet to hear her speak so slowly—“that woman is Madame du Barry, ci-devant—formerly—the lowly Jeanne Bécu, although some knew her as Mademoiselle l’Ange of the rue de la Jussienne; and her office is to . . . to amuse the king!”


Her nickname, Mademoiselle l’Ange, intrigued me. The Angel. Surely I appeared more seraphic; and it would be my pleasure to charm His Majesty and make him laugh. “Well, then!” I clapped my hands with glee, for nothing would have made me happier than to delight my new grand-père. “I shall be her rival,” I exclaimed.


The dauphin, his brothers and aunts, and most particularly Madame de Noailles, froze as if a portraitist had asked them to hold a pose—cutlery and crystal goblets held aloft, halfway between the table and their lips.


Was it something I had said?

That excerpt is from BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE, the first novel in my trilogy about the life of the doomed last queen of France. In May 1770, the fourteen-year-old Marie Antoinette arrived at Versailles from her native Austria, already wed by proxy to the dauphin, or heir to the throne, the fifteen-year-old Louis Auguste, grandson to the aging, if still debonair, Louis XV.

The young dauphine’s head had been transformed quite literally, both inside and out, in order to make her more attractive to French tastes. Her head had been crammed with French history and she was still mastering the intricacies of the court etiquette laid down by the Sun King Louis XIV. But one subject left off the syllabus was the subject of the king’s voluptuous maîtresse en titre, or official mistress (an actual position in the French court), Madame du Barry. Marie Antoinette’s mother, the formidable Hapsburg empress Maria Theresa was a devout woman who took an exceptionally dim view of adultery, particularly as her late husband (to whom she had been devoted; their royal marriage had been the rare love match) had a paramour, the Princess Auersperg. Maria Theresa had not wished her daughter to learn anything about Madame du Barry’s existence, which unfortunately placed the already naïve adolescent in an inferior strategic position when it came to the machinations of the court.

Marie Antoinette had been instructed to please the French king in all things; so at first, assuming that the luscious blond comtesse du Barry was merely the sovereign’s good friend, the young dauphine treated her warmly. But she soon found out what the comtesse actually did at court, and what her background was. Coached by Mesdames, the king’s daughters, a trio of thirty-something, bitter, backbiting virgins, Marie Antoinette was determined never to countenance the comtesse again.

Jeanne Bécu (1743-93) had a string of lovers before she met the comte du Barry, a professional pimp, who groomed her for Louis XV’s bed. She was the Marilyn Monroe of her day, full-breasted, with a cloud of flaxen blond hair (that needed a lot of maintenance, as it started out brown) floating to her waist and a little-girl lisp that may or may not have been affected, as necessary, to charm important men. She had worked as a milliner’s assistant and so she knew good taste when she saw it. She’d also been groomed to converse with the great minds of the day in posh Parisian salons and to be a tolerable singer and musician—in short, the ultimate courtesan.

One spring day in 1768, Jeanne cleverly managed to be in the right place at the right time (stationing herself on a staircase at Versailles that the king would have to descend on his way to Mass) and once she caught his eye, she never let it go. Louis became smitten for life. She could not be a maîtresse en titre unless she was of noble birth and so he elevated her. He married her off to the comte du Barry’s older brother, although she was styled a comtesse. In order to be presented at court and ride in the king’s carriage one had to show noble lineage dating to the year 1400, so in 1769 the king invented a coat of arms for her. He even devised a motto (cribbed from the Irish Barrymore family’s motto), Boutez en avant—“Push forward.” And Louis was such an obliging lover that he even shaved a few years off her age.

The comtesse du Barry was soon the most influential person at court. No matter how much they disapproved of her low breeding, everyone curried favor with her in order to gain access to the king and remain in his good graces—that is, until headstrong, fourteen-year-old Marie Antoinette was finally made to understand who and what she was. Marie Antoinette’s Maman had taught her to despise adulterers and whores; she might have been little more than a child but because the queen was deceased, she was the first woman in France and would not be superseded by a harlot.

Their rivalry nearly sparked an international crisis. In 1771, Austria needed France to look the other way as she was about to join forces with Prussia and Russia to partition Poland, with each empire carving off a slice of territory. Louis XV was disinclined to be so obliging while the dauphine was pointedly snubbing his paramour in front of the entire court. But Marie Antoinette refused to budge an inch, insisting that her mother couldn’t possibly wish her to degrade herself by countenancing the king’s slut. I don’t want to give away the denouement here, but suffice it to say that both sides claimed victory.

In my early drafts of BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE I depicted Madame du Barry and her factions plotting against Marie Antoinette, but my editor wanted me to tell the entire story from Marie Antoinette’s point of view, which necessitated substantial reworking of this concept. However, readers will still learn what the comtesse thinks of her young rival, and it tickled me to be able to use du Barry’s actual words. “I for one, see nothing attractive in red hair, thick lips, a sandy complexion, and eyes without eyelashes. Had she who is thus beautiful not sprung from the House of Austria, I assure you, such attractions never would have been the subject of admiration.”

Is this the Marie Antoinette we see depicted by Kirsten Dunst and Norma Shearer? Pas de tout! The comtesse may have been insulting, but it’s the most accurate physical description we have of her rival. Madame du Barry called Marie Antoinette la petite rousse—“the little redhead,” yet another reason we know that she was not the blond she’s always depicted as in the movies and in most current books about her. In fact, Marie Antoinette was a strawberry blond and her hairdressers were perpetually fretting over how to manage her frizzy tresses.

More often than not, rivals’ common bonds outnumber their differences. Unsurprisingly both women were fashionistas, although it would take some time for Marie Antoinette to begin to care about her appearance and find her own sense of style. But the comtesse du Barry set her own trends, being the only woman at court who mixed her gemstones (wearing emeralds with sapphires and rubies, for example). The other ladies would keep to a monochrome palette. And long before Marie Antoinette began to patronize the marchande de modes Rose Bertin, Madame du Barry was one of her best customers. In fact, years before Mlle. Bertin designed the gauzy gaulles for Marie Antoinette that gave her the look of a milkmaid and caused such a scandal because people thought she was running around Versailles in her undergarments, the comtesse du Barry received people at her toilette wearing a very similar silhouette—a filmy white gown with a wide, pastel-hued silk sash. For those who follow fashion, you know that trends are cyclical!

This image is of Marie Antoinette in her gaulle, which was also became known as a chemise a la Reine.

Madame du Barry in her gaulle.

One rival is always mis-portrayed as a blonde in books and movies. The other worked hard to maintain her honeyed hue. Both would have been appalled to concede that they liked the same dress. What this pair of rivals really had most in common was something they would never recognize, being pre-Freudian: they were both “people pleasers.” Their hearts were truly generous. The Marie Antoinette that has been handed down to us by history is largely a creature of propaganda. History is written by the winners and she was the greatest victim of the French Revolution. But she was raised from the cradle to be charitable and philanthropic.

And had Marie Antoinette known what Jeanne Bécu, the comtesse du Barry, was doing during the Revolution, she might have been surprised. While the monarchs were imprisoned in the Tuileries, the former royal mistress, who twenty years earlier had little use for the teenage dauphine and her husband, worked behind the scenes to raise money for the royalist cause, risking her life to sneak across the English Channel and back and allowing monarchist plotters to meet at her home.

One woman was born in Champagne; the other was born to sip it (though to bust the myths where the cinematic Marie Antoinettes are always guzzling the bubbly, she never actually drank wine or spirits). The two women could not have begun farther apart on the social spectrum, but as far as the Revolutionaries were concerned, if they slept with a king they were one and the same. And Madame Guillotine would coolly embrace them both. Marie Antoinette was executed on October 16, 1793, climbing the scaffold with regal poise, purportedly apologizing for treading upon the executioner’s foot, and dying with dignity. On December 8, the comtesse du Barry’s execution was delayed for several hours because, kicking and shrieking, she refused to go gently into that good night.

Revolutionary artist Jacques-Louis David's intentionally cruel sketch of Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine.

The comtesse du Barry being led to the Scaffold

About the Author

Juliet Grey has extensively researched European royal history and is a particular devotee of Marie Antoinette. She and her husband divide their time between New York City and southern Vermont.


Thank you Juliet for gracing the blog today!  In honor of the release of BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE, one lucky winner will receive a copy of the book. Here are the rules for the giveaway. This giveaway will be open to not just Canadian and American readers but International readers as well! The contest runs from today through Friday,  August 12th:

1. Leave your name and email in the comments. Email is very important so that I can contact you for your address.
2. If you are not a follower and become one, you get an extra entry
3. If you tweet about the giveaway, you get an extra entry.


Good luck

Scandalous Book Review: Tobacco Wars

Title:  Tobacco Wars
Author:  Paul Seesequasis
Paperback: 113 pages

Publisher: Quattro Books (October 2010)
Language: English

Synopsis:
 
Tobacco Wars is a novella about the meeting of two worlds. Set in the early 17th century, it follows the mythical and rollicking adventures of Pocahontas and playwright Ben Jonson - from the inns, alleyways and royal courts of London to pirates, perilous crossings and hostile warriors in the new world. And as worlds are turned upside down and irrevocably altered - a new commodity - tobacco, intoxicates the old world at the same time as an 'Indian princess' undertakes her own age of exploration.


About the Author

Paul Seesequasis is a writer and journalist. He was the founding editor of the award-winning Aboriginal Voices magazine, recipient of a MacLean-Hunter journalist award, a broadcaster and writer. His short stories and feature writings have been published in Canada and abroad. Tobacco Wars is his first novella.

My thoughts:  This review is part of TLC's book tour for Tobacco Wars.  When I read that the book featured Pocahontas as a character, I knew that I wanted to review it. This novella is not straight historical fiction, it is more of a mythical look at what might have happened when Pocahontas went to England. The story is entwined with another story, that of Bear Woman which at first seems like another myth but at one point seems to be set in the contemporary world.  While I found the writing compelling in the novella, it really wasn't my cup of tea. At times I found the narrative a bit confusing, and Pocahontas came across, at least to me, as nothing more than a cipher.  I knew no more about her than I did after watching the Disney cartoon movie or Terrence Malick's film that came out several years ago.  Perhaps, she will always be unknowable but while that might be fine on film, it makes it hard to sympathize with the character. I found the descriptions and the story of Tobacco itself to be a more compelling story that of Pocahontas.

For a historical fiction fan, the book is a bit of a disappointment.  For those readers who are might be more lovers of literary fiction, this book is definitely up your alley.

Guest Post: Colin Falconer on Cleopatra

Scandalous Women is honored to have a guest post by noted historical fiction auhor Colin Falconer today on the blog talking about one of my favorite subjects Cleopatra. Colin Falconer has been published widely in the UK, US and Europe and his books have been translated into seventeen languages.  

His novel about Cleopatra WHEN WE WERE GODS, is now re-released on Kindle US, Kindle UK and for all other formats on Smashwords for $2.99. " ... this fresh take on one of history's leading ladies is smoothly written, slickly couching ancient history in the contemporary rhetoric of female empowerment ..." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

See more at http://www.colinfalconer.net/  You can also read more at his blog: http://www.colinfalconer.net/the-man-with-the-past.html or follow him on Twitter. http://twitter.com/#!/colin_falconer

Without further ado, I give you Colin Falconer!

If it wasn’t all true, it would be hard to believe: thirty years before Jesus, an eighteen year old princess tries to take over the world? Outrageous. But that's what happened.

She was Queen Cleopatra the Seventh but really - there is only one. She has been variously portrayed as virtuous suicide, exuberant lover, professional courtesan, scheming manipulator, and femme fatale. Was she Shakespeare’s cruel and lazy siren, George Bernard Shaw’s man-eater or Elizabeth Taylor’s alluring beauty?

Hollywood has never had any doubts. In the thirties Cecil B de Mille offered the role to Claudette Colbert with the words: "How would you like to play the wickedest woman in history?"

Was she history's wickedest woman? She was certainly a woman with cojones. She took on Roman military and political power at the apogee of its power. If she had succeeded – and she very nearly did – the world today might look a very different place. God might really be a woman - called Isis.

It is true that she scandalized the Roman world, but much of what was said about her at the time was mostly misinformation used by her enemy, Augustus, to rally his fellow Romans against her. He used her to turn the tables on Anthony, who was his rival for power in Rome, leaking rumours about her bathing in asses’ milk and having sex with her slaves in order to make Anthony look ridiculous. And it worked; worked so well in fact that his propaganda still informs most popular opinion about her, even today.

She was certainly not the sexual virago of legend. She did not copulate with crocodiles, (it's dangerous and probably not that much fun) or with her slaves (beneath her dignity). In fact, it seems she only slept with two men all her life, and both of them were husbands. Well, not her husbands, admittedly - but in fairness, she did marry them later.

The real Cleopatra was a consummate political animal, a woman far ahead of her time; she had the marketing acumen of Lady Gaga, the ruthlessness of Margaret Thatcher and the charm of Lady Diana. Extraordinary.

Yet we don't really know what she looked like. But surely, you say – she looked like Elizabeth Taylor? With a bob, and a beauty spot, reclining on an antique sunbed?

Well, no.

Some historians speculate that Cleopatra may have even been blonde. As she was part Macedonian, there's a fair chance, so to speak. I toyed with the idea of having Cleopatra as a blonde in WHEN WE WERE GODS, to show that I had done my research and to distance myself from the movie. (Also so that Scarlett Johanssen could play the role in my film. Or, at least, in my fantasies.) But my publisher said to me: you can't do that. (Have a blonde Cleopatra, not have fantasies about Scarlett Johanssen.) They said: Cleopatra is now far too deeply ingrained in our consciousness as a bobbed brunette, it will jar in a reader's imagination.

She may not even have been that beautiful. There are few existing likenesses of her extant. (A coin from the period shows her in profile, and it’s a pretty terrifying image too, not unlike Mike Tyson.) There are only two ambiguous accounts from her contemporaries; Plutarch was at pains to describe her 'pleasing personality' - which is damning with faint praise - and only Cassius Dio lauded her looks, but did he say that because he had to?

And anyway, does it really matter? In the context of her story it was her spirit not her looks that really mattered. Despite overwhelming odds, she almost became ruler of the entire western world using her intelligence and her daring. In the end she scandalized the Romans not because of her sexual conquests but because a woman almost beat them at their own game. She was truly one of the most extraordinary women in history.

Thank you again Colin for stopping by Scandalous Women!

August Books of the Month: Effie Gray Ruskin Millais

I am a huge fan of the Pre-Raphaelite painters. I even bought the BBC miniseries Desperate Romantics (which isn't very good although Tom Hollander is wonderful as John Ruskin). So I was squealing like a fan girl when I discovered there were two new non-fiction books about the 19th century love triangle between Effie Gray, John Ruskin and the painter John Everett Millais. I've written about the scandal before here. There is also a new move that is coming out in 2012 starring Emma Thompson.

Our first book is Effie - A Victorian Scandal by Merryn Williams. I recently read a wonderful article by the author Merryn Williams in the summer 2011 issue of Herstoria Magazine. The book unfortunately hasn't been published in the States but it is available through Book Depository and Amazon.co.uk.

Victorian scandals don't come much more intimate and revealing than a wife seeking an annulment from her famous husband because their marriage has not been consummated. When Effie Ruskin sought escape from her desperately unhappy life with art critic John Ruskin, she shattered the Victorian illusion of the perfect marriage. That she could then dare to hope for respectability and even happiness as the wife of artist John Everett Millais fuelled a scandal that was to reverberate around Victorian society for years to come.



Ruskin, Millais and Effie were exposed to the kind of gossip today's wannabe celebrities can only dream of. Effie was regarded as mentally ill, immoral and certainly tainted - Queen Victoria initially refused to receive her - while Ruskin was seen either as noble and virtuous or deranged and impotent. Ruskin was repelled by Effie's body; Millais used her as a model in some of his greatest paintings. Millais went on to become one of Britain s most popular painters, but the stigma of his wife's past would never be forgotten.


From the heart of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood comes a story as fascinating today as it was shocking in the 1850s.

The second book just came out in June 2011 in the U.S. It's called Effie:  The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, John Ruskin and John Everett Millais. If I'm not mistaken, it features one of Millais' best paintings, THE ORDER OF RELEASE on the cover. You can purchase this book at Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.com

Effie Gray, a beautiful and intelligent young socialite, rattled the foundations of England's Victorian age. Married at nineteen to John Ruskin, the leading art critic of the time, she found herself trapped in a loveless, unconsummated union after Ruskin rejected her on their wedding night. On a trip to Scotland she met John Everett Millais, Ruskin's protégé, and fell passionately in love with him. In a daring act, Effie left Ruskin, had their marriage annulled and entered into a long, happy marriage with Millais. Suzanne Fagence Cooper has gained exclusive access to Effie's previously unseen letters and diaries to tell the complete story of this scandalous love triangle. In Cooper's hands, this passionate love story also becomes an important new look at the work of both Ruskin and Millais with Effie emerging as a key figure in their artistic development. Effie is a heartbreakingly beautiful book about three lives passionately entwined with some of the greatest paintings of the pre-Raphaelite period.

I can't wait to read both of these books. I have Cooper's on my TBR pile by my bed (which I'm afraid is going to topple over on me in the middle of the night).