Description:
This book challenges common perceptions of Marie Antoinette, appraising the last Queen of France's role in relation to the events of French Revolution through an original analysis of contemporary heritage practices and visitor perceptions at her former home, the Petit Trianon.
Review Quotes:
"Marie-Antoinette has become a 'commodity' for audiences the world over, and the restored Petit Trianon floods with visitors. This fine book by Denise Maior-Barron brings a completely new, multidisciplinary perspective, omitting none of the historical or socio-political aspects of the Queen's mythology. The confrontation set out by the author between the work of historians and visitor perceptions will undoubtedly provoke passionate debate, just as it will reveal the deep gap between myth and objective research."
Jérémie Benoit, Chief Curator, Petit Trianon, France
"Denise Maior-Barron cleverly unveils the many ways Marie Antoinette was and is perceived. Her well-researched book provides new insights about interactions within the heritage process and industry, between politics, popular culture and tourism, which reveal how history, with help from artificial memories, is often manipulated, misinterpreted and misunderstood. In so doing, she challenges the orthodoxy of much historical analysis that seeks only one truth in the past."
John Barnes, Chief Executive, Historic Royal Palaces, UK
"'Not just a monograph on two topics of apparently perennial public interest, Marie Antoinette and the Petit Trianon, but a fascinating bran tub of related themes: historical revision, art and architectural history, political manipulation, the falsifications of mass media promotion and so it goes on.'
Martin Foley, Director, El Porvenir, Casa Museo Feliciano Béjar, Mexico