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Ú Abundance ☆ Sena Jeter Naslund


  • Title: Abundance
  • Author: Sena Jeter Naslund
  • ISBN: 9780060825393
  • Page: 305
  • Format: Hardcover

    • Like everyone, I am born naked With this opening line of Naslund s compelling new novel, a very human Marie Antoinette invites readers to live her story as she herself experiences it From the lush gardens of Versailles to the lights and gaiety of Paris, the verdant countryside of France, and finally the stark and terrifying isolation of a prison cell, the young queen Like everyone, I am born naked With this opening line of Naslund s compelling new novel, a very human Marie Antoinette invites readers to live her story as she herself experiences it From the lush gardens of Versailles to the lights and gaiety of Paris, the verdant countryside of France, and finally the stark and terrifying isolation of a prison cell, the young queen s life is joyful, poignant, and harrowing by turns As her world of unprecedented royal splendor crumbles, the charming Marie Antoinette matures into a heroine of inspiring stature, one whose nobility arises not from the circumstance of her birth but from her courageous spirit.Marie Antoinette was a child of fourteen when her mother, the Empress of Austria, arranged for her to leave her family and her country to become the wife of the fifteen year old Dauphin, the future King of France Coming of age in the most public of arenas, the young queen embraces her new family and the French people, and she is embraced in return Eager to be a good wife and strong queen, she shows her new husband nothing but love and encouragement, though he repeatedly fails to consummate their marriage and in doing so, fails to give her the thing she and the people of France desires most a child and an heir to the throne.Deeply disappointed and isolated in her own intimate circle apart from the social life of the court, the queen allows herself to remain ignorant of the
    Sena Jeter Naslund
    Sena Jeter Naslund is the New York Times best selling author of five novels, including Ahab s Wife 1999 and Abundance A Novel of Marie Antoinette HarperCollins, 2006 She is currently Distinguished Teaching Professor and Writer in Residence at the University of Louisville and program director of the Spalding University brief residency Master in Fine Arts in Writing Recipient of the Harper Lee Award and the Southeastern Library Association Fiction Award, she is co founder of The Louisville Review and the Fleur de Lis Press She lives in Louisville, Kentucky.


    Commentaires:

    BAM The Bibliomaniac
    We begin at the age of 14, the innocence and exuberance of the first days of entering France Her affection and friendship are immediate for her husband, Louis, the dauphin Days are spent in splendor hunting, shopping, gossiping, etc There seems to be nothing serious occurring in her life until the death of the current king, Louis XV, creating her husband the reigning monarch and herself queen But even then finances are far from her mind This is the point when I realize that Jutland had decided t [...]
    Chrissie
    With this book I got into the head of Marie Antoinette The author did all the research and based on the known facts delivered what she thought was going on in Marie Antoinette s head She convinced me At the end of the book is a list of source material, A Brief Timeline of Events and an interesting conversation with the author Don t skip this it is really good.The historical facts are clearly presented You follow Marie from her coming to France as a na ve fourteen year old to her death at the gui [...]
    Marin
    This was a very thin book interesting, but thin.And I don t mean it was a slim volume of delicate prose It was watery and lacked important detail and missed the ambition of Naslund s Ahab s Wife With so many interesting and picturesque moments during the pre French Revolution years, with all the excess and religious upheaval and all the parallels and differences betwixt the American and French Revolutions, Naslund chose to focus on Marie Antoinette s wardrobe and constant remodeling of various e [...]
    Audrey
    Marie Antoinette has intrigued me for years and I have read countless books about her, and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed this one Told in diary form, this book provides a rare, intimate insight into the life of the Queen her most private thoughts and feelings from the moment she steps onto French land at the young age of fourteen, to the moment she meets her tragic fate Although it is fiction, it s clear that the author did her homework and based much of what she wrote on actual documentations [...]
    Sandra
    I ve just begun this book, and contrary to some reviews I love the measured voice It s beautifully written, beautifully observed I lovedAhab s Wife, as well, andAbundance has that same remarkable quality of pulling you gently into another world.Sena Jeter Naslund is a wonderful writer.
    Kate
    Drawing from the same perspectival material as Sofia Coppola s 2006 film, this treatment of Marie Antoinette s life paints a sympathetic picture of France s girl queen Unfortunately, it s also a boring one Since Naslund s take is almost identical to Coppola s sometimes eerily so , I recommend skipping the 600 page snoozefest and going with the two hour movie, which at least features pretty dresses and New Wave tunes.
    Jescee Bennett
    Wow This book was a struggle for me At first I hated it, because i didn t like the author s style in writing the story Once I got used to it, it all fell into place This story really was good It s a story about Marie Antoinette and her life as the queen of France until the French Revolution Throughout the book I felt sorry for her and how misunderstood she was, not only by the people of France, but throughout history I gained a new respect for her and Louis XVI This is definitely a period of his [...]
    Letitia
    While astutely researched and poetically written, this basic issue with this book is that hardly anything happens in it 600 pages Though highly sympathetic to Marie Antoinette, it failed to endear me to her throughout the course of the novel, and I was relieved upon her final beheading that I had, at least, finished this ponderous and meandering portrayal of a far exotic and scandalous woman than is to be found anywhere in the pages of Abundance.
    spooky
    this book is so poorly written it makes me want to puke i got to page five and hurled it across the room with 600 pages to it s name, it made a loud noise the opening sequence is of the famous handover of marie to her new party she describes her nipples in detail, her pubescent body dude, she s 14 i am not about hearing this and for no reason i feel free to criticise naslund s style because i read ahab s wife and was equally offended that s right offended in ahab s wife naslund makes metaphors o [...]
    Jane
    This book was difficult in the beginning Since it is written as spoken by Marie Antoinette it was filled with statements starting with I At first it was quite redundant and then I began to realize it was a brilliant way to tell her story a self centered way The author does a wonderful job telling how Marie s life was very sheltered and lavish She portrays Marie as an innocent naive young girl going from her very restricted and sheltered environment as a child, to meeting her new country and husb [...]
    Amy
    I liked this book a lot less than I was expecting to I had read and loved Ahab s Wife and Four Spirits, so I knew I liked the author But it was kind of like getting stuck talking to someone boring at a party.The book is told in the first person from Marie Antoinette s point of view I don t know if it was Naslund s goal to make her likable or sympathetic, but she came off as self centered, petty, and oblivious, even if as Naslund points out in the forward she didn t actually say Let them eat cake [...]
    Gretchen
    This book was ok It was ok in the beginning, ok in the middle, and ok at the end Honestly, nothing about this book really stood out to me It was interesting learning about the time period and sort of about the lifestyle of the court, but I didn t find the story as it was written to be particularly moving In the beginning of the book, Marie Antoinette is portrayed as this naive, innocent girl whom everyone loves By the end she is a naive woman who everyone hates I guess I can see how it would se [...]
    Michelle
    An utterly delicious and satisfying read Of course, given the book is about Marie Antoinette, we all know how it ends But I really loved the buildup This book is long as it takes us from when she first goes to France at 14 all the way up to her death But it was a very fast read Some of the viewpoints feel immature childish but it s written from her POV so I think it s intentional given how young she was when this all began to unfold There was a lot I didn t know about her and her marriage, so th [...]
    Laura
    Just arrived from US trough BM.It took me some time to go through the plot of this book The beginning was a little boring since Antoinette s story was interlaced quite a lot with her mother s letters The plot flows naturally after Marie Therese death Since I ve already read Antonia Fraser s book, both stories are complementary in the sense that in Fraser s story, Antoinette biography is ended by the Royal family escape to Varennes and in Naslund s her prison and execution is described in detail [...]
    Npldirector
    An excellent book, I recommend it highly The author does a marvelous job telling the story from the perspective of Marie Antoinette herself, beginning with the day that she leaves her home in Austria as a very young teenager.
    julianne
    Firstly the picture of the cover of the book does it no justice, it s truly beautiful and textured so that it feels wonderful in the hand The author is sympathetic to Marie Antoinette even through the period of her worse excesses, this was an okay read The depth of research is impressive, but ultimately we learn nothing new At times the voice of Marie Antoinette seemed a little too vapid, too self centred Obviously we all know how the story ends but I admit to being bored in the last third of th [...]
    Elizabeth Bowman
    Maravillosa Es la primera palabra que se me viene a los labios al pensar en esta novela.Siempre he gustado mucho de las biograf as de personajes cuyas vidas me resultan interesantes, y he le do unas cuantas, pero ninguna como en este caso novelada y contada en primera persona por Marie Antoinette Quiz s por este hecho la he disfrutado tant simo, aparte de por tantas cosas de la historia, los personajes y de la sociedad francesa de la poca que he aprendido Todo ha sido una maravillosa sorpresa, u [...]
    FlibBityFLooB
    This was a novel about the life of Marie Antoinette from the time she arrived in France as the fourteen year old Austrian betrothed to the Dauphin, to her death by guillotine after being found guilty of high treason during the French Revolution in 1793 For those curious, this is definitely in the historical fiction genre, not historical romance French history has always fascinated me I visited both Versailles and the Conciergerie prison in the 1990s while in France, and it s fun for me to try to [...]
    JG (The Introverted Reader)
    What I knew about Marie Antoinette before reading this book spoilers ahead if you don t know anything at all about her She was married to Louis XVI, she said Let them eat cake, she was queen during the French Revolution, and possible spoiler here she was beheaded That was it Three out of four isn t bad She never actually said Let them eat cake According to the author, it was the wife of Louis XIV, two generations earlier, who said that So, if you ever win tons of money on Jeopardy for knowing th [...]
    Florinda
    At the age of fourteen, Princess Maria Antonia of Austria was sent to France to be married to the fifteen year old Dauphin crown prince Louis Auguste, thus forging an alliance between their countries and re christening her as the French Dauphine, Marie Antoinette Such alliances are cemented by producing heirs, but it takes several years and ascension to the throne before this marriage is consummated successfully, and a second pregnancy before a prince is born The queen to be diverts herself with [...]
    Noran Miss Pumkin
    So far, lovely reader very detailed like a dairy 15 Cds was far cheaper than the book via ebay.June 2nd, 2011 I feel the book would have rated 3 stars, but he lovely reader, via the BBC makes this love tale of Marie Annoinette a pleasure and a delight to listen to The florid details of the author, while tiresome when reading, come alive with the audio I came see the palaces and gardens so easily I see how Marie started early on causing her later demise The history is most accurate, and I have go [...]
    Kayte Korwitts
    Even if I hadn t read the author bio, I definitely recognized the power of the poet in this novel There were several points throughout my reading of this where I stopped after a sentence and repeated it aloud to myself The prose is glitteringly gorgeous and positively bleeds romance Naslund s Antoinette is a passive, crystalline creature whose unfailing adherence to etiquette and good manners speaks to the times she lived in than to the essence of her character She s distant although empathetic [...]
    Kriste
    Not the typical tale of Marie Antoinette Did you know she didn t actually say let them eat cake I was shocked that s all I really knew about Marie Antoinette well, and the bit about the guillotine This author portrays her as a kind, loving, compassionate queen, born to love and lead, ultimately giving all for France I found this book fascinating, than a little disturbing in a way I can t completely describe and actually a page turner, just as the cover promised.
    Jeff Dawson
    Never gained my attention.A book shouldn t be a labor to read, perhaps a labor of love to write I ve tried multiple times to pick it up and forge ahead, but it was a fruitless pursuit It s time to move forward and let this one settle in the unfinished pile.
    Milliebot
    This is one of those books that I enjoyed while reading, but have almost nothing to say about afterward The writing was good, but there was nothing standout that I feel I need to talk about If you enjoy reading about Marie Antionette as I do then you ll likely find this engaging It wasn t particularly moving, but it did paint an interesting picture of the Queen She is spoiled and spends vast amounts of money, yet considers herself economical and did seem to truly care for the people of her count [...]
    Nicole
    To say that I disliked the first half of this book would be understatement I trudged through it from time to time, finding that I severely disliked the queen and disgusted at how the court lived while the commoners of the country was scraping by I shuddered at their ignorance, perhaps because I know how it ends Once things started to fall apart around them, I found myself drawn in to the story, like a horror movie where you know that no one will make it to the end And therein I saw with fresh ey [...]
    Marcia Esser
    This was such an amazing book Full of rich detail and history Marie Antoinette is such a tragic heroine This book was beautifully descriptive I heartily recommend it
    Olivia
    From the beginning, Abundance gives a very personal view into the life of Marie Antoinette, an Austrian princess who was forced to forget the country and life that she knew and loved in order to marry the French dauphin Louis XVI, the future king of France She leads a life of frivolity, joy, and excess as well as one of slander, hatred, and heartbreak The novel starts off slowly, I will admit, and drags on for the pages leading up to Marie Antoinette s marriage, which is filled with formalities [...]
    Alejandra
    Esta historia la he disfrutado y la he sufrido mucho Quiz no sea lo mejor ni lo m s veraz escrito sobre la vida de Mar a Antonieta, pero es una buena lectura que te recuerda que ella tambi n fue humana y que tuvo muchos errores, si, pero tambi n buscaba lo mejor para su pueblo y para su familia.
    Tisha
    I quite enjoyed this story Abundance is told from the perspective of Marie herself Her personality is clear, as is that of the Dauphin so I really got to know the characters I didn t feel bogged down with details, yet was able to easily picture the settings and the times.Naslund tells her story from the day she leaves Austria to become the Dauphine at age 14 to her death It is fascinating seeing her change from a young noble girl a dauphine a queen Her personality changes so much.d the way she j [...]
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