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Versailles by Tony Spawforth

Versailles

A Biography of a Palace

Tony Spawforth

St. Martin's Press · Print & ebook · March 16, 2010

Called "fast-paced" (Kirkus Reviews) and "highly engrossing" (Publishers Weekly), this is the behind-the-scenes story of the world's most famous palace.

French History18th-Century HistoryBaroque & Rococo Architecturehistory
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Who it’s for
Read Versailles as more than royal theater: a home, seat of power, and changing national symbol.
Themes
Palace history and restoration, Court intrigue and status anxiety, Versailles in French national identity
Pacing
Fast

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For younger readers: Who Was Marie Antoinette?, The Bad Queen, Stephen Biesty's Cross-sections Castle

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About this book

Called "fast-paced" (Kirkus Reviews) and "highly engrossing" (Publishers Weekly), this is the behind-the-scenes story of the world's most famous palace. The story of Versailles is one of high historical drama mixed with the high camp and glamour of the European courts, all in an iconic home for the French arts. The palace itself has been radically altered since 1789.

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Versailles sets out to rediscover what is now a vanished world: a great center of power and, for thousands, a home both grand and squalid. Using the latest historical research, Spawforth offers the first full account of Versailles in English in over thirty years. He probes the conventional picture of this "perpetual house party" and gives full weight to the darker side: not just the mounting discomfort of the aging palace but also the intrigue and status anxiety of its aristocrats, as well as the changing place of Versailles in France's national identity since 1789. Many books have told the stories of the royals and artists living in Versailles, but this is the first to turn its focus on the palace itself—from architecture to politics to scandal to restoration.

A Palace in Focus

Read Versailles as more than royal theater: a home, seat of power, and changing national symbol.

Come here for

  • The glamour and high camp of European courts, with the palace itself at center
  • Architecture, politics, scandal, and restoration in one layered history

Expect

  • A closer look at aristocratic intrigue and status anxiety
  • The grandeur—and discomfort—of a palace that housed thousands

Where it sits

French History80%
Baroque & Rococo Architecture53%
18th-Century History34%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Baroque & Rococo Architecture
  • French History
Authors
Tony Spawforth
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Published
March 16, 2010
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Palace history and restoration · Court intrigue and status anxiety · Versailles in French national identity
Reading lane
Baroque & Rococo Architecture