Fraser, Antonia. Marie Antoinette; the journey.

Random House, Anchor. 511p. illus. notes. bibliog. index. c2001. 0-385-48949-8. $16.95.

Vivid prose and exhaustive research make memorable Fraser's biography of the doomed Austrian Archduchesse Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna, known as Antoine to her family and Marie Antoinette to the ages. The 15th child of Marie Theresa, Queen-Empress of Austria, and the youngest of eight sisters, all sharing the name Maria, little Antoine was to make a long and tragic journey from sheltered and ill-tutored child to 14-year-old wife of French Dauphin Louis Auguste, the future Louis XVI, to mother, to reviled and maligned queen, to a prematurely aged woman of 38, bound and shorn, being carted to the guillotine.

Fraser dispels some of the more flagrant calumnies directed at the queen, such as her involvement in the affair of the Diamond Necklace. and her purported callous "let them eat cake" statement, which story, Fraser points out, was first told about the Spanish princess who married Louis IV some 100 years earlier. She makes a convincing case for Marie Antoinette's designation by the press, the politicians and Court intrigue as scapegoat not only for the ills of an economically troubled nation, but for the entire French Revolution as well. There are numerous illustrations, both b/w and color plates, genealogical charts, an abridged list of sources (which nevertheless runs to 12 pages), and an exhaustive index. Literally hundreds of books have been written about Marie Antoinette, and Fraser's contribution is a relevant, compassionate and accessible portrait of the woman. A solid as well as entertaining read. E.B. Boatner, Writer, Twin Cities MN