Marie-Antoinette cover art

Marie-Antoinette

The Making of a French Queen

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Marie-Antoinette

By: John Hardman
Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
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About this listen

A new look which fundamentally overturns our understanding of this famously "out of touch" queen

Who was the real Marie-Antoinette? She was mistrusted and reviled in her own time, and today she is portrayed as a lightweight incapable of understanding the events that engulfed her. In this new account, John Hardman redresses the balance and sheds fresh light on Marie-Antoinette's story.

Hardman shows how Marie-Antoinette played a significant but misunderstood role in the crisis of the monarchy. Drawing on new sources, he describes how, from the outset, Marie-Antoinette refused to prioritize the aggressive foreign policy of her mother, Maria-Theresa, bravely took over the helm from Louis XVI after the collapse of his morale, and, when revolution broke out, listened to the Third Estate and worked closely with repentant radicals to give the constitutional monarchy a fighting chance. For the first time, Hardman demonstrates exactly what influence Marie-Antoinette had and when and how she exerted it.

©2019 John Hardman (P)2019 Tantor 18th Century Europe France Modern Monarchy Politicians Politics & Activism Royalty French Revolution

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So disappointed by the reader. Was really looking forward to listening to this but found Jonathan Crowley’s narration unbearable. For a start, a professional reader who consistently pronounces the word ‘a’ as ‘A’ should know better or at least should have been corrected by a producer. I do wonder if Audible just churn books out without a producer or director on board. This should have been fascinating given that it sheds new light on the French monarchy during the revolution, but Crpwley fails to make it so. There are no changes of pace, no sense of insight, no real engagement with the text and it’s incredibly boring as a result. Really disappointed to have wasted a credit on this.

Dreadful Narration

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Sorry but I gave up listening about 1/3 of the way in the narration just didn’t keep me engaged very boring

Boring-gave up

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Unfortunately the narrator can’t even pronounce the name of the protagonist, let alone any other character.

Whoopsie

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As another reviewer has already noted, the narration of this book is quite awful. It lacks any performance and is so full of mispronunciations that it spoils the listening experience. The audio quality is also very poor. John Hardman's book is interesting and important and it deserves much better treatment than this.

Ruined by rubbish narration

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