Play Audiobook Sample
Marie Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(3.01) - 681 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
In December 1795, on the midnight stroke of her seventeenth birthday, Marie-Thérèse, the only surviving child of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, fled Paris’s notorious Temple Prison. Kept in solitary confinement after her parents’ brutal execution during the Terror, she had been unaware of the fate of her family, save the cries she heard of her young brother being tortured in an adjacent cell. She emerged to an uncertain future: an orphan, exile, and focus of political plots and marriage schemes of the crowned heads of Europe. Throughout, she remained stubbornly loyal to France and to the Bourbon dynasty of which she was part. However, the horrors she had witnessed and been a victim to would haunt her for the rest of her life. Many believe to this day that the traumatized princess was switched with her “half-sister” and spirited away to live as “the Dark Countess,” leaving the impostor to play her role on the political stage of Europe. Now, two hundred years later, using handwriting samples, DNA testing, and a cache of Bourbon family letters, Susan Nagel finally solves this mystery. Nagel tells a remarkable story of an astonishing woman, from her birth, to her upbringing by doting parents, through to Revolution, imprisonment, exile, Restoration, and, finally, her reincarnation as saint and matriarch.
Download and start listening now!
"Although this book was well-researched in essence, the writing is plodding and slow and lacks any of sort of spontaneity or enthusiasm. The author seems so intent on recounting the long history of Marie-Therese's life that she overlooks the need to analyze the character of her subject, to draw her out. Thus Marie Therese appears intolerably priggish and a hopelessly dull subject, despite her unique birth and place in history. Give it a read if this period of history or the history of royals interests you, otherwise you will be terribly bored."
— Tiffany2828 (4 out of 5 stars)
Marie Therese, Child of Terror Listener Reviews
-
" I got halfway through the book, to the color plates and the political fits thrown about Madame Royal's marriage, and lost interest. Nothing against the writing, which I enjoyed in the earlier chapters. I just had other things I wanted to read more, so I decided not to renew the book. "
— Pancha, 1/15/2014 -
" This is a sympathetic and interesting biography of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI's daughter, Marie-Therese, who survived her parents' execution and time in the Temple prison (her brother the Dauphin died) to be traded to her Habsburg Austrian relatives and eventually married to her first cousin and returned to France with the Bourbon restoration. Because of Salic law in France, she couldn't inherit the throne, and was Queen, technically for 20 minutes between the abdication of Charles X and the subsequent signature of his son Angouleme. She then survived the deposition of the Bourbons AND the Orleans monarchies as an exile in Edinburgh and Prague, dying in 1851 on the eve of the Third Empire. "
— Margaret, 1/13/2014 -
" I LOVED this book!! It didn't feel like a boring documentary or anything. It was extremely informative and I learned a lot that helped bolster what knowledge I did have on the French Revolution and all that fun jazz!! It was a little long, but a book should never be spurned because of its length!!! Everyone should read this!! "
— MariaFernanda, 1/8/2014 -
" I couldn't stand this book enough to finish it and that's rare for me. Normally, I'll at least push through. Ugh is all I have to say. "
— Cheryl, 1/2/2014 -
" Being a massive Marie Antoinette fan I particularly liked reading the first half of this book (well, not liked liked obviously). The second half of the book I quite enjoyed also as I did not know much about the life of Marie Therese post Temple Prison. Recommended read. "
— Faye, 12/20/2013 -
" I recently re-read this book and remembered that I did not like it after my first reading. Nagel spends unnecessary time on the "Dark Countess" which pretty much has nothing to do with Marie Therese. In fact, if you read this after Antonia Fraser's excellent "Marie Antoinette: A Journey" you will realize that Nagel makes many baseless claims. In the hands of a better researcher Marie Therese's story would have been well worth reading. "
— Nadine, 12/6/2013 -
" Excellent story. Very tragic life of Marie Antoinette's Daughter, the only one to survive the Terror. "
— Anne, 11/28/2013 -
" Fascinating account of Marie Antoinette's only surviving child who lives into old age. "
— Melissa, 11/21/2013 -
" I never knew the sad, sad story of the children of Marie Antoinette until I read this book. Although tragic, this book was a wonderful read. The strong spirit of Marie-Therese is the stuff movies are made of. There should be more stories of this heroic woman "
— Heidi, 11/19/2013 -
" this is a segment of history i didn't know much about. she was fascinating and tragic. "
— Sheri, 10/26/2013 -
" Excellent account of Marie-Therese's life. "
— Angela, 8/17/2013 -
" I'm finding this book interesting but limited. It gives lots of details but hasn't been able to give me a true picture of Marie Therese, who she was, it is more about where she was and what she did there. "
— Alie, 8/16/2013 -
" The bummer of historic biographies: nobody makes it out alive. "
— Sean, 6/11/2013 -
" Read like a history book but very interesting. "
— Sue, 4/28/2013 -
" A very interesting and different perspective on the French Revolution and its aftermath. And rather readable for history. "
— Sarah, 2/9/2012 -
" This was a good book about the last of the Burbons. "
— Jonathan, 11/24/2011 -
" The fate of the daughter of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI "
— Lois, 5/7/2011 -
" Being a massive Marie Antoinette fan I particularly liked reading the first half of this book (well, not liked liked obviously). The second half of the book I quite enjoyed also as I did not know much about the life of Marie Therese post Temple Prison. Recommended read. "
— Faye, 12/13/2010 -
" I never knew the sad, sad story of the children of Marie Antoinette until I read this book. Although tragic, this book was a wonderful read. The strong spirit of Marie-Therese is the stuff movies are made of. There should be more stories of this heroic woman "
— Heidi, 9/12/2010 -
" I loved learning about her. Marie-Therese had the most amazing life I have ever read about. "
— Yvonne, 7/19/2010 -
" pretty good... It's kind of a 2.5 for me though... it took me a long time to get through-- i'm not big on biographies "
— Emazn, 4/15/2010 -
" Excellent story. Very tragic life of Marie Antoinette's Daughter, the only one to survive the Terror. "
— Anne, 6/25/2009 -
" This was a good book about the last of the Burbons. "
— Jonathan, 5/29/2009 -
" A well detailed book but not very much new information. I am still fascinated by the story! "
— Kazia, 5/29/2009 -
" Read as a continuation of the Marie Antoinette story... history I was not at all familiar with. "
— Delta, 4/21/2009 -
" I got halfway through the book, to the color plates and the political fits thrown about Madame Royal's marriage, and lost interest. Nothing against the writing, which I enjoyed in the earlier chapters. I just had other things I wanted to read more, so I decided not to renew the book. "
— Pancha, 3/4/2009 -
" I'm finding this book interesting but limited. It gives lots of details but hasn't been able to give me a true picture of Marie Therese, who she was, it is more about where she was and what she did there. "
— Alie, 1/9/2009
About Susan Nagel
Susan Nagel is the author of Marie-Therese, Child of Terror and Mistress of the Elgin Marbles, as well as a critically acclaimed book on the novels of Jean Giraudoux. She has written for the stage and screen and for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Town and Country. For many years, she was a professor in the humanities department at Marymount Manhattan College.
About Rosalyn Landor
Rosalyn Landor is an English-born television, theater, and multiple-award-winning audiobook narrator. Her television credits include Love in a Cold Climate, Rumpole of the Bailey, Sherlock Holmes, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. She has won numerous Audie awards and AudioFile magazine Earphones awards.