Dispatch from the Road to Oblivion

Farewell, My Queen by Chantal Thomas (Touchstone, $14.00 233 pp. Trade Paperback)

Versailles July 13-15 1789. On the eve of the fall of the Bastille, young Agathe-Sidonie, whose job it is to read aloud to Queen Marie Antoinette, is inside the royal palace as the French Revolution sparks and takes hold.

In impressionistic prose flashes akin to bursts of fireworks, this fictional account of the events in the palace at the start of the revolution is both illuminating and frustrating. The young protagonist is buffeted along by the events which she doesn’t understand, and she is not privy to things we would like to see because of her marginal position at court. Her position limits whats we see and what we are told, and her inability to make sense of events make the story somewhat insubstantial. What she does see is disturbing as her recollections are personal, not political.

Intimate behind-the-scenes period detail sets the tone for a sparkling, and doomed court who receives the news of the fall of the Bastille prison with a skepticism that crystallizes into fear and dread. It’s hard not to yell “Run!!” while reading of now fearful, now doubtful aristocrats immobilized by the threat of their world crumbling around them. Their ritualistic “Perfect Day” schedule crumbles as fear of the unknown turns into an all-night vigil, during which rumors and vague (they thought) threats are considered and tossed aside, and the privileged try to decide whether or not to run into the night and leave their King and Queen to the mob.

Particularly poignant is Agathe-Sidonie, whose youth and recent arrival at court makes it impossible for her to know what to make of the rumors and threats. Her service to the Queen makes her one of the only ones in the palace privy to Marie-Antoinette’s aborted flight from Versaille, which we know has doomed her.

The depiction of the King’s continued denial of the gravity (or existence) of the crisis is chilling. The formal lunch scene during which the servant places a dead rat on in front of the King feels as emblematic and authentic as the “Let them eat cake,” allegation.

Agathe-Sidonie looks back over the events of those three chaotic days in Versaille with sadness and longing for her beloved Queen.