La Grande Mademoiselle
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Fair - Rubbed edges and bumping on spine and corners
At the glittering and treacherous heart of the French court stands Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orléans, Duchesse de Montpensier — known to history as La Grande Mademoiselle — one of the most extraordinary women of the seventeenth century, whose life was defined by ambition, rebellion, and a love that came heartbreakingly too late. Francis Steegmuller's biography chronicles the dramatic arc of this royal cousin of Louis XIV, from her audacious role in the Fronde uprising — where she famously ordered cannon fired upon royal troops — to her ill-fated and scandalous passion for the rakish Duc de Lauzun, a romance that captivated and shocked the courts of Europe. Steegmuller, celebrated for his elegant and erudite prose, brings the same sharp intelligence he applied to his acclaimed works on Flaubert and Cocteau to this portrait of a woman perpetually at odds with her own era. The biography illuminates the rigid conventions of absolutist France, revealing how wealth, royal blood, and fierce independence could not shield even the king's own cousin from heartbreak and marginalization. Rich in historical detail and psychological acuity, this is a work that leaves the reader wondering: in a world designed to contain her, how much more might La Grande Mademoiselle have become?
Author: Francis Steegmuller
Format: Hardback
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Fair - Rubbed edges and bumping on spine and corners
At the glittering and treacherous heart of the French court stands Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orléans, Duchesse de Montpensier — known to history as La Grande Mademoiselle — one of the most extraordinary women of the seventeenth century, whose life was defined by ambition, rebellion, and a love that came heartbreakingly too late. Francis Steegmuller's biography chronicles the dramatic arc of this royal cousin of Louis XIV, from her audacious role in the Fronde uprising — where she famously ordered cannon fired upon royal troops — to her ill-fated and scandalous passion for the rakish Duc de Lauzun, a romance that captivated and shocked the courts of Europe. Steegmuller, celebrated for his elegant and erudite prose, brings the same sharp intelligence he applied to his acclaimed works on Flaubert and Cocteau to this portrait of a woman perpetually at odds with her own era. The biography illuminates the rigid conventions of absolutist France, revealing how wealth, royal blood, and fierce independence could not shield even the king's own cousin from heartbreak and marginalization. Rich in historical detail and psychological acuity, this is a work that leaves the reader wondering: in a world designed to contain her, how much more might La Grande Mademoiselle have become?