About author
Abstract. The review examines the monograph of modern English researcher Susan Nagel, who made an interesting attempt to imagine life and fate of the eldest daughter of the King Lois XVI and the queen Marie Antoinette Marie-Therese of France. Based on unpublished documents drawn from funds of the Archive des Affaires Etranger (Paris), Archive Nationale de la France (Paris), manuscript department of the Biblioteque Nationale (Paris) (Bourbon’s fund) and from archival funds of Vienna the author tried to reconstruct the biography of Marie-Therese of France during the key events in French, and in a broader sense, European history — The French Revolution in the late XVIII century and the era of the Consulate and the First Empire in France. According to the author of the book, the story of Marie-Therese of France is the story of amazing women, whose whole life was surrounded by mystery. Growing up in Versaille, surrounded by crowds of courtiers, she as a child went through the trials of Revolution, imprisonment in Temple, exile, the era of Restaurants, a new exile, finally turning into a real symbol of the “ancient regime”, “New Antigone”, and the Saint.
Susan Nagel’s research was the first large biography of Marie Therese, where an author tried to reconsider the assessments of the life, established in the beginning of the 20th century, of one of the most mysterious women in 19th century France. Even after the 230th anniversary of the French Revolution, many biographies of the people who survived the events are still unknown among Russian readers. Susan Nagel’s biographical research will unveil the mystery of the Temple’s orphan.
Keywords: review, Susan Nagel, biography, France, Marie Therese of France, an orphan of the Temple, 18th century.