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HILTON**, LISA: : ATHENAIS: The Real Queen of France

LONDON.LITTLE,BROWN,2002.

ISBN 0316858781.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright, clean,matt,subject colour portrait painting illustrated dw/dj; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Head of spine/ backstrip minisculely bumped with reciprocal creasing.Top+fore-edges very lightly aged, but still bright and clean; contents bright,tight and near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - an unread copy? Bright,clean, publisher's original,plain black cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip,a headband and immaculate black endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj, 1st edn,2-339pp [paginated] includes a prologue,16 chapters+epilogue,8pp colour+ b/w contemporary illus/paintings etc., between pp182/3,historical sources,Royal Family Tree,System de Sieges (Seating System),notes,a bibliography,an index and 2pp blanks to rear. The reign of Athenais de Montespan as maitresse en titre to Louis XIV corresponds with the most glorious period of the grand siecle.Athenais was 'the true Queen of France',the symbol of the apotheosis of French culture in the 17thC. As a lover,she risked the disgrace of double adultery to conduct an affair which scandalised Europe; as a patron,she supported many of the leaders of a cultural renaissance; as a mother,she is the ancestor of most of the royal houses of Europe. Lisa Hilton's superb new biography chronicles the life of this most extraordinary of historical figures.She describes Athenais's unhappy marriage to a provincial noble,and how she used her beauty and wit to seduce the King. Athenais transformed Louis from a shy, gauche monarch into the polished Sun King of legend.His court,too,became guided by his lover's hand: Athenais was famous for the brilliance of her fetes and the extravagance of her gambling.She organised plays by Moliere,ballets by Lully and was universally admired,courted and feared. Lisa Hilton charts Athenais's rise to pre-eminence and subsequent fall.Her enemies schemed against her,and she was implicated in the 1680 Affair of the Poisons.Beset by problems with weight and alcohol,Athenais's decline was sealed after the Queen's death in 1683,when the King secretly married one of her arch- rivals.She stayed at court, enduring increasing humiliation,before turning to charity work in her later years. Few women can have been loved so publicly and as flamboyantly as Athenais,and fewer still so indulged.If her faults were caprice,extravagance and temper,her taste enabled her to convert them into a prescient originality which did much to create the court that dazzled the world. Bringing her subject brilliantly to life, Lisa Hilton tells the compelling story of the influential woman behind the 17thC's most influential man.Author's debut book, and first published work. Please contact seller,because of the weight/value of this item,for correct, insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch, especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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