Let Them Eat Cake

My all-time favorite movie will always be "Gone with the Wind," but Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" comes in a close second as my favorite contemporary film. (Considering GWTW was made far before my time.) "Marie Antoinette" is one of those movies that I watch almost once a week. It has the most beautiful soundtrack, most gorgeous set, and most fabulous costumes of any movie I've ever seen. And I love that it tells a story of Marie Antoinette that opposes what we've been taught to believe. It shows her in a different light. She may have been extravagant, but there was another side to her. She was an extraordinary woman... here we are still talking about her centuries later.

Shortly after seeing and falling in love with the movie, I became enamored with everything Marie Antoinette. I decided I wanted to read some historical fiction based on her. But being the picky reader that I am, I wanted to make sure I would be reading the most beautiful novel. I settled on "Abundance" by Sena Jeter Naslund. At the time I had a whole list of owned books that I needed to read (Perfume, Water for Elephants, Girl with the Pearl Earring, some others) so I put "Abundance" on the back burner.

Until now. :)

"Like everyone, I am born naked.

I do not refer to my actual birth, mercifully hidden in the silk folds of memory, but to my birth as a citizen of France citoyenne, they would say. Having shed all my clothing, I stand in a room on an island in the middle of the Rhine River naked. My bare feet occupy for this moment a spot considered to be neutral between beloved Austria and France. The sky blue silk of my discarded skirt wreathes my ankles, and I fancy I am standing bare footed in a puddle of pretty water.

My chest is as flat as a shield, marked only by two pink rosebuds of nipples. I refuse to be afraid. In the months since I became fourteen, I've watched these pleasant rosebuds becomeing a bit plump and pinker. Now the fingers and hands of my attendants are stretching toward my neck to remove a smooth circlet of Austrian pearls.

I try to picture the French boy, whom I have never seen, extending large hands toward me, beckoning. What is he doing this very moment, deep in the heart of France? At fifteen, a year older than myself, he must be tall and strong. There must be other words than tall and strong to think of to describe him, to help me imagine and embody his reality."

Those are the first words of the book. I love it. I am already so captivated.

Someone wonderful joined PaperBackSwap, posted ten books, and entered me as their referrer. :) So I finally received a book credit good toward any book available on the site. And what do you think I did? I raced on over to my reminder list and ordered Abundance right away. I am soooo excited for this novel to arrive. I am so in need of a gripping, captivating, absolutely gorgeous novel to read.

To join PaperBackSwap, read my post or click on the icon in my right-hand menu.

Amore.