Marie-Antoinette was born in 1755, the youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and Emperor Francis I. She was intelligent and artistic but devoid of the ambition or calculation required to survive in the fetid atmosphere of the French court. In many ways, her character was not unlike that of Mary, Queen of Scots. Amanda Foreman Read Quote
As her life became more unhappy, acting attracted Marie-Antoinette because it fulfilled unmet emotional needs. By all accounts, she was quite good in her little private theatricals. But her desire to be a heroine, both literally and figuratively, was shocking to the French. Amanda Foreman Read Quote
With every generation comes a new wave of hopefuls: small-town escapees, European refugees, disaffected Londoners. Amanda Foreman Read Quote
The energy that New York exudes is as much the light of extinguished souls as it is the spark of individual enterprise. And while the full meaning of the city may prove elusive, all New Yorkers are painfully aware that it remains an intractable mass of contradictions. It is not just the extremes of wealth and poverty living side by side. Amanda Foreman Read Quote
In New York, appearance is a form of currency or, at the very least, a calling card. One must look wealthy in order to be recognised as a person of worth. Amanda Foreman Read Quote
Every now and then, a writer emerges who just gets better and better. These are the really exciting ones to encounter. Their novels carry the promise of so much more to come. Warwick Collins is one such writer. Amanda Foreman Read Quote
The Marriage of Souls’, like ‘The Rationalist’, is an exploration of humanist philosophy wrapped between the delicate leaves of an eighteenth-century tale. The story of the two novels – and they should be read as a two-volume work – centres around the old war-horse of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl. But what a boy and what a girl. Amanda Foreman Read Quote
What makes ‘The Marriage of Souls’ such a wonderful book is Collins’s intricate reconstruction of the late eighteenth-century world. Simplicity and philosophy are the hallmarks of eighteenth-century art and architecture. The classically pure lines look deceptively simple and unburdened by heavy symbolism or imagery. Amanda Foreman Read Quote
Politics is my second passion, but as a historian, you have to be genuinely neutral. You have failed in your primary duty as a historian if you are one side or the other. Amanda Foreman Read Quote
I think that once you become a parent, you cease to think of yourself as a hero or heroine. Amanda Foreman Read Quote
