Chantal Thomas's 'Adieux à la Reine' Revisits Marie-Antoinette

Chantal Thomas's novel 'Adieux à la Reine' (2002) centers on Marie-Antoinette through the eyes of Agathe-Sidonie Laborde, the queen's 'lectrice-adjointe'. The narrative unfolds over three days in July 1789 as the French Revolution erupts, with Laborde recounting events from exile in Vienna in 1810. Thomas critiques the transition from salon conversation to police interrogation, marking the 'bloody line of the Revolution'. The novel contrasts the mediocrity of courtiers with the regression of the new order, where 'one kills faster and in greater quantity'. Thomas, a specialist of the 18th century, previously explored Marie-Antoinette in an earlier work analyzing pornographic pamphlets. The article also recommends Thomas's essay 'Sade, la dissertation et l'orgie', reissued simultaneously.