Madame du Barry
by Jean Plaidy

This is the story of Jeanne Becu, most famously known as Madame du Barry, mistress to Louis XV of France in the last years of his reign and the most beautiful woman in France at the time. Plaidy’s du Barry is kind, good-hearted and forgiving of even her enemies, whom she tries relentlessly to befriend. She has no enmity toward anyone and wishes for all to be as happy as she, who has the king’s heart. She is not greedy, but is wrongly labeled as such by court intriguers when she accepts luxurious gifts from Louis to make him happy. Her main adversary is the dauphine, Marie Anotinette, who eventually receives the great diamond necklace the king had planned to buy for Jeanne, which causes a great scandal later when Marie Antoinette is queen (This is the main theme of The Queen of Diamonds by Jean Plaidy). Madame du Barry took up causes for the good of the people, which was remembered during the French Revolution and could have saved her from the guillotine had certain events not happened.

I have the biography Madame du Barry: The Wages of Beauty by Joan Haslip which paints a slightly different picture of du Barry. I haven’t read it in its entirety though, and cannot give a good account of it as yet. Jean Plaidy’s novels are usually very accurate, but new findings could have altered the recorded facts since 1959 (when Plaidy’s book was originally published under pseudonym Ellalice Tate). The movie Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst makes Madame du Barry out to be a rude, tacky woman (not to mention dark haired when she was known to be a blonde beauty) and even has her stealing the kings rings as he dies and ‘running away’. Movies will always cater to entertainment value, so I’m not too offended.

I really enjoyed this book and hope to get to The Queen of Diamonds soon, as I received it in the mail a few days ago and found it to be in excellent condition. I cannot believe I found it for $27 when all the other copies on Alibris and Amazon are $80 and up!