Introduction

Meet Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, a beautiful girl from the middle classes who would rise to become one of the 18th century’s most powerful and enigmatic women. As a child, a fortune teller had told young Jeanne her destiny: she would become the lover of a king. Eventually connections, luck, and a little scheming pave her way to Versailles and into the arms of King Louis XV.

All too soon, conniving politicians and hopeful beauties seek to replace the bourgeois interloper with a more suitable mistress. As Jeanne, now the Marquise de Pompadour, takes on her many rivals—including a lustful lady-in-waiting, a precocious fourteen-year-old prostitute, and even a cousin of the notorious Nesle sisters—she helps the king give himself over to a life of luxury and depravity. Around them, war rages, discontent grows, and France inches ever closer to the Revolution.

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Excerpt

RIVALS OF VERSAILLES EXCERPT

Versailles, at last. I have been here for six miserable hours already, trying to keep sweat and flying wine from ruining my white bodice, and my arrows from being stolen. From my quiver I take a small bottle of scent to rub on my neck. The press is extreme, the rooms a fog of billowing silks, crushed flowers, and wax fumes from the thousands of candles burning in the chandeliers above. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

• What did you think of Pompadour’s strategies to keep the king’s love and her position? Were you rooting for her or not?
• Do you believe Louis sincerely loved Pompadour? Did Pompadour love him?
• Who was your favorite of the “rivals” highlighted in the book, and why?
• What surprised you the most about the book? What unsettled you, and why?

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