The Rose of Versailles (Volume 2)
Aug. 14th, 2022 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustI feel like the soundtrack to this volume could have been "We Didn't Start the Fire", because it's just one damn thing after another.
I'm not sure how many years it spans, but it's long enough for a whole barrage of historical events and personal dramas. For some reason, I always assumed The Rose of Versailles would be a slow build to the French Revolution, but no, it's already an emotional rollercoaster.
But first up, behold the gorgeous cover for this volume. (The swirling hair! The sparkling eyes!)
Spoilery musings:
- Shit gets real from the very first page. Rosalie discovers that the countess who killed her adoptive mother is actually her birth mother, and her newly met sister Charlotte throws herself from the roof rather than enter an abhorrent arranged marriage.
- Absolutely stunning: Oscar in her dress uniform, dancing with Marie Antoinette.
- Rosalie and André reveal to each other their painful crushes on Oscar. Meanwhile, Oscar is pining for Fersen and loyal to Marie Antoinette, who are desperately in love with each other.
- Hey, look, it's the US War of Independence! Fersen joins the expeditionary force sent to aid the Americans, under the Marquis de Lafayette. (I guess they're bringing the guns and ships.)
- There's a definite sense of time passing, when Marie Antoinette gives birth to her first child, and when her mother the Empress of Austria passes away.
- Oscar to Rosalie: "If I really were a man, I would marry you, without a doubt, truly." Sorry, André.
- It's painful to see all the mistakes that make the people hate Marie Antoinette: both her own oblivious missteps, like retreating from her duties at court to her private pleasure palace; and the ambitious scheming of others, like the Countess de Polignac wanting power, or Jeanne de Valois wanting wealth.
- "The small temple of love atop a knoll near the Petit Trianon... the music salon belvédère, gleaming white in blazing sunlight... authentic farm cottages scattered along the banks of a lovely, murmuring, gently flowing brook... with actual farmers and farmwives milking the animals and grinding flour at the watermill... Hide-and-seek in the shade, swinging, dancing minuets and gavottes upon a carpet of flowers... Was Marie Antoinette aware at all of the stupendously huge sum of taxes that was used for her magnificent, rustic, heart-soothing gardens?"
- The Affair of the Diamond Necklace comes to light! I was not expecting Jeanne to accuse Marie Antoinette of "unnatural leanings" of a "sapphic nature", and claiming the queen has had affairs with herself, the Countess de Polignac, and Oscar. And even when Jeanne is convicted of the theft, the populace still hates the queen, and believes the scandalous memoirs that Jeanne publishes.
- A+ embrace: Oscar kissing Rosalie tenderly on the cheek in farewell. ("She was like a spring breeze... She pined for me in such a sweet and innocent manner... I couldn't do anything for her. Not as a woman...")
- Okay, I was not expecting Jeanne and Nicholas to meet their ends so soon. I thought they would be around as antagonists for a while?
- At least Marie Antoinette gets a wake up call about her plummeting reputation among both commoners and nobility, and wise advice from Fersen on how to rebuild their trust. And she actually reins in her extravagant habits!
- "Marie Antoinette's eyes had finally been opened. She saw now the truth of what she had been doing all that time, who had truly served her faithfully, where exactly the money she wasted so lavishly came from."
- The Minister of Finance proposes taxing the nobility. The nobility objects and has him sacked. He retaliates by exposing to the public the amount of the court's debts and loans. "One billion two hundred fifty million livres!" (Approximately fifteen trillion yen at time of series publication. I don't even know what that converts to now, except that it sounds very bad.)
- Oscar decides to dress up for the ball, so she can have one dance with Fersen. She looks gorgeous in that ballgown with her hair swept up. She gets her dance. But nobody recognises her! They all think she is a foreign countess.
- Fersen to Oscar: "I know someone who resembles you a great deal. She's very beautiful. She has the same stunning blonde hair you do. She's very kind and quite cultured as well. The sort of person who would give up anything for her beliefs, even her life. She is beautiful, but her fragrant skin is wrapped in a military uniform with gold braid. She is an ice flower, rejecting the eyes of men. Oscar..."
- Marie Antoinette has three kids now. ("They are my precious treasures... If I lost them, I would surely die." Gulp.)
- One of the best scenes: Oscar has a serious wake up call after Rosalie rescues her from injury, and can only serve her soup with a dash of vegetable scraps, because she's living in poverty again. Rosalie apologises, and Oscar is devastated and ashamed. ("I thought I knew everything. I accepted the life I was given as if it were only natural. I never once thought that people, human beings like myself, would be living on such food as this. Never once!")
- I know the Black Knight is stealing from the rich to give to the poor. But I can't forgive him for striking André and destroying his sight in one eye.
- It's pretty intense to see the Dauphin suffering from Pott's disease, and Marie Antoinette's agony and grief for her child.
- Fersen to Oscar: "I knew it. It was indeed you then, wasn't it... H-how inattentive I was... Why did I not realize it?" Why indeed. But then he jumps to how they can never meet again now that he knows! Cold! They were friends!
- Most disturbing scene: when André, having confessed his love to Oscar, kisses her, throws her on the bed, tears at her shirt, and then - we get the world's most ominous blood dripping panel - before their tearful conversation goes on. Am I meant to be thinking what I'm thinking? I don't know!
- I think Rosalie is too good for Bernard, but if he makes her happy, fine.
- Moved by her new knowledge of the extent of inequality, Oscar resigns from the elite noble Royal Guard, joins the more mixed Gardes Françaises, and starts reading politics and philosophy.
- I have a feeling that Alain de Soissons, who duels Oscar, is going to be significant.
One of the things I love about historical fiction is, there are multiple ways of appreciating it. If you know what's going to happen, you get tension. If you don't know what's going to happen, you get suspense. I've already run out of plot I've osmosed (except for How It Ends). What on earth are they going to cover in the next three volumes?
I'm not sure how many years it spans, but it's long enough for a whole barrage of historical events and personal dramas. For some reason, I always assumed The Rose of Versailles would be a slow build to the French Revolution, but no, it's already an emotional rollercoaster.
But first up, behold the gorgeous cover for this volume. (The swirling hair! The sparkling eyes!)
Spoilery musings:
- Shit gets real from the very first page. Rosalie discovers that the countess who killed her adoptive mother is actually her birth mother, and her newly met sister Charlotte throws herself from the roof rather than enter an abhorrent arranged marriage.
- Absolutely stunning: Oscar in her dress uniform, dancing with Marie Antoinette.
- Rosalie and André reveal to each other their painful crushes on Oscar. Meanwhile, Oscar is pining for Fersen and loyal to Marie Antoinette, who are desperately in love with each other.
- Hey, look, it's the US War of Independence! Fersen joins the expeditionary force sent to aid the Americans, under the Marquis de Lafayette. (I guess they're bringing the guns and ships.)
- There's a definite sense of time passing, when Marie Antoinette gives birth to her first child, and when her mother the Empress of Austria passes away.
- Oscar to Rosalie: "If I really were a man, I would marry you, without a doubt, truly." Sorry, André.
- It's painful to see all the mistakes that make the people hate Marie Antoinette: both her own oblivious missteps, like retreating from her duties at court to her private pleasure palace; and the ambitious scheming of others, like the Countess de Polignac wanting power, or Jeanne de Valois wanting wealth.
- "The small temple of love atop a knoll near the Petit Trianon... the music salon belvédère, gleaming white in blazing sunlight... authentic farm cottages scattered along the banks of a lovely, murmuring, gently flowing brook... with actual farmers and farmwives milking the animals and grinding flour at the watermill... Hide-and-seek in the shade, swinging, dancing minuets and gavottes upon a carpet of flowers... Was Marie Antoinette aware at all of the stupendously huge sum of taxes that was used for her magnificent, rustic, heart-soothing gardens?"
- The Affair of the Diamond Necklace comes to light! I was not expecting Jeanne to accuse Marie Antoinette of "unnatural leanings" of a "sapphic nature", and claiming the queen has had affairs with herself, the Countess de Polignac, and Oscar. And even when Jeanne is convicted of the theft, the populace still hates the queen, and believes the scandalous memoirs that Jeanne publishes.
- A+ embrace: Oscar kissing Rosalie tenderly on the cheek in farewell. ("She was like a spring breeze... She pined for me in such a sweet and innocent manner... I couldn't do anything for her. Not as a woman...")
- Okay, I was not expecting Jeanne and Nicholas to meet their ends so soon. I thought they would be around as antagonists for a while?
- At least Marie Antoinette gets a wake up call about her plummeting reputation among both commoners and nobility, and wise advice from Fersen on how to rebuild their trust. And she actually reins in her extravagant habits!
- "Marie Antoinette's eyes had finally been opened. She saw now the truth of what she had been doing all that time, who had truly served her faithfully, where exactly the money she wasted so lavishly came from."
- The Minister of Finance proposes taxing the nobility. The nobility objects and has him sacked. He retaliates by exposing to the public the amount of the court's debts and loans. "One billion two hundred fifty million livres!" (Approximately fifteen trillion yen at time of series publication. I don't even know what that converts to now, except that it sounds very bad.)
- Oscar decides to dress up for the ball, so she can have one dance with Fersen. She looks gorgeous in that ballgown with her hair swept up. She gets her dance. But nobody recognises her! They all think she is a foreign countess.
- Fersen to Oscar: "I know someone who resembles you a great deal. She's very beautiful. She has the same stunning blonde hair you do. She's very kind and quite cultured as well. The sort of person who would give up anything for her beliefs, even her life. She is beautiful, but her fragrant skin is wrapped in a military uniform with gold braid. She is an ice flower, rejecting the eyes of men. Oscar..."
- Marie Antoinette has three kids now. ("They are my precious treasures... If I lost them, I would surely die." Gulp.)
- One of the best scenes: Oscar has a serious wake up call after Rosalie rescues her from injury, and can only serve her soup with a dash of vegetable scraps, because she's living in poverty again. Rosalie apologises, and Oscar is devastated and ashamed. ("I thought I knew everything. I accepted the life I was given as if it were only natural. I never once thought that people, human beings like myself, would be living on such food as this. Never once!")
- I know the Black Knight is stealing from the rich to give to the poor. But I can't forgive him for striking André and destroying his sight in one eye.
- It's pretty intense to see the Dauphin suffering from Pott's disease, and Marie Antoinette's agony and grief for her child.
- Fersen to Oscar: "I knew it. It was indeed you then, wasn't it... H-how inattentive I was... Why did I not realize it?" Why indeed. But then he jumps to how they can never meet again now that he knows! Cold! They were friends!
- Most disturbing scene: when André, having confessed his love to Oscar, kisses her, throws her on the bed, tears at her shirt, and then - we get the world's most ominous blood dripping panel - before their tearful conversation goes on. Am I meant to be thinking what I'm thinking? I don't know!
- I think Rosalie is too good for Bernard, but if he makes her happy, fine.
- Moved by her new knowledge of the extent of inequality, Oscar resigns from the elite noble Royal Guard, joins the more mixed Gardes Françaises, and starts reading politics and philosophy.
- I have a feeling that Alain de Soissons, who duels Oscar, is going to be significant.
One of the things I love about historical fiction is, there are multiple ways of appreciating it. If you know what's going to happen, you get tension. If you don't know what's going to happen, you get suspense. I've already run out of plot I've osmosed (except for How It Ends). What on earth are they going to cover in the next three volumes?
