Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The first major biography of one of France's most mysterious women--Marie Antoinette's only child to survive the revolution.

Susan Nagel, author of the critically acclaimed biography Mistress of the Elgin Marbles , turns her attention to the life of a remarkable woman who both defined and shaped an era, the tumultuous last days of the crumbling ancien régime . Nagel brings the formidable Marie-Thérèse to life, along with the age of revolution and the waning days of the aristocracy, in a page-turning biography that will appeal to fans of Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette and Amanda Foreman's Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire .

In December 1795, at midnight on her seventeenth birthday, Marie-Thérèse, the only surviving child of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, escaped from Paris's notorious Temple Prison. To this day many believe that the real Marie-Thérèse, traumatized following her family's brutal execution during the Reign of Terror, switched identities with an illegitimate half sister who was often mistaken for her twin. Was the real Marie-Thérèse spirited away to a remote castle to live her life as the woman called "the Dark Countess," while an imposter played her role on the political stage of Europe? Now, two hundred years later, using handwriting samples, DNA testing, and an undiscovered cache of Bourbon family letters, Nagel finally solves this mystery. She tells the remarkable story in full and draws a vivid portrait of an astonishing woman who both defined and shaped an era. Marie-Thérèse's deliberate choice of husbands determined the map of nineteenth-century Europe. Even Napoleon was in awe and called her "the only man in the family." Nagel's gripping narrative captures the events of her fascinating life from her very public birth in front of the rowdy crowds and her precocious childhood to her hideous time in prison and her later reincarnation in the public eye as a saint, and, above all, her fierce loyalty to France throughout.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This is a fascinating, readable, and engrossing book that should interest general readers and scholars alike. Nagel (comparative literature, Marymount Manhattan Coll.; Mistress of the Elgin Marbles), known for her work in unraveling historical mysteries, tells the story of Marie-Antoinette's only surviving child. The first major biography of Marie-Therese, it details her very public birth, the horrific suffering she endured in prison during the revolution, and the personal and political roles she assumed following her release in 1795. Here the story of "Madame Royale" morphs into a mysterious one, because since the 19th century rumors have abounded of an identity swap that enabled the princess to live obscurely as a reclusive "Dark Countess" in a remote German castle. Nagel attempts to solve this intriguing puzzle, using archival sources, family letters, handwriting analysis, and the latest scientific tools with DNA evidence to piece together the true fate of a woman whom she sympathetically presents as a loyal daughter of France and an honorable symbol and representative of the Bourbon line. The skillful use of maps, chronological and genealogical charts, and historical narrative provides context for readers. Highly recommended.--Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

What was the fate of Marie-Therese (1778-1851) after the beheadings of her parents, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France? Nagel, professor of humanities at Marymount Manhattan College (Mistress of the Elgin Marbles), relates the dramatic highs and lows experienced by the woman known as "Madame Royale." Her uncle, the Austrian emperor, wanted her to marry his brother, when she escaped from the Temple Prison at age 17 after three hellish years. Instead, she endured a loveless and childless marriage to her Bourbon cousin the Duc d'Angouleme, but became the close political ally of their uncle, Louis XVIII, whom she joined in his peripatetic exile and saw in his triumphant return to France in 1814 as king. Marie Therese survived the 1830 abdication of her father-in-law, Charles X, and died in exile. Known for her kindness and wit, she also endured persistent rumors that she was not the "real" Marie-Therese and the constant threat of abduction and assassination. Nagel's highly detailed and sympathetic account competently fills in historical gaps, but, unfortunately, is hampered by plodding prose. 16 pages of color illus; map. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Most people who know about the sad end of Queen Marie Antoinette of France also know that she left behind a daugher and a son. The boy died as a result of appalling abuse at the hands of prison guards, but what became of the girl? Born in 1778, Marie-Thérèse was just 17 when her release from three harrowing years of imprisonment was finally negotiated. Almost immediately, she became a powerful symbol and a political pawn. But Nagel shows her as having a mind of her own as she found refuge at the Austrian court; then she married her cousin and became part of the peripatetic French monarchy-in-exile. Finally, she helped to preside over the Restoration. Through it all she was an object of fascination, admired for her dignity and her steadfast devotion to the ideals of the ancien régime. The fascination persists even today in the legend of the Dark Countess, according to which the princess switched identities, and the woman the world knew as Marie-Thérèse was an imposter. This highly detailed, exhaustively researched, often-riveting account will appeal especially to all those readers who've immersed themselves in the many recent books about Marie Antoinette.--Quinn, Mary Ellen Copyright 2008 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Slow-moving account of the life and the mythology surrounding French princess Marie-Thr'se-Charlotte (1778-1851). In the book's early chapters, Nagel (Humanities/Marymount Manhattan Coll.; Mistress of the Elgin Marbles: A Biography of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin, 2004, etc.) is consumed with detailing the fate of Marie-Thr'se's mother, Marie Antoinette. These sections are occasionally enlivened by intriguing asides about the young Marie-Thr'se, such as the special sign language she developed to communicate with her parents in prison and the impact on her own development of her mother's bravery in the face of the French Revolution. The princess doesn't gain her biographer's full attention until her escape to Vienna following the end of the Reign of Terror. Despite romantic advances from Austria's Archduke Karl, she married her first cousin, the Duc d'Angoul'me, "because at the bottom of her heart she hoped that the Bourbon monarchy would return to France." (It did, in 1815, but the Revolution of 1830 ensured that Marie-Thr'se would never be queen.) Nagel speculates on rumors of d'Angoul'me's homosexuality, examines a trip Marie-Thr'se took to her parents' burial ground on her return to France and discusses a period when the 42-year-old princess mistakenly believed that she was pregnant. Somewhere in the folds of this perfunctory history lies an intriguing question: Was Marie-Thr'se replaced by a doppelgänger on her release from prison in 1795? Nagel comes to grips with this question only in the book's afterword. There, she examines DNA testing and picks apart the scant details regarding Sophie Botta, the woman many believed was the "real" Marie-Thr'se. The author reprints correspondence written by both women, finding a marked difference in their handwriting. She signs off with the firm assertion that Botta "was not Marie-Thr'se-Charlotte, daughter of Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI of France." A dry, unexciting account punctuated by all-too-fleeting moments of interest. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.