থেকে Imzilene, Morocco
A very helpful little pamphlet. "Those who read the bible as literature, do not read the bible" - 30 The Bible is "not merely a sacred book but a book so remorselessly and continuously sacred that it does not invite, it excludes or repels, the merely aesthetic approach." - 33
Wow, is all I can say right now. Just, wow. What a story. The book portrays a loving, tenderhearted and quite naive young girl, send to a far off land to prepare herself for one day becoming a queen. Marie Antoinette may have been beautiful, and loving, alas, she certainly lacked in the wiles department. I can't help but wonder if her dislike for books and reading somehow contributed. She made some poor decisions, choosing to treat her role as queen as a means to throwing lavish and extravagant favours upon her friends, who seemed, to me anyway, quite shallow in their ambitions. When the populace has to sell their teeth to buy food, when they're starving because there's no bread (not even the flour to produce it), it seems quite offensive for the queen and her cohorts to be powdering their wigs with flour! I think the King and Queen failed, when they chose to ignore the terrible gossip and maligning of her character. The rumour-mongering, left unchecked, grew into a most virulent and monstrous social cancer which, to a large part, fueled the revolution already brewing. I believe that Louis XVI's weakness and passivity as a leader, meant he failed to really lead his country and deliver them to abundance. I believe this ultimately spelled death for the royal family. The bottom line for Louis XVI is that, in order to keep his crown, he would have had to put down any and all indications of revolutionaries. I found the story which unfolds in this book quite tragic, all the more so because, of course, I know the ending. This is certainly not something to read if you're expecting an action packed kind of book. But, if you like history, if humanity fascinates you, then I certainly recommend it.