We are invited by an unseen narrator into the late seventeenth century court of the Sun King, Louis the XIV. It's a dazzling arena of mirrors, gardens, food, and royal balls-an almost magical place. But while we note the splendor, we also see the artifice...women are regarded as empty-headed beautiful dolls who are there to amuse and bear sons, and be replaced by younger and younger girls. Child-bearing is a dangerous proposition in the time of arranged marriages, where a girl is often married to an older man, raped and then made to have the child in pain and without medical help. The king has his spies everywhere and his political enemies and those who disagree with him would be executed, imprisoned or banished.
This was also the era of salons, where literary conversations for high-born women and their friends could be held in relative secrecy. And it is where the story begins. The reader becomes a member of the Parisian salon of Marie d'Agoult, the woman who coined the term"fairy tales," for the stories inspired by folk tales but polished for the glitterati who attended her meetings. The modern fairies could couch the truth of their lives in fantastical tales that would not arouse suspicion. She, along with the other members and invited guests such as the famous Charles Perralt, told their stories and even acted them out. As fairy tales are spun, we follow the fraught realities on which they are based.
All great historical fiction has the reader immediately digging through actual history to find out what in the novel was true and what was pure imagination. After researching characters in the book, I found that much of it was historically accurate. I have also always been interested in the basis for nursery rhymes and folklore and the book was an amazing window into this world of beauty and deceit. It is a good example of well written literary fiction and I highly recommend it.
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