Memoirs of the Courts of Louis XV and XVI. — Volume 2

Marie-Thérèse-Louise de Savoie-Carignan, Princesse de LamballeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2

Word count: 118K words
Chapters: 12

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Memoirs of the Courts of Louis XV and XVI. — Volume 2 by Du Hausset and LamballeAuthor: Lamballe, Marie Thérèse Louise de Savoie-Carignan, princesse de, 1749-1792,Language: English, Class: DC: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: France, Andorra, Monaco, Release Date: Dec 3, 2004

Editor's review

This is Volume 2 of Memoirs of the Courts of Louis XV and XVI, continuing the first-person account and drawing readers further into the court at the end of the ancien régime. Compared with general histories, such writing excels at conveying atmosphere and relationships: the subtlety behind etiquette, the closeness or distance between figures, and the hesitation and turmoil of the court as revolution approached can all be read between the lines of memory. As a public-domain eBook, it preserves the original text and is suited both to reading alongside Volume 1 and to use as supplementary teaching material for the study of court culture, memoir writing, or early modern French history. Note that personal memoir is not objective record; the narrator's praise and blame of individuals and selection of events reflect a particular perspective, and readers should stay alert to this. Overall, it suits readers who already have some background knowledge, who will gain from reading with comparison and questioning.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have finished Volume 1 and want to follow the court narrative further
Those interested in court politics and personal relationships at the end of the ancien régime
Students of history or literature who need primary English sources for essays
Readers who prefer slow reading of historical sources and enjoy examining narrative stance

Not a good fit for

Beginners who have not yet established a basic timeline of early modern French history
Readers who prefer novel-like continuous plot and strong drama
Readers seeking systematic historical analysis rather than memoir texts

Reading tips

Read alongside Volume 1 and note echoes of people and events across the two volumes.
Mark evaluative statements by the narrator as you read and practise source criticism.
Use background material on the French Revolution to understand shifts in the court's situation.
Read slowly chapter by chapter, noting key points and questions after each.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can Volume 2 be read without Volume 1?

Technically yes, but it is not recommended. Volume 2 continues the people and events of Volume 1, and starting here can leave you unfamiliar with relationships and prior context. Reading Volume 1 first will make Volume 2 much smoother.

Is this book useful for studying the French Revolution?

It has supplementary value. It offers an insider court perspective and can add atmosphere and personal detail often absent from formal histories. But it is not a systematic analysis; use it alongside serious historical scholarship and remain attentive to its narrative stance.

Is the English original difficult to read?

The text is a public-domain English book with period sentence structure and vocabulary and dense personal and place names, making it moderately to considerably difficult. Use notes or background material, record unfamiliar figures, and avoid getting stuck on every word; grasp the overall narrative.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Marie-Thérèse-Louise de Savoie-Carignan, Princesse de Lamballe Author · Italian-French · 1749–1792

Marie-Thérèse-Louise de Savoie-Carignan, Princesse de Lamballe (1749–1792), was an Italian-French court figure and the closest friend of Queen Marie Antoinette. Her salon served as a meeting place between the Queen and constitutional royalists. During the French Revolution she was imprisoned and killed in the September Massacres of 1792. The library holds nine works attributed to her, chiefly the volumes and complete edition of Memoirs of the Courts of Louis XV and XVI. These are court memoirs offering an eyewitness view of court life and the upheavals of the Revolution, and they remain a reference for understanding that era. Public information about her is limited, and details of her life rest largely on such memoir literature.