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Old 05-22-2011, 07:11 PM   #6
issybird
o saeclum infacetum
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I've got two for the girls. Not that the boys can't read them, too, but I suspect they're of more interest to those of the female persuasion.

Queen of Fashion by Caroline Weber is a biography of Marie Antoinette, seen through the prism of her wardrobe. Turns out fashion is politics and her choices were more than a bubble-headed desire for the latest thing, but an expression of her attempts to create a power base for herself and also her emotional life.

Aristocrats by Stella Tillyard is the story of four sisters, duke's daughters, in the last half of the 18th century, taken from their voluminous correspondence. Given their aristocratic connections and the men they married, it's a microcosm of English politics at that time; it's also an examination of women's lives in the public and private sphere during a time of immense change and a testimony to the possibility of reinventing oneself.

With both books, it's useful to have a working knowledge of the time period, although either will whet your appetite to find out more if you come to it cold.
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