MADAME DE POMPADOUR: Mistress to France
Christine Pevitt Algrant, Christine Pevitt, . . Grove, $27.50 (338pp) ISBN 978-0-8021-1726-7
It's impossible to read Algrant's relatively reserved study (compared with that of Evelyne Lever, [see review on p. 166]) without thinking, at least fleetingly, of Monica Lewinsky. Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (1721–1764) too set her sights on winning the affections of a head of state, in her case, King Louis XV of France. She succeeded and became as famous as her paramour but far more reviled—primarily because Pompadour actively sought to be the power behind the throne. Algrant (
Reviewed on: 07/22/2002
Genre: Nonfiction
Other - 384 pages - 978-0-7304-9116-3
Paperback - 352 pages - 978-0-8021-4035-7
Paperback - 360 pages - 978-0-00-716609-1