A Note from the Author
From relatively chaste beginnings, the floodgates of Louis XV’s lust soon opened wide. The Rivals of Versailles highlights the stories of a few of the many women who graced Louis’ bed during the middle part of his reign.
Rosalie de Romanet-Choiseul died in childbirth in 1753, just six months after being banished from Versailles and from the king’s heart. She was only eighteen; her daughter and namesake died three years later. Though the timing was right, there does not appear to be any suggestion that she was the king’s child.
Marie Louise O’Murphy, nicknamed Morphise in this book, was banished, married, survived, and even, after numerous men, marriages, and other adventures, lived to see the nineteenth century. Ah, poor delightful Morphise, her timing was entirely wrong: after Pompadour’s death, the next official mistress was a woman with equally humble roots.
Marie-Anne de Mailly de Coislin had a long and rather exciting life, lover of kings, survivor of the Revolution, denizen of more than one country. She probably wasn’t as silly as I have depicted her, but there is definite consensus that she was no match for either the first Marie-Anne, one of the great “might-have-beens” of history, or for the Marquise de Pompadour.
Finally, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, the Marquise de Pompadour, the little girl from the middle classes who rose to become the virtual Queen of France and quite possibly the most influential royal mistress ever. She expertly managed a capricious master and her memory lingers long in our consciousness; alongside Catherine the Great of Russia and Maria Theresa of Austria, she is considered one of the three most powerful women of the eighteenth century.
I have tried to do justice to her life, to the highs and the lows, to the impact she had on French style and history, to the enigma that she was on so many levels. Overall, I think she had quite a sad life but I believe it was the life she wanted, the only life she could ever have conceived of, and one that ultimately left her content.
Near the end of his life Louis XV, by that time a confirmed libertine, unknowable to his younger self, was asked whom he had loved most of all of the women who had graced his life and his bed.
“Marie-Anne,” he replied without hesitation, referring to Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle, the Duchesse de Châteauroux and one of the protagonists of The Sisters of Versailles.
“But what about Pompadour?” came the question, to which the king replied: “No, no, I never loved her. I only kept her around because to banish her would have been her death.”
Those cruel, light words of gross ingratitude contain a kernel of truth—Louis was the air that Pompadour breathed—but also came from a self-centered man for whom the passage of time had erased so much. I have no doubt that while love may not have lasted, for the almost twenty years that Reinette ruled by his side she was the most important person in his life.
After Reinette’s death, Louis mourned, but privately, and the world continued onward. The final book in the trilogy, The Enemies of Versailles, will focus on the last years of Louis XV’s reign, a pivotal decade in the history of France as it approached the revolution. The story will be told by the Comtesse du Barry, Louis XV’s last official mistress, and by his eldest daughter, Madame Adélaïde.
Please visit my website www.sallychristieauthor.com for details on the research that went into this book, as well as additional information on the main and secondary characters.
Acknowledgments
Bringing a book from draft to publication is definitely a team effort. Lots of thanks and gratitude must go to my editor, Sarah Branham at Atria, and to my agent, Dan Lazar at Writers House. Thanks to Alison for once again giving me great input on the draft, and to Sylvia and Vivienne for their early feedback. Thanks to Odile Caffin-Carcy in France for answering my questions, no matter how small or silly, and to Deborah Anthony at French Travel Boutique for arranging a backstage tour of Versailles, which was invaluable in giving me much of the sensory detail that informs these pages. Thanks to the marketing and publicity team at Atria US: Andrea Smith, Jin Yu, and Jackie Jou, as well as the team at S&S Canada, including Katie Callaghan, Catherine Sim, and Andrea Seto. And of course thanks to the many helping hands behind the scenes that I never get to meet or talk with, responsible for all the copyediting and great design work, both on the cover and inside the book.
For more salacious drama, check out the first seductive installment of the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy . . .
Goodness, but sisters are a thing to fear. The Nesle sisters compete for love, power, and the attention of King Louis XV in this scandalous and sumptuous beginning to the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy.
The Sisters of Versailles
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About the Author
Photograph by John Carvalho, Exposures Photography
Sally Christie is the author of The Sisters of Versailles and The Rivals of Versailles. She was born in England and grew up around the world, attending eight schools in three different languages. She spent most of her career working in international development and currently lives in Toronto. Visit SallyChristieAuthor.com to find out more about Sally and the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Sally Christie
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Cover design by Kelly Blair
Stepback art of Madame de Pompadour by Francois Boucher (1759) © Wllace Collection, London, UK/Bridgeman Images
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Christie, Sally, 1971– author.
Title: The rivals of Versailles : a novel / Sally Christie.
Description: First Atria paperback edition. | New York : Atria Paperback, 2016. | Series: The mistresses of Versailles trilogy ; 2 Identifiers: LCCN 2015041813 (print) | LCCN 2015044989 (ebook) |
Subjects: LCSH: Pompadour, Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, marquise de, 1721–1764—Fiction. | France—History—Louis XV, 1715–1774—Fiction. | France—Kings and rulers—Paramours—Fiction. | France—Court and courtiers—Fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Historical. | FICTION / Literary. | FICTION / General. | GSAFD: Biographical fiction. | Historical fic
tion. |
Classification: LCC PR9199.4.C4883 R58 2016 (print) | LCC PR9199.4.C4883 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
ISBN 978-1-5011-0299-8
ISBN 978-1-5011-0301-8 (ebook)
Table of Contents
Dedication
Act I: Reinette
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Act II: Marquise
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Act III: Rosalie
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Entr’acte
Act IV: Morphise
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Entr’acte
Act V: Marie-Anne
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Entr’acte
Act VI: Duchesse
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Epilogue
A Note from the Author
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
The Rivals of Versailles: A Novel (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy) Page 38
