W&M Featured Events
[PAST EVENT] Spring 2019 Tack Faculty Lecture
Location
Sadler Center, Commonwealth Auditorium200 Stadium Dr
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
Access & Features
- Open to the public
- Registration/RSVP
- Ron Schechter, Professor of History
- "The Secret Library of Marie Antoinette: Revealing the Inner Life of a Conflicted Queen"
- Thursday, March 28, 2019
- 7 p.m.
- Commonwealth Auditorium, Sadler Center
- RSVP requested
Marie Antoinette has been characterized as stupid. Historians and biographers have called her "empty-headed," "dizzy," and a "feather brain," among other epithets. They couldn't have been more wrong. Marie Antoinette was highly intelligent. She spoke three languages. She could sight-read music. Her tutor said she remembered everything he taught her. And she read … a lot.
Professor Ron SchechterMarie Antoinette's favorite books were tucked away in her most private space: the boudoir of her country house, La Petite Trianon. A handwritten catalog from the time shows that she had over 500 volumes in her boudoir. Nearly all of them were officially forbidden. They were books that attacked the Catholic Church – the only one allowed in France – made fun of the aristocracy and even suggested that the country would be better off without a king or queen.
The fact that she owned and cherished these books tells us that she must have been conflicted, that there was a gulf between her beliefs and her position. It tells us that she had a turbulent inner life. Professor Ron Schechter will dive into her secret library and more during his Tack Faculty Lecture on March 28, 2019.