Review⟶ The Sisters of Versailles, by Sally Christie

[Sparrow]

TITLE: The Sisters of Versailles (Book #1 of The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy)
AUTHOR: Sally Christie
RELEASE DATE: September 1st 2015, by Atria Books
GENRE: Historical Fiction
TAGS: Historical Fiction, 18th century, France, King Louis XV of France (Louis le bien aimé), Royal Mistresses, Maîtresse-en-titre, Nesle de Mailly sisters, Versailles
RATING (1-5): ★★½

This book was provided to me, free of charge, by the publisher. It has in no way impacted the content of this review.

The Sisters of Versailles hit the trifecta for me, in terms of interest: book one in a planned trilogy, the story of not one, but 4 Royal Mistresses, & centered in the French court of Louis XV (Louis le bien aimé). Add to that the fact that the mistresses in question have never graced the pages of a historical fiction novel as the protagonists, and it easily won a place as one of the two novels I was most looking forward to reading this year.

The Sisters of Versailles is the story of the Nesle de Mailly sisters, four of whom would go on to become mistresses to King Louis XV. There is very little contemporary historical record of them; what we know primarily comes secondhand in memoirs of others, and entails only their lives at the time of their individual entrances to court. None were particularly popular (some utterly detested), and unfortunately, this book did little to alter that perception.

Told in multiple point of view from the four would-be mistresses, settled between a smattering of letters written from one sister to another (including the fifth sister), each of the four gets her moment with Louis XV. The first, Louise, is perhaps the most sympathetic- carrying on a clandestine affair with the King (his first), she seemed to sincerely love him, although how much was love and how much was infatuation is anyone's guess. Once her affair is exposed, she's given the title of Maîtresse-en-titre, but shortly thereafter makes the mistake of inviting one of her sisters to court, Pauline. Pauline and younger sister, Diane, have been languishing in a convent since the death of their mother, and Pauline is determined to usurp her blissfully unaware sister by getting invited to court and getting the King's attention. She succeeds, leaving Louise to spend the rest of the novel heartbroken, as one by one the other sisters follow suit.

The Nesle sisters were actually related to the Mancini sisters, who themselves were mistresses to kings, but unlike the Mancini's, the Nesle sisters lacked the charm, wit, and fiercely independent spirit of their predecessors. Louise- and her relationship with the King- bears a more than striking resemblance to that of another Louise & Louis- Louise de La Vallière, mistress of Louis XIV. From the alternating guilt/infatuation she feels, to being replaced, yet forced to remain and act as decoy for the new love interest, to spending the remainder of their lives doing penance, the similarities are uncanny. Pauline is described as a hideous, hairy, “green monkey” (This rather bizarre description is actually in the extant memoirs of a contemporary; while her personality certainly leaves something to be desired, I found the description a little more than odd. She is one of the lovelier of the sisters, based on the painting I found of her, albeit much slimmer than her competition- slightly curvaceous women with peaches and cream complexions were the beauty standard of the period, primarily because being so was indicative of class. A well-fed woman with fair skin was obviously a well-off one, since she bore no signs of starvation or sun exposure from work. I still don't quite see anything as unfortunate as her description in her paintings, but beauty being in the eye of the beholder, I suppose).

Diane Adélaïde de Mailly, the youngest, is perhaps the only one with a semblance of a personality, a kind of goofy but lovable kid who always says the wrong thing at the right time, and doesn't give a hoot what anyone else thinks about it- but unfortunately she is more of a dalliance than a serious affair, so her time here is short. Marie Anne de Mailly- perhaps the worst- grows up catching mice and then boxing them up to see how long it takes them to starve, and I assure you, she doesn't get better with age. The only sister to not sleep with the king- Hortense- is a pious old biddy that is constantly bible-thumping her way through correspondence about how shocked she is over her sisters behavior.

I don't know who these women were, and there being so little historical record of them, it would be unfair to say Sally Christie's intimation of them is wrong. Obviously, historical fiction is about filling in the blanks; the caveat being, I cannot fathom why anyone would want to spend time with one of these women, let alone all five, if they were even remotely like the ones is Christie's book. We're talking about the King of France, who has his pick from countless beautiful women. I was also somewhat disappointed with the exclusion of any political background in the story; what is mentioned is glossed over; Versailles itself- grand enough to be a character all of its own- is barely mentioned, or described, and King Louis XV comes off as a petulant, clueless prat- and if I ever read the word "sororal" again, it will be too soon. It often comes off as being a story told by someone who is only guessing at the settings, having never been to them herself, and someone who is less a historian than they are a romance writer.

Ultimately, I think the problem was with me- I was expecting a meaty tome and really, this novel is fluff- a fun beach read, but there isn't a whole lot of history going on in it. I had a very hard time developing any kind of emotional response to these women, because they reminded me of caricatures from “Mean Girls”, 18th-century style. All this said, it wasn't an entire loss- it did introduce me to four women I'd like to read more about. This one would have been better served had they cut out the sex scenes and marketed as a YA novel, as the writing as times was slightly sophmoric. The next book in the series is supposed to center on Madame de Pompadour, and given how much we know about her, I'm going to give the novel a shot in the hopes that a better developed historical figure will yield a slightly more cultured and likable protagonist.

If you want something light and fun to read for the beach, you could give it a spin. If you're like me, and like a little more history with your historical fiction, skip it.