Marie Antoinette

6R Hilaire Belloc. London: Methuen, 1909 From Christopher Foyle's Library (of Beeleigh Abbey)

Notes

Hilaire Belloc’s Marie Antoinette is a compact, sharply opinionated biography that reflects Belloc’s broader historical worldview as much as it does its subject. Rather than portraying Marie Antoinette as either a frivolous villain or a pure martyr, Belloc emphasizes her humanity, limitations, and gradual moral seriousness under pressure. He is particularly interested in how her foreignness, youth, and misunderstanding of French political culture made her an easy symbol onto which revolutionary anger could be projected. Belloc’s prose is brisk and argumentative, and he places her fate firmly within the larger tragedy of the French Revolution, presenting her not as its cause but as one of its most poignant casualties.

Christopher Foyle was closely associated with the legacy of Foyles Bookshop, one of Britain’s most famous independent bookstores, founded by his grandfather William Foyle in 1903. As chairman of the company, he helped guide the business in the late twentieth century, maintaining its reputation as a landmark of London literary life while overseeing a period of modernization. Deeply committed to books and publishing, Foyle saw bookselling not just as commerce but as a cultural mission, a value reflected both in his work with the shop and in his efforts to preserve and rebuild the great Foyle family library at Beeleigh Abbey.

Description

Full royal blue calf. 55 plates throughout. Three edge gilt. Gilt turn-ins, boarders, and details. Red and orange labels to spine. Scratch to upper board. Fine condition overall.