From the author of How Paris Became Paris, a sweeping history of high finance, the origins of high fashion, and a pair of star-crossed lovers in 18th-century France.
Joan DeJean has been Trustee Professor at the University of Pennsylvania since 1988. She previously taught at Yale and at Princeton. She is the author of eleven books on French literature, history, and material culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including most recently How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City (2014); The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual--and the Modern Home Began (2009); The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour (2005). She lives in Philadelphia and, when in Paris, around the corner from the house where, in 1612, this story began.
A fascinating true story based on formidable detective work in the
archives.
*Valerie Steele, Director and Chief Curator, Museum at the Fashion
Institute of Technology*
A convincing recreation of a feverish period in French history . .
. DeJean guides the reader sure-footedly through the labyrinth of
financial and family law, low and high politicking and general
skulduggery that characterised the era . . . A fascinating and
original book whose central importance is to have captured the
turmoil, confusion and sometimes sheer wickedness that accompanied
the formation of early modern capitalism.
*Financial Times*
The tale of two 17th- and 18th-century French families, a story
that begins as a fairy tale and ends as a nightmare.
*Kirkus*
[The Queen’s Embroiderer] features guild-hopping, inheritance
fraud, domestic abuse, eloping to England, sending toddlers to
their deaths, locking the gates against the poor, and the
occasional escape from a chain gang. There's an impressive depth of
research—this is, as much as anything else, a mystery about the
manipulation of record-keeping and identity . . . Some aspects of
the wider upheaval are striking, as DeJean builds a credible
picture of the mania of a nation becoming an empire: Monarchy as
economy, war as opportunity, slavery as profit margin. . . . That
there are so few loose ends in this two-century saga is a testament
to DeJean's research.
*NPR.org*
Joan DeJean tells the strange story of the Magoulet and Chevrot
families, who rose to prominence as financiers and embroiderers to
the French court . . . and shows how love and money made
uncomfortable bed-mates.
*Recommended Reads, New Statesman*
This exceptional and thoroughly researched book follows two
prominent Parisian families from the 1600s to the French Revolution
(1789-1799).
*Piecework*
As richly and intricately wrought as a French tapestry. Beautifully
written and highly recommended.
*Historical Novel Society*
DeJean is, in many ways, the perfect guide to the lives of Jean and
Louise Magoulet and the darkly glittering, labyrinthine city in
which they lived . . . Were it not for her, the full range of
Magoulet’s crimes would remain unknown. Her command of the period
and the most minute details of its social, cultural and economic
life is masterful . . . DeJean is a spirited observer of the
past.
*Literary Review*
The Queen's Embroiderer reads like a riveting page turner ripped
from today’s headlines.
*New Orleans Magazine*
A tale of intrigue and finance in 18th-century France. And what a
story it is! . . . Reading The Queen’s Embroiderer is a bit like
listening to a fascinating, erudite lecture or examining an
elaborate piece of needlework. . . . If your plans for springtime
in France haven’t materialized, don’t despair. Just open The
Queen’s Embroiderer and you’ll find yourself transported.
*Bookpage.com*
In this twisted tale of two French families, DeJean interweaves the
rise and fall of the Magoulets and the Chevrots, who took divergent
paths to wealth, power, and ignominy . . . the fascinating details
of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Parisian fashion, politics,
and feuds will reward persevering readers.
*Booklist Online*
Wittily written and impeccably researched . . . DeJean nimbly
demonstrates the city’s postcard-perfect charm owes much to the
vision of two savvy monarchs.
*New York Times Book Review on HOW PARIS BECAME PARIS*
This lively history charts the growth of Paris from a city of
crowded alleyways and irregular buildings into a modern marvel.
*New Yorker on HOW PARIS BECAME PARIS*
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