Hello all
I am have decided to do my big. research assignment for history on Marie Antoinette for my final year of school, and i want to do something like differing interpretations of Marie Antoinette, whether she was a "vicitm" or a "villain". There seems to be two distinct groups in regards to this, those that believe she was a victime [i.e naive, young, lot of responsibility, pressured to have chiled etc.] and villain [eg. reckless spender, not intelligent in running state, bad queen etc.]. I was wondering if any of the Marie Antoinette peeps on this website could help me with this. Why could she be considred a victim/villain? What reasons could she be defined as that? Current/Past views and if they've changed? Thanks alot mes amis

monsieur l'Ambassadeur ,

at first, welcome here!
In the time of the revolution (for me, it took from may 1789 to summer 1830, but of course everybody redefines it) as topical political state changed, general opinion about the queen was also changed.
Under the Bourbon Restoration, for example, Marie Antoinette's awarding was much more better than during the republican times or Bonaparte's reign. There were always people who respect the last queen of France, but the main point of view bottomed on political situation.
Nowadays people can draw on many books and online source, but less inquisitives have only the way of rumour (or quite unreliable films).

Merci Princesse Anouk,
You may be shocked at my ignornace lol ... but what exactly was the Boubon Restoration? Is that when they got married?

Its' the feeling you get after two stiff Jack Daniels and coke...

Yeah, exactly

Bourbon Restoration began in 1815 by the exile of Bonaparte and the domination of Louis XVIII, younger brother of Louis XVI (Comte de Provence). It was an approximate restoration of the Ancient Régime...

you have no idea how excited I was when I saw this thread!

I am doing the exact thing for my extension history assignment - what I'm focusing on is the different interpretations of Marie Antoinette and how and why they differ.
I haven't really got anything to contribute yet, but I'm hoping that we can help eachother seeing as we're doing the same thing.

Has anyone got any notable historians I should look up?

Look up Antonia Fraser's biography, Nesta Webster's, Zweig's in translation. That would get you a good oversight already.

I would also suggest you browse through the Literature thread http://forum.marie-antoinette.org/viewforum.php?f=11

and Marie Antoinette http://forum.marie-antoinette.org/viewforum.php?f=3.

There have been many students come here and ask similar questions as yourself.