Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette (P.S.)

Epigraph

Author’s Note

ACT ONE

An Island in the Rhine River, May 1770

Strasbourg

Inside the Blue Coach

What of the Light?

The Map to Marriage

The Nunnery

In the Forest of Compiègne

In the Depths

A Mistake at the Château de La Muette

Versailles: A Royal Wedding, Wednesday, 16 May 1770

The Next Night

The Cup of Chocolate

Versailles: The Bedchamber

Time Passes

A Letter from the Empress

Hunting at Compiègne

After the Hunt

A Vow

ACT TWO

The Princesse de Lamballe, Carnival 1771

In the Garden: A Dragon

A Tempest

Madame, My Very Dear Mother

The Empress’s Reply

Count Mercy Offers Advice on the Last Day of the Year, 31 December 1771

New Year’s Day, 1772

Madame, My Dear Daughter

Madame, My Very Dear Mother

Entering Paris, 8 June 1773

Madame, My Dear Mother

The Land of Fantasy: A Snowy Night, 30 January 1774

Winning and Sometimes Losing, Spring 1774

The Land of Intrigue: An Adventure in the Château de Versailles

The Chevalier Gluck

The Hall of Mirrors

Iphigénie en Aulide,
19 April 1774

The Maid of Versailles

Catastrophe

ACT THREE

The First Gift of the New King to His Wife

Maria Theresa to Marie Antoinette

The Château de Marly, June 1774

The Dressmaker

Hunger and Riots

Entering Rheims

Before the Throne of God

Marie Antoinette to Her Mother, Empress of Austria

An Heir to the Throne of France, August 1775

Fontainebleau: A New Friend, Comtesse de Polignac

Amusements

The Queen’s Bed

Indecent Verses

Madame, My Most Dear Mother

Madame, My Very Dear Daughter

Dawn

A Visit by the Queen’s Brother, Joseph II, Emperor of Austria

Letter of Joseph II, Emperor of Austria, to His Brother Leopold Concerning the Conjugal Relations of the King and Queen of France

The Aftermath of the Visit

A Bath, 18 August 1777

My Dear Mother

To Honor the King, the Opening of the New Gardens at Trianon

Madame, My Dear Daughter

Madame, My Most Dear Mother

My Dear Daughter

My Very Dear Mother

The Générale Is Tardy! April 1778

Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun

The Bavarian Question

Madame, My Very Dear Mother

The Return of Count Axel von Fersen, of Sweden

Giving Birth, 19 December 1778

Farewell to Count von Fersen

ACT FOUR

The Death of the Empress of Austria

A Friend

Letter from Axel von Fersen

Letter to Axel von Fersen

Red Stockings

The Hope of France, 22 October 1781

Joyful Noise

Simplicity

The Return of Fersen from America, 15 July 1783

Montauciel

A Bitter Birthday, 1783

Balloonmania

A Double Portrait, Spring 1784

The Season of the
Hameau

Portrait of a Queen in Blue Satin, Holding a Pink Rose

Theater, 1785

The Birth of Louis Charles

A Fall from a Great Height

Midsummer

A Hoax in Diamonds

Sad Days

The Verdict of the Trial of Cardinal de Rohan, etc.

Portrait in Red

Matters Grave and Financial

Sophie

On the Fate of Charles I, of England

In the Town of Versailles, May 1789

Grief

The Revolution of 1789

ACT FIVE

The Tuileries, Paris; Fall and Winter 1789

The New Year, the Tuileries, 1790

Escape from Paris

Fersen

The Tower, 1792

Terror, Fury, and Horror Seize the Earthly Powers

End of the Monarchy

To the Conciergerie

The Death of Marie Antoinette