Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution
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Culottes: knee breeches.
Dauphin: the heir to the throne of France.
Deputy: an elected or nominated member of a government or committee.
Eaux de propreté: lotions used for personal cleanliness.
Émigrés: the tens of thousand of mostly aristocratic exiles who left France after the fall of the monarchy. Many plotted a counterrevolution and their eventual return.
Estates: the three orders of society: clergy, nobility, and commoners.
Estates-General: an assembly summoned in 1789 to advise the king at Versailles on issues of finance and politics. It comprised roughly one-half commoners and one-fourth each clergy and nobility.
Fauteuil: a chair with arms.
Fête: a grand celebration or party.
Fichu: a kerchief worn in front of a lady’s bodice.
Firedogs: metal instruments designed to hold wood inside a fireplace.
Gaul: the Roman provinces corresponding to the modern countries of Belgium, France, and Switzerland.
Grand Couvert: an antechamber in the queen’s apartment.
Heder: a Jewish children’s school, often in the home of the rabbi.
Holy Roman Emperor: the official title of the man who was King of Hungary, Archduke of Austria, and Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Hôtel de Ville: city hall.
Jacobin Club: a revolutionary group that met in a former Jacobin (Dominican) monastery on the Rue Saint-Honoré. The Club became a focus of increasing radicalism, and chapters spread throughout France. Widely seen as the incubator of the Terror, the Paris chapter was closed by the National Convention in 1794.
Laiterie: a dairy.
Legislative Assembly: the political body that succeeded the National Assembly in 1791 and ended with the declaration of the French Republic a year later.
Lettres de cachet: Hated symbols of the monarchy, these were sealed instructions directly from the king that had the power to, among much else, imprison without trial. Voltaire was famously incarcerated in the Bastille by one of these documents.
Libelles: satirical pamphlets noted for their biting political attacks.
Libellistes: writers and publishers of libelles.
Livre: a unit of currency (divided into twenty sous) originally valued at one pound of silver.
Maquereau: a pimp.
Marchande: a merchant.
Ménage: a household unit.
Muff: a fashion accessory usually made of fur and used as a hand warmer.
Muscadins: anti-Jacobin street touts, often armed with metal clubs and known for their foppish dress.
National Convention: After the fall of the monarchy in 1792, this seven-hundred-member body was elected to write a Constitution.
National Guard: citizens’ militias that spontaneously arose to defend cities from the outbursts of street crime and mob violence during the Revolution.
Orangerie: similar to a greenhouse, a building where orange trees and other fruits could be grown.
Panniers: hoops intended to extend the sides of a skirt while leaving both the front and the back flat. The hips were widened dramatically to display the fine embroidery or painting on a dress.
Patrie: country, fatherland.
Peyos: sidelocks worn by Orthodox Jews.
Robe à la française: a satin dress with a tight-fitting bodice and a voluminous, hooped skirt.
Salle: a room.
Sans-culottes: the trouser-wearing commoners, who preferred this simpler dress style to the knee breeches of the upper classes.
Santons: “little saints” or clay nativity scenes that came to replace the larger but banned church displays in revolutionary France.
Sou: a coin valued at one-twentieth of a livre.
Tableau: an arranged scene.
Tabouret: a padded stool.
Taille: a direct tax by the crown, levied on land owned by commoners.
Third Estate: the common people, as opposed to the clergy (First Estate) and the nobility (Second Estate).
Tocsin: an alarm bell.
Tuileries: a palace and garden complex that housed Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette after their removal from Versailles. The Tuileries, or tile works, were later used by both the National Convention and Napoléon. The site is now a garden, adjacent to the Louvre museum.
Tumbrel: a two-wheeled cart used to carry condemned prisoners to the guillotine.
“Vive le roi!”: a toast and rallying cry for royalists meaning “Long live the king!”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AS ALWAYS, MY DEEPEST AND MOST HEARTFELT THANKS GO TO MY family. I could not imagine life as a writer without the support of my infinitely generous husband, Matthew Carter, who knows more about the publishing industry than any husband should ever have to. I am also thankful to my father, who passed on his love and passion for history, and to my mother for her constant and unwavering support. To my brothers, Robert Moran and Robert Small, thank you for your unflagging encouragement. And to the many friends who have supported me behind the scenes, I hope to repay you in kind someday. Long before I was ever published, my friends and family considered me a writer, and this is one of the greatest gifts an author can receive: belief and encouragement.
I have also been incredibly fortunate in my relationship with Crown, a division of Random House filled with some of the most dedicated and wonderful people in the publishing industry. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my copy editor, Susan Brown; to my production editor, Cindy Berman; and to both Patty Berg and Jay Sones in marketing, Dyana Messina in publicity, Jennifer O’Connor in the art department, and Kira Peikoff. Crown’s sales team has seen to it that my novels have been distributed far and wide, and I am deeply appreciative of their support. And to Laura Crisp, who was the driving force behind Target’s pick of Nefertiti as one of their Book Club selections, I cannot thank you enough.
Of course, my biggest thanks of all goes to Heather Lazare, my editor extraordinaire. An editor’s job extends far beyond the process of editing, yet Heather wears multiple hats with ease, making every day an absolute pleasure to work with her.
To Giulliana Benavides, Jessica Bracamontes, Sarah Crosthwaite, Chantelle Doss, and Ashley Turner, tremendous thanks for helping me sort through all of my research on Versailles and the French Revolution. And none of that research would have been possible without the incredible scholars who have written about the eighteenth century. Of the many books I used as resources, there are some that stand out as having been indispensable. Kate Berridge’s wonderful biography entitled Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax comes to mind, as does Caroline Weber’s Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, Antonia Fraser’s Marie Antoinette: The Journey, Elisabeth de Feydeau’s A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette’s Perfumer, and Simon Schama’s Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution.
I am enormously grateful to Kathy, Dusty, and Ashley Rhodes, who allowed me to write this novel in their historic home in Southern California. And I owe a similar debt of gratitude to the many wonderful bloggers who have written about my books—the blogging community is very dear to my heart!
Last, I would like to thank my fantastic agent, Dan Lazar, whose guidance and advice have been invaluable to me. I have never known anyone who works so passionately at what they do. And to Maja Nikolic and Angharad Kowal, who have helped bring this novel to readers around the world, I am exceptionally grateful.
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Time Line for the French Revolution
Map
Characters
Author’s Note
Prologue: London: 1812
Chapter 1 - Paris: December 12, 1788
Chapter 2 - December 21, 1788
Chapter 3 - January 16, 1789
Chapter 4 - January 30, 1789
Chapter 5 - Febr
uary 3, 1789
Chapter 6 - February 4, 1789
Chapter 7 - March 28, 1789
Chapter 8 - April 2, 1789
Chapter 9 - April 3, 1789
Chapter 10 - April 7, 1789
Chapter 11 - April 9, 1789
Chapter 12 - April 12, 1789
Chapter 13 - April 29, 1789
Chapter 14 - April 30, 1789
Chapter 15 - May 1, 1789
Chapter 16 - May 3, 1789
Chapter 17 - May 4, 1789
Chapter 18 - May 5, 1789
Chapter 19 - May 8, 1789
Chapter 20 - May 29, 1789
Chapter 21 - June 4, 1789
Chapter 22 - July 3, 1789
Chapter 23 - July 11, 1789
Chapter 24 - July 12, 1789
Chapter 25 - July 13, 1789
Chapter 26 - July 14, 1789
Chapter 27 - July 15, 1789
Chapter 28 - July 16, 1789
Chapter 29 - July 18, 1789
Chapter 30 - July 22, 1789
Chapter 31 - September 7, 1789
Chapter 32 - October 10, 1789
Chapter 33 - October 5, 1789
Chapter 34 - October 7, 1789
Chapter 35 - October 20, 1789
Chapter 36 - December 25, 1789
Chapter 37 - 1790
Chapter 38 - April–June 1791
Chapter 39 - June 21, 1791
Chapter 40 - June 22, 1791
Chapter 41 - September 14, 1791
Chapter 42 - November 29, 1791
Chapter 43 - April 20, 1792
Chapter 44 - June 19, 1792
Chapter 45 - July 6, 1792
Chapter 46 - July 25–August 14, 1792
Chapter 47 - August 28, 1792
Chapter 48 - August 29, 1792–September 2, 1792
Chapter 49 - September 2, 1792
Chapter 50 - September 21, 1792–January 17, 1793
Chapter 51 - January 20–21, 1793
Chapter 52 - January 25, 1793
Chapter 53 - January 31, 1793
Chapter 54 - February 17, 1793
Chapter 55 - April 7, 1793
Chapter 56 - June 1, 1793–July 5, 1793
Chapter 57 - July 1793
Chapter 58 - August–October 1793
Chapter 59 - November 6–8, 1793
Chapter 60 - March–May 1794
Chapter 61 - May 1794
Chapter 62 - June 15, 1794–July 1794
Chapter 63 - July 28, 1794
Epilogue: England: August 11, 1802
After the Revolution
Historical Note
Glossary
Acknowledgments