Versailles: A Biography of a Palace

If you wished to know how the Palace of Versailles came to be built and the manner in which the occupants lived there, this is the book for you. If you want a book written by an excellent writer whose "charm" infuses the writing, this is the book for you. The conventional historical details are given in the order of events. Beyond this, there are snapshots of the actual lives lived within the Palace in each era and phase of its construction. The author has created a well crafted tapestry of documentation based on actual diary and journal writings of the period. In this way,one can appreciate a fully fleshed set of images and human sensibilities. For those who have a special interest in French Eighteenth Century History in general and a desire to know more of an indepth "portrait" of the actual characters and those who worked for them and how they lived specifically, this volume will be enormously enriching. Finally, the author is first-rate. This is not a fluff or coffee table book. It is also very acessable and not scholarly to the point of being a cool calculated breakdown of events. The author has an elegant sense of humor and some related "tidbits" should be amusing to the reader. For example, not many books on Versailles tell you about the "bathroom facilities" or where everyone lived in the Palace if you were not the King or Queen themselves. My most marked response is having a sense of the "personalities" of the actual people of the period. My most delightful response was having a sense of the "personality" of the writer, who seems happy to relate the story and never to be pedantic. I felt I had spent a lovely time with him in a quiet place and shared in his extraordinay knowledge of his subject. I loved this book and hated for it to end. I would purchase anything written by Tony Spawforth. I would love to meet him. When writing is this good you feel uplifted and pleased not to have wasted a single minute of your time. Thomas Lee Randleman

This is not a "coffee table" picturebook of Versailles. There are plenty of those to be had. What's been missing from the literature on this subject has been a book that explains the workings of the palace, its social and political context and the routines and rhythms of day-to-day life in what was, essentially, an enormous gilded cage for the French nobility. This book begins to fill that niche. My only complaint would be that the author could have included a few more architectural drawings to illustrate the evolution of the palace and the changing arrangement of rooms over the reigns of the three kings of France who lived in Versailles. These developments are discussed in interesting detail, but the effect is diminished without a visual to assist the reader. Overall, a very good and interesting read.

I am going to Paris for the Olympics and my husband is taking me to Versailles on my birthday. We needed a reservation to go. The book has given me a lot of information on what I’m going to see.

This is a history of building the Palace and the people with the gifts and talents to put it all together. There is the entertainment, politics, mistresses and the ritualized pomp of ceremonies. Today it is a museum and I have wanted to go there since I was a boy. I love to read the how, why and who of beautiful architecture edifices and their contents of masterpieces,silver, gold, stone and wood, and the creative geniuses who shaped the pieces. The book title Basilica, R.A.Scotti, the building of Saint Peters is a good example. I read this book never thinking I would ever see this magnificent place, but a short time later I went to Rome, and seeing this beautiful masterpiece meant more to me. I hope to see Versailles one day.

I *LOVED* this book! I read it before a trip to France and it made my trip to the Palace of Versailles so much better. I even had lots of information that the tour guide didn't. The book is well written and very entertaining. It tells history from a different perspective and really makes it come alive. I highly recommend this book.

After touring the Palace of Versailles, I returned home eager to read more. This book was great at breathing life into Versailles. However, I gave it four stars because sometimes the timeline didn't seem to connect. Other times, I was given information that seemed on the edge of more, yet that was the all of it. It also wasn't always clear why the book jumped back and forth in time. Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I highly recommend it if you have an interest in Versailles. I wish I had read it before touring the palace. Thankfully, I had my iPod and took lots of pictures and video to look at as I read.

So informative about life at Versailles. If you are interested in Versailles you will learn so much about its history from a hunting lodge to a grand palace.

I usually don’t read this type of reading but I really enjoyed this book. The writing was very descriptive and it kept my attention.I would highly recommend this book for history lovers and people who would like to read something different.

Resalta a detalle como y porque fue construido el palacio lo explica muy bien

I have had my eye on this book for some time, so I was pleased to finally purchase it. The book is a witty romp through the years of Versailles splendour and fall from grace. It is full of information from the main historical events, what life was like for both monarchs, courtiers and servants who made up the rich tapestry of life that flowed through the corridors of the palace. A wonderful read.

A trove of stories of Versailles over the ages. Very engaging with great perspectives.

This gave an interesting perspective on the palace and its architecture/history/ usage. Having bought the Kindle version I was disappointed it didn't have any maps or drawings. With all the changes that occurred over the years things wee a bit confusing for me, trying to work out what it must have looked like, how it differed from what is seen today. I would have liked a bit more information too on the most recent years. Information was less dense from Napoleon 1 onwards. It was good to gain some information on the town of Versailles itself which, while it contains a few nice buildings still, seems to be losing some of it's historic charm by the way older buildings are used, gutted etc. A glossary on key personages would also have been helpful. Overall a good read, just not a great one.

When this book arrived, the first surprise was how light it was: I'd expected a Biography of the Palace of Versailles to be weighty with photographs and plans. There ARE some colour photos in the book, but they are very small, the selection is quirky, -and there aren't many of them! The author gives us a great deal of interesting information here, some of it leaving a visual impression on the imagination; this information would be enormously enhanced for the reader by being able to cast the eye on larger photographs of the wonderful rooms mentioned, and on more portraits of the brilliant historical characters who appear in the story and who gave life to this incomparable setting. Versailles is, par excellence, a VISUAL experience, and a biography of the palace's development should ideally be full of visual information to accompany the text. One day I hope the book might be republished together with scores of photos, (black-and-white, it doesn't matter!), so we can SEE all these enthralling figures, these kings and queens, these courtiers and artists, these ambassadors, lovers, and princes, and look at their faces as we read about them. As it stands, the book is very interesting; with the addition of a comprehensive collection of photographic references to accompany the text, it would become something even more.