{"product_id":"9781466869141","title":"The Road from Versailles: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Fall of the French Monarchy","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat becomes of leaders when absolute power is wrested from their hands?  How does dramatic political change affect once-absolute monarchs?  In acclaimed historian Munro Price's powerful new book, he confronts one of the enduring mysteries of the French Revolution---what were the true actions and feelings of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as they watched their sovereignty collapse?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDragged back from Versailles to Paris by the crowd in October 1789, the king and queen became prisoners in the capital. They were compelled for their own safety to approve the Revolution and its agenda. Yet, in deep secrecy, they soon began to develop a very different, and dangerous, strategy.  The precautions they took against discovery, and the bloody overthrow of the monarchy three years later, dispersed or obliterated most of the clues to their real policy. Much of this evidence has until now remained unknown.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Road from Versailles\u003c\/i\u003e reconstructs in detail, for the first time, the king and queen's clandestine diplomacy from 1789 until their executions. To do so, it focuses on a vital but previously ignored figure, the royal couple's confidant, the baron de Breteuil. Exiled from France by the Revolution, Breteuil became their secret prime minister, and confidential emissary to the courts of Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlong with the queen's probable lover, the comte de Fersen, it was Breteuil who organized the royal family's dramatic dash for freedom, the flight to Varennes. Breteuil's role is crucial to an understanding of what Louis and Marie Antoinette secretly felt and thought during the Revolution. To unlock these secrets, \u003ci\u003eThe Road from Versailles \u003c\/i\u003edraws on highly important unpublished and previously unknown material.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeticulously researched and utterly fascinating, T\u003ci\u003ehe Road from Versailles\u003c\/i\u003e provides fresh insight into some of the most controversial events in modern history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"St. Martin's Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47175831552240,"sku":"9781466869141","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781466869141_p0.jpg?v=1769891828","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781466869141","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}