Title: Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution
Author: Michelle Moran
Publisher: Broadway
Publication Date: December 27, 2011
Pages: 464
Source: Publisher
From Goodreads:
The world knows Madame Tussaud as a wax artist extraordinaire…but who was this woman and how did she become one of the most famous sculptresses of all time? In these pages, her tumultuous story comes to life as only Michelle Moran could tell it. The year is 1788, and a revolution is about to begin…
Marie Tussaud has learned the secrets of wax sculpting by working alongside her uncle in their celebrated wax museum, the Salon de Cire. From her popular model of the American Ambassador, Thomas Jefferson, to her tableau of the royal family at dinner, Marie’s museum provides Parisians with the very latest news on fashion, gossip, even politics. Her customers hail from every walk of life, and when word arrives that the royals themselves are coming to see their likenesses, Marie never dreams that the king’s sister will request her presence at Versailles as a royal tutor in wax sculpting. Yet when a letter with a gold seal is delivered to her home, Marie knows she cannot refuse—even if it means time away from her beloved Salon and her increasingly dear friend, Henri Charles.
As Marie becomes acquainted with her pupil, Princess Élisabeth, she is taken to meet both Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, who introduce her to the glamorous life at court. From lavish parties with more delicacies than she’s ever seen, to rooms filled with candles lit only once before being discarded, Marie steps into to a world entirely different from her home on the Boulevard du Temple, where people are selling their teeth in order to put food on the table.
Meanwhile, many resent the vast separation between rich and poor. In salons and cafés across Paris, people like Camille Desmoulins, Jean-Paul Marat, and Maximilien Robespierre are lashing out against the monarchy. Soon, there’s whispered talk of revolution…Will Marie be able to hold on to both the love of her life and her friendship with the royal family as France approaches civil war? And more importantly, will she be able to fulfill the demands of powerful revolutionaries who ask that she make the death masks of beheaded aristocrats, some of whom she knows?
Spanning five years from the budding revolution to the Reign of Terror,Madame Tussaud brings us into the world of an incredible heroine whose talent for wax modeling saved her life and preserved the faces of a vanished kingdom.
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You guys know that I am all about the historical fiction. It is one of my favorite sub-genres of YA and I have made it a goal to read even more hist-fic novels in 2012. So, I was absolutely thrilled when Random House contacted me about reviewing Madame Tussaud and helping to introduce the novel to a different audience.
I was completely entranced with the story right from the very beginning. Marie Groscholtz (aka Madame Tussaud) is such a strong, independent woman and nothing like the typical women of her time. She isn’t concerned with marrying and having babies – she’s focused on her work as a wax sculptor and helping her uncle build their business into a world-renowned wax museum. Marie’s drive and determination made me instantly drawn to her and she never wavered during the story, making me love her even more.
The scenes throughout the story that helped depict the time period of the French Revolution could not have been described more perfectly by the author. You actually feel like you are right there in the crowds, or at the palace, or walking through the wax museum as a paying customer. I had such a vivid portrait in my mind of what everything looked like and that completely sucked me into the story even more.
Of course, the book wouldn’t be complete without a little romance. While it didn’t overpower the story, Marie’s romance with a certain someone did add a great amount of intrigue and sentiment that definitely played a role in her decisions. I can’t help but fall head over heels for romances in historical fiction and the romance in Madame Tussaud was no exception.
Even though Madame Tussaud is considered an “adult” novel, I think anyone who loves historical fiction will absolutely love this story. I cannot wait to read Michelle Moran’s other novels about strong women throughout history (see Nefertiti, Cleopatra’s Daughter, and The Heretic Queen).
