Bibliographie sur Madame Tussaud

Un roman écrit comme un conte sur le personnage fascinant de Madame Tussaud. Bien entendu, notre reine apparaît au détour que quelques pages...


Résumé

The world knows Madame Tussaud as a wax artist extraordinaire . . . but who was this woman who became one of the most famous sculptresses of all time? In these pages, her tumultuous and amazing story comes to life as only Michelle Moran can tell it. The year is 1788, and a revolution is about to begin.

Smart and ambitious, 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, and even politics. Her customers hail from every walk of life, yet her greatest dream is to attract the attention of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI; their stamp of approval on her work could catapult her and her museum to the fame and riches she desires. After months of anticipation, Marie learns that the royal family is willing to come and see their likenesses. When they finally arrive, the king's sister is so impressed that she requests Marie's presence at Versailles as a royal tutor in wax sculpting. It is a request Marie knows she cannot refuse-even if it means time away from her beloved Salon and her increasingly dear friend, Henri Charles.

As Marie gets to know her pupil, Princesse Élisabeth, she also becomes acquainted with the king and queen, 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 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 important, 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 tale



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Un avis de lecteur:

My Review

Marie walks on a razor’s edge, between the royal family she has come to know and respect and the revolutionary commoners who support her thriving business. As the revolution gains momentum, she must walk that line carefully, as anyone suspected of harboring royalist sympathies meets the guillotine during the Reign of Terror. With three brothers in the Swiss Guards, entrusted with protecting the king, and her uncle serving in the new regime’s military, she becomes a survivalist, doing whatever necessary, including making death masks of newly executed traitors, to stay alive.

This is a moving tale. Not only do we get a glimpse inside the life of a remarkable historical figure—a keen businesswoman who allowed no war, prison, or failed marriage to deter her rise to the top—we also get an inside look into the complexities of the revolution from a perspective that was close to both the crown and those who overthrew it. This is a more commonsense, realistic perspective from someone inside the fray. Ms. Moran has a very terse, blunt writing style that propels the plot onward even when the misery drags on and all seems lost. A great read!
http://www.novelpastimes.com/

Here is another novel called The Romance of Madame Tussaud, by John Theodore Tussaud, a real member of the family.



Description :
'Her biography may be said to comprise a tale of two cities'
The waxwork museum to which Madame Tussaud gave her name remains a popular London attraction.
However, the life that brought Marie Tussaud to London was one of terror, revolution and execution.

Learning her trade from a physician who excelled at wax modelling, Marie began her career innocently creating waxes of contemporary celebrities, such as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin.
In the 1780’s she was employed to teach the sister of Louis XVI votive making.

The French Revolution would shatter this life.

Arrested as a Royalist sympathiser, Marie was sentenced to die. Her head was shaved in preparation for the guillotine.
It was only her connection to the physician who trained her that saved Marie that day.
Her skill with wax was utilised and Marie found herself making wax models of the executed, including the King, Marie Antoinette and later, Robespierre…

The Romance of Madame Tussaud is an amazing history of an extraordinary time. Written by her great grandson, The Romance of Madame Tussaud is a captivating and insightful look into the life of Marie Tussaud herself and her fascinating museum.

About the author :
John Theodore Tussaud (1858 – 1943) was the great grandson of Marie Tussaud. Although his father had sold ownership of Madame Tussauds, John worked in the museum as manager and chief artist for many years. In 1935 John was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In addition to 'The Romance of Madame Tussaud', John wrote 'The Chosen Four' about Napoleon’s loyal supporters who followed him into exile at St. Helena.
https://s2.netgalley.com/catalog/book/98657