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Spawforth, Antony,

Versailles : a biography of a palace / Tony Spawforth. - First edition - New York : St. Martin's Press, 2008. - xii, 304 pages, [8] pages of plates : illustration ; 25 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This book is about the “real" Versailles: the historical reality behind a palace that achieved mythic stature almost as soon as it had been built. Versailles was once "réal" in a sense of a French word already antiquated when Versailles was being built: a royal palace, seat of what at the time (the later seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries) was the most charismatic monarchy in Europe. The atmosphere of leg-end around Versailles draws strength from the tragic ingredients of its royal story. A beautiful palace built by a proud king blazed with glory for a century.Then, abruptly, comeuppance arrived with a revolutionary mob that burst in and led off the king's hapless descendants to a gory death. -- Preface

ISBN: 9780312357856 0312357850

LCCN: 2008024757

Subjects--Corporate Names:
Château de Versailles (Versailles, France)--History.

Subjects--Topical Terms:
Monarchy--History.--France

Subjects--Geographic Terms:
Versailles (France)--Buildings, structures, etc.
France--Court and courtiers--History.

Index Terms--Curriculum Objective:
Architecture, Bachelor of Science in :--History of Architecture 1 to 4--ARC115, ARC215, ARC226, ARC315

LC Class. No.: DC 801.V57 / .2008 S63