The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie

While they all came from the same family, they were vastly different. I think one of the things that worked really well in this novel, besides the historic details, was the relationship dynamics between the sisters. The research and attention to historical details was spot on! I was blown away by the details of the French court and I really loved Christie’s descriptions throughout the novel! This book is a must read simply for the amount of research and details that Christie put into her work! I thought this was an interesting touch and personally would have liked to have had her narrate the entire tale. The story started and ended with Hortense who was the only sister who doesn’t become one of the King’s mistresses. It was an interesting approach but for me it was a little bland.

Personally I would rather have it been told from one singular POV….it wasn’t poorly done by any means, for me personally I just wanted to identify with one character for a story like this. It almost made me feel like a casual observer rather than really being able to connect with a single character. I was kind of lukewarm about this approach. The novel is told basically in the third person through the use of letters/diary entries from multiple POVs. This story is stranger than fiction! Which is why this book was so fun to read! While it was a ‘historical fiction’ novel, there was a lot of research done at a non fictional level too and Christie blended the two together flawlessly.

Over the following decade, the four sisters: sweet, naive Louise ambitious Pauline complacent Diane, and cunning Marie Anne, will conspire, betray, suffer, and triumph in a desperate fight for both love and power. Well look no further than the five Nesle sisters….one at a time four of the five girls are thrown in the path of the King to warm his bed.įirst, the King’s scheming ministers push Louise, the eldest of the aristocratic Nesle sisters, into the arms of the King. So naturally what do courtiers do? They desperately search for a new woman to warm his bed….preferably one that will help advance their position at court. King Louis XV tends to get skipped over in popular literature because there are just so many other King Louis’ that are way more memorable than him….but come on? Four sisters and you make them all your mistress? That sounds like memorable to me!Īfter seven years of marriage, it’s becoming obvious that the King is growing tired of his wife. Four sisters all sharing one king….really?! How does that happen? Well that’s exactly what I wanted to know and that’s why I picked up THE SISTERS OF VERSAILLES.

The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie