Francine du Plessix Gray gives us an intimate look at the French royal family in "The Queen's Lover." Told in the first person by either Swedish Count Axel von Fersen or his sister Sophie, the book examines the politics and personal lives of the Bourbon royal family and their supporters in pre- and post-Revolutionary France.

Gray was given access to von Fersen's diaries and letters that were recovered after his death, and all of the quotations from correspondence are taken directly from those original documents. The result is that we see a perspective on Marie Antoinette (von Fersen was in love with her and, presumably, her lover as well) and Louis XVII. The picture is far more sympathetic, needless to say, than much of the contemporary material still available for review. The republicans were not quite so kind to the Bourbon family, even before the trial and execution of the majority of them.

Gray is an entertaining author who brings us right into the action of the time. I am something of a student of French history and found her examination of the politics on both sides of what most of Europe called "le mal francais" to be spot-on.

Admirers of well-researched historical fiction will find much to like here.

(Review based on uncorrected advance proof.)