She did not rise to becoming a queen of the people. Zweig’s use of “average” refers to how Marie Antoinette couldn’t find a way through historically challenging circumstances to realizing this path. This personal union between the great European and often conflicting royal dynasties of the Habsburgs and Bourbons stirred hopes which form the opening pages of the book. In doing so, he is certainly not negating the extraordinary potential of her marriage as an Austrian princess, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, to the future French King Louis XVI. Stefan Zweig, in his famous biography of Marie Antoinette, 1 published in 1932, describes her as an “average woman” (a strict translation of the original German would be “a mediocre character”). Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, “Marie Antoinette in Court Dress” (1778), oil on canvas, 107.5” x 76”, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Stefan Zweig’s The Portrait of an Average Woman, Seen Through Painting by Judith Brown
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