The idol of lolies

I resently read a biography of Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser.

Fraser Writes in a way very sympathetic to the woman in question. The book is certainly not lacking of interesting details. Did you know that the woman accused of parting that ruined France was actually a teetotaller? (I'm always tempted to write that teatotaller...) And of course to our delight there are some pictures too. It paints a picture of a kind hearted woman, who certainly didn't have the inclination for politics expected of her by demanding mother, and later feared by the people of France. While she did escape the pressure put on her to produce an heir in an unconsumated marriage for years to material pleasures of pretty gowns and gambling, she eventually grew into a woman who kept her cool admirably in the face of the brutal revolution and a trial where she had no way to win and keep her head.

In the words from a another book, that was one of the favorites from my childhood:
"Whatever comes,” she said, “cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it. There was Marie Antoinette when she was in prison and her throne was gone and she had only a black gown on, and her hair was white, and they insulted her and called her Widow Capet. She was a great deal more like a queen then than when she was so gay and everything was so grand. I like her best then. Those howling mobs of people did not frighten her. She was stronger than they were, even when they cut her head off.” “A Little Princess” - Frances Hodgson Burnett