Research & Resources
Unlike the Mailly-Nesle sisters, there is a ton of information out there about Madame de Pompadour and her life. So much so, in fact, that not all of it could make it into the book. Click here for some Omissions, as well as information on a few deliberate changes made to the factual history.
Madame de Pompadour and Louis XV
f you’re interested in reading more about Jeanne de Pompadour, here are three excellent English-language biographies:
Madame de Pompadour, by Nancy Mitford (1953). The gold standard. I love Mitford’s gossipy, readable style. Two more recent biographies are Madame de Pompadour, Mistress of France, by Christine Pevitt Algrant (2002), and Madame de Pompadour: A Life, by Evelyn Lever (2000). They are both highly readable and well researched, and each has a slightly different focus.
A very readable and engaging biography of Louis XV is Louis the Beloved: The Life of Louis XV, by Olivier Bertin. It’s revisionist in the sense that Bertin takes pains (sometimes rather painfully) to sketch a more nuanced and rounded portrait of Louis, and paint him in a more positive light, than other biographers have done.
Other Biographies & Non-Fiction Accounts (recent and 19th century)
Some of the more fanciful 19th century biographies are of limited historical value.
Madame de Pompadour: Sex, Culture and Power, by Margaret Crosland
Madame de Pompadour by Edmund & Jules Goncourt
Madame de Pompadour by Noel Williams
Madame de Pompadour: A Study in Temperament by Marcelle Tinayre
The 18th Century Woman by Olivier Bertin
First Gentleman of the Bedchamber: The Life of the Duke of Richelieu by Hubert Cole
France Under Louis XV by James Breck Perkins
Women of Versailles – The Court of Louis XV by Imbert Saint Amand
Louis XV intime et les petites maîtresses by Comte Fleury
Journal Historique, Ou Fastes Du Regne de Louis XV by Jean-Baptiste-Michel De Levy
Curiositees Historiques… sur Louis XV by Joseph Adrien Le Roi
Old Court Life in France by Frances Elliot
Contemporary Memoires
(links to some of these can be found at The Sisters of Versailles research page)
Where most of the information about the rivals and secondary characters comes from. Some of these have doubtful provenance and have to be taken with a grain of salt (or a teaspoon). Titles listed in English if translated.
Dictionnaire du Duc de Luynes (17 volumes!)
Memoires of Madame de Hausset
Memoires of the Duc de Richelieu
Memoires of the Duke de Choiseul
Mémoires de Monsieur le Prince de Montbarey
Journal historique et anecdotique du règne de Louis XV by Edmond Barbier
Journal and Memoirs of the Marquis d'Argenson
Memoires of the Comtesse de Genlis
Mémoires et lettres de François-Joachim de Pierre, cardinal de Bernis
General Life and Society in 18th Century France
Too many to list, but some good ones include:
France in the Enlightenment by Daniel Roche
The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon, by Colin Jones
Versailles: A Biography of a Palace by Tony Spawforth
Servants and Masters in 18th Century France, by Sarah Maza
Queenship in Europe 1660-1815 by Clarissa Campbell Orr
The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual--and the Modern Home Began by Joan Dejean
Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Paris by Nina Kushner
A History of the Gardens of Versailles by Michel Baridon
The Old Regime Police Blotter II: Sodomites, Tribads and Crimes Against Nature by Jim Chevallier
The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History by Robert Darnton
Men and Women of the Eighteenth Century by Arsene Houssaye
Useful Websites
General one with extensively detailed information on the Marquise: http://madamedepompadour.com/
For more information on all the "little mistresses" of Louis XV, the following two website are comprehensive:
Jardin Secret at http://donarussia.ek.la/
Favorites Royales at http://favoritesroyales.canalblog.com/
Dames et Filles d’Honneur des Cours Francais - list of every lady-in-waiting ever at the French Court:
http://roglo.eu/roglo?lang=fr;m=NOTES;f=Listes:Les_femmes_dans_Roglo:Dames_d_honneur#p_435
Fiction
There isn't a whole lot of biographical historical fiction about Louis XV and his mistresses, at least in English. When I was writing The Sisters of Versailles I wasn't originally planning a trilogy - I just assumed Madame de Pompadour and the Comtesse du Barry would have already been the subject of a lot of fiction. They weren't, at least in English, and thus my Mistresses of Versailles trilogy was born!
Jean Plaidy’s The Road to Revolution Trilogy: Louis the Well Beloved and The Road to Compiegne deal with Louis XV's reign. The third book, Flaunting, Extravagant Queen is about Marie Antoinette.
Our Lady of the Potatoes by Duncan Sprott, about the life of Marie-Louise O'Murphy (Morphise)
Madame de Pompadour and Louis XV
f you’re interested in reading more about Jeanne de Pompadour, here are three excellent English-language biographies:
Madame de Pompadour, by Nancy Mitford (1953). The gold standard. I love Mitford’s gossipy, readable style. Two more recent biographies are Madame de Pompadour, Mistress of France, by Christine Pevitt Algrant (2002), and Madame de Pompadour: A Life, by Evelyn Lever (2000). They are both highly readable and well researched, and each has a slightly different focus.
A very readable and engaging biography of Louis XV is Louis the Beloved: The Life of Louis XV, by Olivier Bertin. It’s revisionist in the sense that Bertin takes pains (sometimes rather painfully) to sketch a more nuanced and rounded portrait of Louis, and paint him in a more positive light, than other biographers have done.
Other Biographies & Non-Fiction Accounts (recent and 19th century)
Some of the more fanciful 19th century biographies are of limited historical value.
Madame de Pompadour: Sex, Culture and Power, by Margaret Crosland
Madame de Pompadour by Edmund & Jules Goncourt
Madame de Pompadour by Noel Williams
Madame de Pompadour: A Study in Temperament by Marcelle Tinayre
The 18th Century Woman by Olivier Bertin
First Gentleman of the Bedchamber: The Life of the Duke of Richelieu by Hubert Cole
France Under Louis XV by James Breck Perkins
Women of Versailles – The Court of Louis XV by Imbert Saint Amand
Louis XV intime et les petites maîtresses by Comte Fleury
Journal Historique, Ou Fastes Du Regne de Louis XV by Jean-Baptiste-Michel De Levy
Curiositees Historiques… sur Louis XV by Joseph Adrien Le Roi
Old Court Life in France by Frances Elliot
Contemporary Memoires
(links to some of these can be found at The Sisters of Versailles research page)
Where most of the information about the rivals and secondary characters comes from. Some of these have doubtful provenance and have to be taken with a grain of salt (or a teaspoon). Titles listed in English if translated.
Dictionnaire du Duc de Luynes (17 volumes!)
Memoires of Madame de Hausset
Memoires of the Duc de Richelieu
Memoires of the Duke de Choiseul
Mémoires de Monsieur le Prince de Montbarey
Journal historique et anecdotique du règne de Louis XV by Edmond Barbier
Journal and Memoirs of the Marquis d'Argenson
Memoires of the Comtesse de Genlis
Mémoires et lettres de François-Joachim de Pierre, cardinal de Bernis
General Life and Society in 18th Century France
Too many to list, but some good ones include:
France in the Enlightenment by Daniel Roche
The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon, by Colin Jones
Versailles: A Biography of a Palace by Tony Spawforth
Servants and Masters in 18th Century France, by Sarah Maza
Queenship in Europe 1660-1815 by Clarissa Campbell Orr
The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual--and the Modern Home Began by Joan Dejean
Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Paris by Nina Kushner
A History of the Gardens of Versailles by Michel Baridon
The Old Regime Police Blotter II: Sodomites, Tribads and Crimes Against Nature by Jim Chevallier
The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History by Robert Darnton
Men and Women of the Eighteenth Century by Arsene Houssaye
Useful Websites
General one with extensively detailed information on the Marquise: http://madamedepompadour.com/
For more information on all the "little mistresses" of Louis XV, the following two website are comprehensive:
Jardin Secret at http://donarussia.ek.la/
Favorites Royales at http://favoritesroyales.canalblog.com/
Dames et Filles d’Honneur des Cours Francais - list of every lady-in-waiting ever at the French Court:
http://roglo.eu/roglo?lang=fr;m=NOTES;f=Listes:Les_femmes_dans_Roglo:Dames_d_honneur#p_435
Fiction
There isn't a whole lot of biographical historical fiction about Louis XV and his mistresses, at least in English. When I was writing The Sisters of Versailles I wasn't originally planning a trilogy - I just assumed Madame de Pompadour and the Comtesse du Barry would have already been the subject of a lot of fiction. They weren't, at least in English, and thus my Mistresses of Versailles trilogy was born!
Jean Plaidy’s The Road to Revolution Trilogy: Louis the Well Beloved and The Road to Compiegne deal with Louis XV's reign. The third book, Flaunting, Extravagant Queen is about Marie Antoinette.
Our Lady of the Potatoes by Duncan Sprott, about the life of Marie-Louise O'Murphy (Morphise)
