Madame du Barry

Jeanne du Barry, courtesan and Louis XV's official mistress until his death, was the last of the French royal favourites, succeeding Madame de Pompadour. For four years she was feted as one of France's most beautiful women, patron of artists such as Fragonard and Vernet, yet she had been born into the most humble circumstances - the illegitimate daughter of a monk and a seamstress. On Louis XV's death she became vulnerable to those who secretly longed for her downfall. Marie Antoinette had her imprisoned, and in 1793 she was executed by the Revolutionary Tribunal for her aristocratic associations. In this incisive biography, Joan Haslip portrays du Barry as an ordinary woman, thrust into extraordinary circumstances - a victim of her own beauty. This is also a look at the dazzling world of life at the royal court of eighteenth-century France and the horrors of the Revolution.