La Reine Margot (novel)

"Queen Margot" (French "La Reine Margot") is a novel written in 1845 by Alexandre Dumas, père, whose previous works include "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers". It is set in Paris in August 1572 during the reign of Charles IX (a member of the Valois dynasty) and the French Wars of Religion. The novel's protagonist is Marguerite de Valois, the daughter of the infamous Catherine de' Medici and the deceased King Henry II, and it focuses on her story during the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, especially her love affair with the Protestant La Mole and her marriage to Henry IV.

Although all the characters and events are historically accurate there are certain irregularities in Dumas's novel which historians have put down to 'artistic license' and the fact that he might have been influenced by propaganda against certain characters, Queen Catherine specifically. Written in French, it was almost immediately translated into English, appearing in the United States as "Marguerite de Valois." It is currently available in the Oxford Classics series.

Several movies were based on the novel, including:
* "La Reine Margot (1910 film)"
* "La Reine Margot (1954 film)"
* "La Reine Margot (1994 film)", a 1994 film starring Isabelle Adjani and Daniel Auteuil. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Costume Design.

External links

*gutenberg|no=13856|name=La reine Margot — Tome I (French)
*gutenberg|no=13857|name=La reine Margot — Tome II (French)
*" [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=bvvDZvtzKzYC&dq=%22LA+REINE+MARGOT%22&prev=http://books.google.com/books%3Fq%3D%2522LA%2BREINE%2BMARGOT%2522%26as_brr%3D0&pg=PP1&printsec=0&lpg=PP1&sig=_w9e-kMgrsM9c-67lVP-UBsnLOE La Reine Margot] ", English translation at [http://books.google.com books.google.com] (Oxford World's Classics, ISBN 0-19-283844-X)
*" [http://books.google.com/books?id=1Dk98ImOt8EC&pg=PP14&dq=dumas+marguerite+de+valois Google Library 1900 English language edition] "