The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette (38 page)

While Axel Fersen was a real historical figure, and one who loved Antoinette dearly, Eric is an invention, as are Amélie and Sophie and the bushy-eyebrowed Father Kunibert. So far as is known, Antoinette never went to Sweden; there really were Knights of the Golden Dagger, but of their actual exploits almost nothing is known.

Historians cleave to their historical sources, and do not (if they are good at their craft) deviate far from what can reasonably be conjectured from those sources, if not precisely verified. Novelists invent: scenes, dialogue, motivations, entire story lines. Yet the invention here is tethered to all that I know about Antoinette and those around her; it is tempered by decades of research into the late eighteenth century, a rich slice of historical turf which I have spent so many years exploring, blade by blade.

My hope is that through the magic of stark, simplified, dramatic fictional narrative, the long-dead spirits of Antoinette and her circle may live again.