Description

About the Author

Sena Jeter Naslund is the author of six novels and two short story collections. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she is a winner of the Harper Lee Award, a Distinguished Teaching Professor and Writer-in-Residence at the University of Louisville, and the program director of the Spalding University brief-residency MFA in Writing.

Praise for Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette…

“Naslund’s writing is rich with minute details that put the reader into the world of Versailles. A page-turner.”
-Birmingham News

“The portrait that emerges is sympathetic but realistic...Absorbing.”
-Columbus Dispatch

“Intimate experiences and thoughts run beautifully rampant through the pages...[a] smart delicious lesson in history.”
-Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“The novel is abundant, full of color and detail. . . . An engaging portrait of one of history’s bright-colored butterflies.”
-Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Lush with description and deep with historical detail...Marvelous.”
-Library Journal

“Hypnotically intimate…With vivid detail and exquisite narrative technique, Naslund exemplifies the best of historical fiction.”
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Readers of serious historical fiction will revel in it.”
-Booklist (starred review)

“Naslund mixes historical observation with delight and tension that makes it hard not to turn the page.”
-San Diego Union-Tribune

“With skillful dialogue Naslund re-creates a time and place fresh and fearsome.”
-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“ABUNDANCE is intelligent, beautifully written, and uncomfortably relevant, and Naslund makes her heroine convincing and even sympathetic.”
-Boston Globe

“Fascinating...A richly detailed look at the doomed queen.”
-Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Naslund uses her words as if they were a camera to record life in late 18th century France.”
-Sunday Denver Post

“Opulent. . . . Recreates the glories of Versailles and the political malice that wafts through its many doorways.”
-Daily News

“Exceptional...A richly detailed portrait of an opulent, turbulent time. 4 stars.”
-People

“A wealth of period details...even the most cynical reader will wish for a last-minute pardon.”
-Christian Science Monitor

“Sumptuous...gripping...beautifully poignant. If you read one book about Marie Antoinette, let it be Sena Jeter Naslund’s.”
-USA Today

“Perceptive and literate.”
-Richmond Times-Dispatch

“An enthralling work of fiction, one that captures the details of a family reign and a time period long gone.”
-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Intensive historical inquiry enables Naslund to re-create Marie Antoinette’s life with empathy and irresistibly piquant detail.”
-Seattle Times

“Both a realistic and romantic novel (with) immediately engaging characters...offers a rich, panoramic depiction of an age.”
-Raleigh News & Observer

“An absorbing, detailed read.”
-Buffalo News

“Naslund recreates Marie so sympathetically that we can’t help aching for the queen.”
-Washington Post

“Enchanting...Opulent and fabulous, as encrusted with detail as one of Marie’s shimmering dresses...a complete page turner. Grade: A”
-Entertainment Weekly

“Scrupulously researched and vividly presented . . . it’s an irresistible story and Naslund handles its big moments with impressive assurance.”
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)