Yeah...anyone who has been reading this blog for a while or follows me on Twitter knows that this review has been a long time coming.
After all, my fascination with old shojo is very well-documented. Then there's the fact that we waited FIVE YEARS for this series to finally reach print, and if not for shipping delays it would have taken this same spot last year. So all that's left to ask is this: was it worth the wait?
THE ROSE OF VERSAILLES (Berusaiyu no Bara), by Riyoko Ikeda. First published in 1972 and first published in North America in 2020.
PLOT:
Marie Antoinette is the precocious and pampered youngest child of Austrian empress Maria Therese. When young Marie is sent of to France to wed the young Dauphin, her family wonders if she will be able to adapt to the responsibilities of royalty within the decadent, scheming court of Versailles. Their fears are soon proven correct, as the young princess begins to lose herself in spending and her own emotions.
Oscar Francois de Jarjayes is the youngest child of a French general. Raised as a boy and her father's heir, her first assignment as a soldier is to protect Marie Antoinette on her way to Versailles. At first Oscar is skeptical of the coquettish princess and court life, but soon find herself caught up in its many scandals and won over by the princess's innocent and tender heart.
