Crimson Velvet Heart

There was a kind of grotesquerie to the dazzle and magnificence, a vicious underlay of thorns beneath the bed of roses, and a vast shadow floating, looming overhead. The kingdom was forever at war, and there was an eerie strangeness in the shining trio of the king, his wife, and the little princess from Savoy.

It is 1696. Louis XIV, absolute monarch in his sunset years, with his secret wife by his side, believes his grandson will succeed him and will continue the dynasty. As part of the spoils of war, he brings from Savoy, a child, a youthful bride for that grandson. In this bride the king gets more than he could ever have bargained for. She is enchanting, and he is bewitched. Has the king fallen madly in love with this Princess Marie-Adelade of Savoy? What exactly is the bond between these two?

At the court of Versailles, there is lavish magnificence including the vast gardens and the Hall of Mirrors. But it is also where dark, enchanting fairytales come to prominence. News of war is never far away. And tantalising beauty is undercut by threat. The tale is narrated in part by Sister Clare, a childhood friend of Marie-Adelade, who after losing the young man she loves to war and then the Princess to disease, becomes a nun. For Clare, it is her devoted mission to tell the story of Marie-Adelade, mother of the child who will become Louis XV.

Crimson Velvet Heart is a visionary novel on Adelade's life both strange and enthralling where Carmel Bird's exquisite language and rich understanding of history and human nature capture both the spirit and the mystery of love and loss.

This astounding novel speaks for devotion and wisdom even as it eviscerates the monstrous glory of 17th century France. Grounded in research, Carmel Bird's historical imagination is glitteringly bright. — Gregory Day