I have finally finished reading Sandra Gulland's book Mistress of the Sun for the second time round. One thing I learned is that books can be re-edited and re-published because the second book proves to me that some revisions had been made from the first book that I had read. That surprised me, but I am happy that the revisions were made as it makes this book a classic, and a wonderful read.
Sandra has written a beautiful and magnificent tribute to the first mistress of the Sun King Louis XIV. I am writing this review before I write the one for the discussion group, because I want to explain some things here for my own needs.
First of all, I had no idea of who Louis XIV had been when I first learned of his presence in France. I had gone to the local libraries and my inner solar plexus is why I kept returning to the Nancy Mitford book about the SunKing and eventually decided to read it. I pulled off other books on French kings as a whole at the Phoenix library branch, but it was at the Civic Center Main library in Scottsdale, AZ, where I found the first of many books about the SunKing. Frankly, my first impressions of all the kings was that they are all a bit pompous assed and a bit fussy but that is the lifestyle of a king. Little did I realize I might be a bit indifferent to myself.
So I had read probably one general book about the kings of France and one specific book about Louis XIV, mostly looking at portraits and illustrations more than reading the copy yet.
Because I was also tuned in to a local television show which emanated from the local two year college branch in Scottsdale, I was able to pick up France2 and France Vision from that local network. I sat and watched French news trying to see if I could improve upon my college effort to learn to speak and read and write French. I was a total abysmal failure at it. Still am not proficient in the language skills of the French language by any means.
As the saying goes, if you don't really need it, don't bother with it.
However, because of the influence of France2 and France Vision, I did once upon a time decide to see if I could have lived in the past, and wanted to know who I had been. I had already in California many years earlier learned that I had been of all people in the world, George Washington. That was a hard dose for me to swallow and to believe, as George is an American icon, and how can one claim to be that self important, I ask you. But I did do an exploratory, visited everything in Virginia that I could during the late 70's, and eventually concluded that my spiritual senses had told me true, that I had been the late general, eventually first president of the USA. What an irony as when I was a child I had wanted to become the first female president. Little did I know that I had already been the president so in a sense I have achieved that status. Surprise! Surprise!
So when I went under hypnotic trance, and came up with the fact that I had also been Louis XIV, I was really in double shock bigtime. How on earth could I have been both? But I checked out everything that I could about Mt. Vernon to compare to the Chateau, studied the two scrupulously, and finally concluded, truth is stranger than fiction, and that it is a great possibility, or I have the keys to the kingdom to unlock into the histories of two great men. One door leads to another, and before you know it, I began to realize that not only had I been George and Louis, but also Alexander the Great...that really totally overwhelmed me. I had no great love or admiration for Alexander but I have learned enough about him now as I had George and Louis to write a book, so that I intend to finish that project nwo that I have begun it too. That led me to another truth opening, and that is that I had also been Genghis Khan. That stupefied me, made me want to learn no more, even though I had made myself learn who I had been first on the earth, and I learned of cromagnon man, hunter, and that led me to some other books. My shelves support books for all these historical entities, while I puzzle out how it is that a single soul can be all things to all people at a variety of times in life, and is now singled out in my person in this lifetime to know of all of them and to piece it all out and make it sane and sensible. It has taught me many lessons.
So on that note, I truly appreciated the fact that Sandra Gulland who had written a series of books about Josephine, first wife Napoleon Bonaparte, also took an interest in the Grand Siecle, and wrote a book on the subject of Louis XIV's first mistress Louise de la Valliere.
I can see the care and devotion that Sandra took with this book. She is an interesting woman to consider in her years spent studying and researching the life of a young woman who is an innocent, who is a true friend to the King, and who is subjected to the life of the "wanton" woman in the court.
Sandra shows a sincere and deep interest in not only Louise but also the King, and she writes a beautiful love story. She uses an extended metaphor that reveals itself at the finish of the book as she opens her story with the young Louise having to come to grips with the superstitions of the day regarding devils, angels, heaven, and hell, while befriending a terrified and frightened great White horse.
I believe that the theme of Sandra's story is that virtue in and of itself, while often a barrier to many who are ambitious and self-seeking, is a reward of peace of mind, self satisfaction, and eternal contentment, or happiness. Virtue causes Louise to examine herself, respect herself, and save herself finally, while saving the metaphor of herself as well, Diablo, the great White horse who cannot be contained by anyone.
I enjoyed Sandra's writing skills as she creates an image of the times in a way that one can smell the conflicting odors and fragrances of human waste, excrement,in the dank hallways and corridors, stinking garbage thrown into the river, excessive perfumes worn by superfluous women of the court, and glorious garden flowers and wildflowers in the forests and manicured gardens of the various courts and palaces.
She opens the story with a reference to a "wanton" woman who is being ridiculed and shamed in the stocks because of her adulterous behaviour. At first, one wonders why she is even mentioned, except to show that adultery is not tolerated amongst the peasants, and that women suffer while men get by with it. Later in the story, Louise remembers this woman when she is reviewing her own "sinfulness" in her own open adulterous behaviour with the King.
She realizes that she too is equal to that woman despite her so called "rank".
Upon the second reading, I fell into the story and became a part of it. When I read it the first time, I was so ensnared with its plot that I sat a full day reading it at Border's to see if I would want to own it. There were places in the book that I had found offensive. I had identified with King Louis XIV so much as I have spent so much time inside him in a spiritual way that he is a part of me, and whether people believe in reincarnation, or psychic unique talents, I do not care which, when one knows someone's inner being that well, proves that it is true, that the Versailles does exist today even as it did then, then I know all that my inner knowledge is true, not fallacy. So with that in mind, I was very careful to protect my own self as I think well of myself today, not being an angel either, but not a fallen devil either. Sandra made me think of an old boyfriend of mine in one of her descriptions of Louise as Roger had said that about me then too. While maybe not exactly a virgin, I have a virgin mind, probably a virgin soul. So it was all very interesting in that way.
I identified with Louise due to my meeting with Jimmy Carter who I had not been overwhelmed with except to realize that he is the president, and that he is a very intelligent man, far brighter than ever credited, and certainly probably far more reasonable than most would know.
But like Louise, I am not tempted by high and mighty positions, so I have always had a natural sympathy for her, and Mme. Maintenon as well, for not being impressed with power in government. I am more impressed with spiritual powers myself, as I have cultivated those in myself, and have both clairaudience and clairvoyance. Those mean more to me than do self seeking high positions in life.
Sandra's version of Louise is quite fascinating to consider who Sandra Gulland really is, in her temperament, her imagination, her insights, and her needs. She clearly loves her topic, her subject matter, and she has the knack of writing prose and imagery that allows a reader like myself (compulsive) to read it through to the finish. I enjoyed it better second time round I admit, but I was compelled to read it to the finish the first time to learn how she would treat this subject matter about which I have become so involved.
I admit I was defensive, as I am very sensitive even yet about the status of the king, his personal life, his weaknesses, his ambitions, his goals, his inner soul which as I have already said is that of so many men before him who have had to likewise gain control and dominion over the face of the earth, bringing people together under rule, eventually always preparing for the days when the earth is truly of one mind and one harmony.
This has been a great spiritual journey for me. Surprisingly, using stimulus/response, I found a passage while reading Sandra's book that recalled a memory of two women in Genghis Khan's life. I realized then that Louise and Athenais had been those two women who I had seen so vividly in the life of the great Mongol Khan.
That made me think as I have also learned through spiritual means that Francois d'Aubigne had also been Borte, Khan's first wife, his childhood bride, who had he to become betrothed too when just a child. It all made sense to me when I thought of it. It is much easier to see these things after years, but it all takes time. Relating it to today and the persons involved today is another thing altogether. We are related to one another in many ways. I just know that many people are frightened to believe in my spiritual gleanings, while others are fascinated with them.
So as the saying goes, please all and you please none.
Mistress of the Sun is a wonderful read. I do see that two parts of the book which I had questioned have been re-edited, and I prefer the book I have in my hand to the one I read at Border's. But it also taught me that had I bought the first, I would have the two to compare side by side. This paperback edition is cleaned up so to speak, making me think of Caroline at the Word Processing group in Michigan. It is a great and wonderful book in this latest form, and I did not find it offensive at all.
Yes, I did not like that Sandra had the King call Louise a "whore" in a taunting way, accusing her, making him look like a fool. I know that type of man, and have met many like that. Calling Louise a "devil" to her face did surprise me at the kind of character she was creating the king to be. Men like women to be whores, but if something goes wrong, it angers me when they make the woman the victim. That was an author's creation. Nobody knows that Louis ever did say such a thing to Louise, but a story is often quoted about his being rude to her on his way to see Athenais, when he threw a dog called Malice at her. How that story came to be, I don't really know.
Sandra did reach my emotional well several times. I found myself tearing up a bit at times, especially the scenes between Louise, her mother, and then later, her own children. The book is a tearjerker in many ways, but Louise finds fit to redeem herself, finds a friend in a parish priest, and has learned that the King's confessors help him to acknowledge his own weaknesses and understand them. The authoress attempts to paint the King as a decent man after all.
Now from my perspective, because both Alexander and Genghis Khan both had had multiple wives and mistresses, it would only be natural for Louis XIV to have a normal and natural propensity to have to meet up with these women again in his role as King. Birthright is everything, and rebirthing is everything, bringing the same families and friends back together again repeatedly and repeatedly. I have learned that while nature reinvents itself and reproduces itself in the same manner over and over again, so does spiritual life relive and replay some vignettes over and over again and again.
Summing it all up, I am confident that before too very long, I will have my own book on Alexander concluded, published (whether with a publishing company or self publishing, it will be published), and then I will take up another effort to write another book maybe on the SunKing too. He lives within me. I know him very well. To me, Louise de la Valliere is a great example of a good girl whose conscience would not let her suffer any longer the indignities hoisted upon the "wanton" woman.
I loved the ending and conclusion of the book, the symbolism of Diablo, and the way in which Louise freed both her childhood love, the great White, and herself. I deplore the fact that her only choice was that of the Carmelite monastery as I felt it too great a form of self inflicted punishment. But Sandra Gulland makes it sound appealing, safe, and secure. I, too, have studied the life of Carmelite nuns. I am for a healthier attitude towards love of God, expression of that love, and working with the community.
God bless Sandra Gulland for writing a beautiful story. She will always be happy for her own creation. She gave Louise a great tribute, and as such, is a testimony to her own goodness.
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