The Queen's Necklace

The Queen's Necklace is a novel by Alexandre Dumas that was published in 1849 and 1850 (immediately following the French Revolution of 1848). It is loosely based on the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, an episode involving fraud and royal scandal that made headlines at the court of Louis XVI in the 1780s.

For other uses, see The Queen's Necklace (disambiguation).
The Queen's Necklace
AuthorAlexandre Dumas
in collaboration with Auguste Maquet
Original titleLe Collier de la reine
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
GenreHistorical novel
Publication date
1849- 1850 (serialised)
Preceded byJoseph Balsamo 
Followed byAnge Pitou 

The Novel

The novel first appeared in serialised form in La Presse. The story takes place between 1784 and 1785. It is the second in a series of four novels focused on the character of Cagliostro, presented by Dumas as the man pulling all the strings of the affair.

Sources

The first chapters of the novel, which feature a dinner hosted by the old Marshal of Richelieu, were inspired by a text by Jean-François de La Harpe called The Prophecy of Cazotte.[1] In this passage, the Count of Cagliostro predicts the various guests (Lapérouse, the Countess of Barry, Condorcet and Gustav III of Sweden, the count of Haga), the tragic end that awaits them, and the execution of Louis XVI. This foreshadowing throws light on the tragic plot, as the reader already knows that the efforts of the protagonists, including the queen, to prove their innocence is doomed to failure.

  • Mme Campan, Memoirs of the Private Life of Marie Antoinette, Baldwin, 1823.

Adaptations

The plot of the novel was fully or partially included in adaptations for film and television, which also drew on the historical facts:

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References
  1. La Prophétie de Cazotte (in French)


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