de Feydeau, Elisabeth

PERSONAL:

Education: Studied at the Sorbonne.

ADDRESSES:

Home—France.

CAREER:

Versailles School of Perfumers, Versailles, France, professor. Cultural advisor to French perfume houses, including Chanel and Guerlain.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Grand Prix Guerlain, for Jean-Louis Fargeon, parfumeur de Marie-Antoinette.

WRITINGS:

(With Freddy Ghozland and Marie-Christine Grasse) L'un des sens: le parfum au XXe siecle, Milan (Toulouse, France), 2001.

Jean-Louis Fargeon, parfumeur de Marie-Antoinette, Perrin (Paris, France), 2004, translation by Jane Lizop published as A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette's Perfumer, I.B. Tauris (London, England), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Elisabeth de Feydeau studied the history of perfume at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, and then went on to teach at the Versailles School of Perfumers. Her studies led her to the discovery of recipes for the perfumes favored by Marie-Antoinette and were the inspiration for the release of a new scent. Sillage de la Reine ("In the Wake of the Queen") was designed by premier French perfumer Francis Kurkdjian and contains a number of essences, including jasmine, tuberose, rose, vanilla, musk, lavender, ambergris, orange blossom, cedar, sandalwood, and iris. Eight and a half ounces in a Baccarat crystal flask became available at a cost of more than ten thousand dollars.

Jean-Louis Fargeon, parfumeur de Marie-Antoinette, translated as A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette's Perfumer is a history of the perfumer to the queen, a man who also became her loyal friend and confidante. Included are eighteenth-century beauty secrets and a study of life at the palace. The book follows the fate of the monarchy and Fargeon, who became a member of the royal court. Fargeon was a wealthy man, making him a target during the Revolution and although arrested, he did not go to trial. The author, who is sympathetic to Marie-Antoinette, speculates that the queen's scent may have given her away as she fled Paris. Booklist reviewer Brad Hooper wrote that the book's introduction "provides one of the clearest summaries of the French Revolution to be found anywhere."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July 1, 2006, Brad Hooper, review of A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette's Perfumer, p. 24.

Publishers Weekly, May 22, 2006, review of A Scented Palace, p. 45.

ONLINE

Globe and Mail Online (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), http://www.theglobeandmail.com/ (May 21, 2005), Bernard Besserglik, "The Scent of a Doomed Queen."

Washington Post Online,http://www.washingtonpost.com (January 18, 2007), Molly Moore, "Traces of Marie Antoinette, Caught in a Phial of Perfume."

Times Online (London, England), http://women.timesonline.co.uk/ (August 5, 2006), Hannah Betts, review of A Scented Palace.