Chronicles the sprawling saga of Empress Maria Theresa--one of the most renowned women rulers in history--and three of her extraordinary daughters, including Marie Antoinette, the doomed queen of France.

Empress Maria Theresa was a sovereign of uncommon strength and vision, the only woman ever to inherit and rule the vast Habsburg Empire in her own name. Goldstone tells her sprawling saga of the Empress, and of three of her daughters, unfolding against a backdrop of brilliant courts from Vienna to Versailles, embracing the exotic lure of Napes and Sicily, and wrapped in desire, adventure, ambition, treachery, sorrow, and glory. -- adapted from jacket.