THE MYRTLE WAND

A historical novel set in 17th-century France focuses on the court of the Sun King.

Porter’s fictional elaboration on the celebrated ballet Giselle, with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, opens at the Ursuline convent school in Niort during the reign of King Louis XIV. There, readers meet little Princess Bathilde, her friend Myrte Vernier, and new arrival to the school Françoise d’Aubigne, who is dropped off one day by her haughty guardian, the Baronne de Neuillant. Françoise is welcomed by the school’s mother superior, who takes in girls left at Ursuline for all kinds of reasons (“Families thrust their girls into the convent to be rid of them, either because they’re too ill-featured to catch a husband, or have a small dowry, or after they’ve been orphaned”). The narrative follows Bathilde and Françoise as they grow older and find their places at the court of the king and his bride (and the scheming Cardinal Mazarin). Françoise goes from serving as the governess to the king’s illegitimate children (and affianced to the loathsome Paul Scarron, a writer constantly inviting scandal) to being the unofficial consort to the monarch himself. Bathilde engages in a romance with Albin Maurice Laurent Bertrand, the Marquis de Brénoville and Duc de Rozel. Audiences familiar with the general outline of Giselle will find Porter’s narrative naturally engaging, but she’s taken care to keep other readers involved as well. That said, she has a penchant for melodramatic writing, as in this passage about Bathilde: “This assurance sent a warm flow of pleasure and relief coursing from her head to her toes.” In addition, the author’s characters talk and think like holdovers from Sir Walter Scott’s novels, which 21st-century readers may find hard to accept. At one point, Wilfride Mensy, Albin’s manservant, squire, and cousin, muses about Bathilde, whom he adores: “His feelings for Princess Bathilde, he felt certain, would endure for his entire life, to his last day. And beyond, if human emotions survived in the afterlife.” Fortunately, Porter’s research and storytelling energy generally compensate for this, drawing readers into a fully realized, moving portrait of the storied court of Louis XIV.

An absorbing and touching tale about young women at the French royal court.