"Antonia - always called Antoinette at the French-speaking Austrian court - was a pretty enough baby, but only a girl, another Archduchess in a family that already had seven Archduchesses and only four Archdukes."
Chap. 1, p. 15

"From her earliest childhood Antoinette was aware that she and her siblings were destined to be, as her mother once wrote, 'sacrifices to politics.' Their lives were not their own; they belonged to the state."
Chap. 3, p. 33

"For her part, Antoinette gazed at the heavy and gawky youth whom she expected to marry and took pity on him. She saw at once how timid he was, and was not put off by his extreme detachment or by his brusque speech."
Chap. 5, p. 53

"It was no wonder Antoinette broke the tension by making fun of the sober, unsmiling people around her. Even when dining with the dauphin, in a room full of...