Lady Oscar (lililicious.net)

Everyone was sweating over the coming French history exam.  I was having fun reading Rose of Versailles, a classic Japanese comic (manga) written by Riyoko Ikeda in 1972-1973.  I managed to memorize most facts on French revolution just by reading this manga, and no, watching the recent “Marie Antoinette” movie, directed by a certain someone, will not give you the same effect.  Sorry. (Retaining myself from flaming/ ranting…)

Rose of Versailles, or Bersaiyu no Bara in Japanese, is a story that takes place in France before and during its revolution.  Although the main character, Oscar François de Jarjayes is a fictional figure, most characters that play big roles in the revolution are indeed real historical figures, like the infamous queen herself, Marie Antoinette. 

The story starts with the young Antoinette in her home country. There were talks within both Austria and France about a marriage proposal between Antoinette and the grandson of Louis XV, the future Louis XVI.

In the meantime, the fictional character, Oscar, is introduced as well. She is the youngest daughter of Chevalier de Jarjayes.  Oscar was raised as a man to become her father’s successor since he had no son.  In reality, it is unknown whether General Jarjayes has no son and only daughters. 

Rose of Versailles revolves around the life of both Marie Antoinette and Oscar. Readers follow Marie Antoinette as an innocent little girl until her death under the guillotine during the French Revolution.  Bits of thoughts and memories are presented to the readers in a way that readers would sympathize with the queen.  Most events around Antoinette are historically true, including the death of Louis XV, the diamond necklace affair, the death of Antoinette’s son, and of course, the French Revolution itself, in which she was trialed, prison and executed.  The debated affair between Antoinette and Hans Axel von Fersen, a Sweden nobleman is also included.

Volume One cover (lililicious.net)

The events and the ideals are presented by Oscar, through whom readers see the history unfolds.  Through her, we see both the grandiose life within Versailles and the life of the commoners on the street of Paris at the time. As Oscar grew from a privileged noble person who was the protector of the royal family to someone who support the revolution, readers cannot help but feel the tug-of-war within Oscar’s mind. Were we in her shoes, what would we choose: loyalty to the king and queen or loyalty to the people who made up the rest of the country? 

The relationships between the real characters and the fictional ones are flawless. Everything is pieced together so well that the characters are believable and are not forced to fit into the historical context. The beginning is not as historically heavy as the end, but this is important as not to bore readers with too much fact and not so much drama, particularly as the story itself is aimed towards young female readers who mostly would not care more about history. As the characters grow into the readers’ mind, heavier historical context would be less of a burden to the readers as we want to know what happened to the characters. Compare this with reading the cold history textbook saturated with names and dates without quite knowing why we should care about the names themselves other than to pass the exam. 

Personally, reading Rose of Versailles makes me want to learn more about the French Revolution itself. It makes learning about history fun. Honest!     

Note:

1. There is a lot of information on Rose of Versailles on the internet. Use your favorite search engine to find it.
2. The original manga spans 10 volumes, available in several languages. In 1983, the first 2 volumes were published in the US by Sanyusha (I am not sure if this still available nowadays). If you are interested in reading it in English, you can get the scanlation (scanned and translated) from Lililicious (http://www.lililicious.net/). First volume has been completed, and they are working on the second volume now.
3. There is also a-41-episode anime based on the manga that was first aired in 1979-1980. You might be able to find the anime somewhere (Youtube, anyone?!). For more info, you can go to http://pages.interlog.com/~dgsimmns/RoV/RoV.FAQ.html.