''Angélique'' is a series of thirteen

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

romance novels written by French author Anne Golon. Originally published from 1957 to 1985, the novels have reportedly sold 150 million copies worldwide and have been adapted into six feature films, several theatre productions, a Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series, and a French " global manga" comic book series. Only ten of the thirteen novels have been translated into English.

Plot

The eponymous protagonist, Angélique Sancé de Monteloup, is a 17th-century woman born into the provincial aristocracy in the west of France. In successive books, she marries at a young age the romantic and talented Joffrey de Peyrac,

Count of Toulouse The count of Toulouse (, ) was the ruler of Toulouse during the 8th to 13th centuries. Originating as vassals of the Frankish kings, the hereditary counts ruled the city of Toulouse and its surrounding county from the late 9th century until 12 ...

; gets her domestic bliss destroyed when King

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

has her husband executed on trumped up charges; descends into the underworld of Paris; emerges and through a turbulent second marriage gets admittance to the court at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

; loses her second husband in war, just as she had started to truly love him, and subsequently refuses to become the King's mistress; finds that her first husband is after all alive but is hiding somewhere in the Mediterranean; sets out on a highly risky search, gets captured by pirates, sold into slavery in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, taken into the harem of the

King of Morocco The king of Morocco (; ) is the monarch and head of state of Morocco. The kings of Morocco are members of the Alawi dynasty. It is one of the country's most powerful offices. Mohammed VI ( Sidi Mohammed bin Hassan al-Alawi) is the current kin ...

, stabs the King when he tries to have sex with her, and stages a daring escape along with a French slave who becomes her lover; gets back to France, only to be put under house arrest in her ancestral home and raped by rampaging royal soldiers, which arouses the province to a rebellion which is brutally put down; finds refuge with a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

family and – just as they are threatened by the

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes The Edict of Fontainebleau (18 October 1685, published 22 October 1685) was an edict issued by French King Louis XIV and is also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to pra ...

– is saved in the nick of time by her long-lost first husband appearing at

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle'') is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime Departments of France, department. Wi ...

and taking them all to New France in his ship; and also being reunited with her children, whom she had thought dead but were alive and well in New France. Then follow many more adventures in colonial North America – specifically, in Quebec (then known as the colony of Canada, part of

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...

), and French

Acadia Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...

– involving French and English settlers, tribal natives and pirates.

Novels

* '' Angélique: Marquise of the Angels'' (, 1957) * ''Angélique: The Road to Versailles'' (, 1958) * '' Angélique and the King'' (, 1959) * ''Angélique and the Sultan'' (, 1960) * ''Angélique in Revolt'' (, 1961) * ''Angélique in Love'' (, 1961) * ''The Countess Angélique'' (, 1964) * ''The Temptation of Angélique'' (, 1966) * ''Angélique and the Demon'' (, 1972) * ''Angélique and the Ghosts'' (, 1976) * (1980) * (1984) * (1985)

Adaptations

Films

The novels were adapted into a series of five films directed by

Bernard Borderie Bernard Borderie (10 June 1924 in Paris – 28 May 1978 in Paris) was a French film director and screenwriter. His father, Raymond Borderie, was one of the producers of ''Children of Paradise, Les Enfants du Paradis'' (''Children of Paradise'', 194 ...

in the 1960s, in a co-production between France, Italy, and Germany. The films starred

Michèle Mercier Michèle Mercier (born 1 January 1939 as Jocelyne Yvonne Renée Mercier) is a French actress.

as Angélique and

Robert Hossein Robert Hossein (30 December 1927 – 31 December 2020) was a French film actor, director, and writer. He directed Les Misérables (1982 film), the 1982 adaptation of ''Les Misérables'' and appeared in ''Vice and Virtue'', ''Le Casse'', ''Les U ...

as Jeoffrey de Peyrac. * (1964) * (1965) * (1966) * (1967) * (1968) A new film adaptation of the first novel was directed by Ariel Zeitoun in 2013. It starred Nora Arnezeder as Angélique and Gérard Lanvin as Joffrey de Peyrac. * ''Angélique'' (2013)

Manga

series, , written and illustrated by Toshie Kihara, was serialized in the Japanese manga (girls' comics) magazine ''

Princess Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for ...

'' from 1977 to 1979. It was later collected as five (book volumes) by the Japanese publisher

Akita Shoten is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Teio Akita in 1948. As of May 2023, the company's president is Shigeru Higuchi. The company is known for publishing the manga magazine '' Weekly Shōnen Champ ...

. A " global manga" series, ''Angélique'', written by Oliver Milhaud and illustrated by Dara, was published as three

graphic novels A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and ...

by the French publisher

Casterman Casterman is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics, specializing in comic books and children's literature. The company is based in Tournai, 90 kilometres southwest of the centre of Brussels, Belgium. History The company was founded in 1780 by Don ...

from 2015 to 2016.

Theatre

Two musicals, inspired by the 1977 manga adaptation and directed by , were staged at the Takarazuka Grand Theatre and the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre in Japan in 1980. The first, , was performed by the all-female

Takarazuka Revue The is a Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo, Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway theatre, Broadway-style productions of musicals and stories adapted from films, nov ...

's Moon Troupe. The second, , was performed by the Snow Troupe. A play, , directed by Robert Hossein, was staged at the Palais des Sports in Paris, France, from 1995 to 1996. It starred Cécile Bois as Angélique, with Hossein reprising his 1960s film role as Joffrey de Peyrac. Another musical, ''Angelika'', was staged at the

Broadway Theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2007, 2010, 2016, and 2018.

Notes

References

External links

* Official website
archived versioncurrent version
* Book reviews
''Kirkus Reviews''

A 2013 press kit featuring an interview with the author about the books and films

{{DEFAULTSORT:Angelique (Series) Book franchises Book series introduced in 1957 French novels adapted into films French romance novels Historical novels by series Novels adapted into comics Novel series by featured character