Marie Antoinette many, leading to doubt as to the parentage of the child and to a noticeable decline of the queen's reputation in public opinion. The majority of Marie Antoinette's and Louis XVII's biographers believe that the young prince was the biological son of Louis XVI, including Stefan Zweig and Antonia Fraser, who believe that Fersen and Marie Antoinette were indeed romantically involved. Courtiers at Versailles noted in their diaries that the date of the child's conception in fact corresponded perfectly with a period when the king and the queen had spent much time together, but these details were ignored amid attacks
Cultural depictions of Marie Antoinette —M. ANTOINETTE The most famous historical fiction which features Marie Antoinette is the Alexandre Dumas, père novel "Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge" ("The Knight of the Red House,") which centers on the Carnation Plot. It is actually the first of a series of six books written by Dumas with Marie Antoinette featured, called the "Marie Antoinette novels", in which the queen is shown in a sympathetic light, particularly during the "Diamond Necklace Affair". Some of the more famous historical novels that have portrayed Marie Antoinette in more recent years includes Carolly Erickson's 2005 novel "The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette", as