Quicksilver Reading CompanionLouis XIV’s palace outside Paris, the center of French power from the 1680s onward.
History
Louis began transforming his father’s hunting lodge in 1661. Construction continued for over fifty years. The finished palace was the largest in Europe — the Hall of Mirrors alone is 240 feet long.
Versailles was not just a residence. It was a machine for controlling the French aristocracy. Louis required nobles to spend time at court, where they competed for meaningless privileges — the right to hold the king’s shirt during his morning dressing, the right to sit on a particular kind of stool. This kept them busy with etiquette instead of plotting rebellion. The system cost about 2 billion modern dollars to build and maintain, funded by French taxation.
The palace housed thousands of courtiers, servants, and officials. Its gardens, designed by Andre Le Notre, covered 800 hectares. The court’s elaborate rituals governed every aspect of daily life.
In the Novel
In Book 3, Eliza navigates Versailles and its politics as she becomes entangled with the French court.