Rumor has it that in 1794, a sea captain name Stephen Clough was plotting to rescue the Queen of France and bring her across the water to a house in Edgecomb, Maine. The “Marie Antoinette House” still stands, but was there really such a plot, and if not, why do traces of it still flourish on the internet? Sue Lanser will investigate the evidence and ask how the story of Marie Antoinette in Maine evokes the entangled troubles of two fledgling republics and the emergence of an American obsession with royalty.
Sue Lanser is Professor Emerita of humanities at Brandeis University and a specialist in eighteenth-century studies. She lives in Lovell and in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A former president of the Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library, she currently serves on the Friends of CHML Steering Committee and leads the Page Turners, the Library’s monthly discussion group.