3 h 30 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a quiet walk through Versailles led into a landscape that no longer existed?
In An Adventure, Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Frances Jourdain recount a troubling visit to Versailles in August 1901. Looking for the Petit Trianon, the two Oxford college leaders take an uncertain path. They describe men in greenish-grey coats, unfamiliar surroundings, and an oppressive mood that turns a garden walk into something deeply strange.
Their account becomes an investigation. They compare separate memories, return to Versailles, and search old maps and French records. They believe the landscape they remember belongs to the 1780s, and propose a startling explanation: a glimpse into Marie Antoinette's memory. The question is not simply what they see, but what their evidence can support.
What you’ll discover
- A walk into unease Follow uncertain paths where unfamiliar figures and a heavy atmosphere unsettle the two visitors.
- Two witnesses, separate memories Compare the women's accounts and consider how their recollections fit together.
- The garden under scrutiny Trace their search through maps and records for a landscape they cannot explain.
- A queen's possible memory Explore their bold proposal without having to accept it as the answer.
- Room for your judgment Weigh a sincere account that invites questions rather than promising a firm verdict.
Who will love it
For readers who enjoy ghost stories told as case files, love French history, or like weighing evidence for themselves.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two Oxford women set out for Versailles
- A wrong turning leads into odd company
- The kiosk, the bridge and the sketching lady
- A door opens and the spell is broken
- Maps, archives and a queen's memory
- Doubts, debates and how to read it today
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- Hardcover
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- Large print hardcover
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Una aventura
by C. A. E. Moberly; Eleanor F. Jourdain · 1911
Two women lose their way at Versailles and find a changed landscape that puts their sense of time to the test.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
An Adventure is a short book by two Englishwomen who say they walked out of their own time. Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain were both senior figures at an Oxford women's college.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two Oxford women set out for Versailles
The two authors were not casual storytellers. Charlotte Anne Moberly led St Hugh's Hall in Oxford, a college for women, and Eleanor Jourdain worked beside her there and later led it herself. They were educated, serious and used to weighing words. They knew France well, and Jourdain in particular loved French history and culture. That matters, because the book depends on trust in their honesty and their care.
In the summer of 1901 they were in Paris, and on a hot day in August they took a trip to the palace of Versailles. They toured the great state rooms and then went out into the gardens. Neither of them knew the grounds well. They had a guidebook, and they planned to walk on to the Petit Trianon, the small country house that Louis the Sixteenth gave to his queen, Marie Antoinette. It was a place she used to escape the strict routines of court life.
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What is An Adventure by Moberly and Jourdain about?
It is the authors' account of a visit to Versailles in August 1901, when they believed they had stepped into the gardens as they were in Marie Antoinette's day, followed by their research into what they had seen.
Is the Versailles ghost story true?
The authors told it as a true, first-hand experience, and they backed it with research. Critics have offered other explanations, such as costumed people, shifting memory or suggestion, so the question remains open.
Who were Elizabeth Morison and Frances Lamont?
They were the pen names used on the first edition in 1911. Elizabeth Morison was Charlotte Anne Moberly and Frances Lamont was Eleanor Jourdain. Their real names appeared in later editions.
The author
Charlotte Anne Moberly
1846–1937 · English academic and author
Charlotte Anne Elizabeth Moberly (1846–1937) was an English academic and author. She was born in Winchester and died in Oxford. She became the first principal of St Hugh’s College, Oxford, in 1886. With Eleanor Jourdain, she wrote An Adventure, which was first published in 1911.
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