Production

Director, Producer, and Writer: Nina Diamond
Associate Producers: Skyla Choi and Austin Fisher
Immersive Audio Production: Aurelia Soundworks UK

Historical Characters

In order of appearance:

Tobias George Smollett, a Scottish poet and author who visited Versailles in 1763. His account is excerpted from his 1766 travel journal Travels through France and Italy.

John Adams, the second President of the United States of America, who was at Versailles in 1782. His report is taken from his diary and correspondence with his wife Abigail.

Robert Adam, a Scottish neoclassical architect, and interior designer, who went to Versailles in 1754. His account is based on John Fleming's 1962 book Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh and Rome.

Baroness Henriette d'Oberkirch, or Henriette Louise de Waldner de Freundstein, was a noblewoman frequent visitor to Versailles. Her accounts date to a visit in 1784. All of Baroness d'Oberkirch's quotes derive from the Mémoires de la Baronne d'Oberkirch.

Harry Peckham, was an English judge and member of the King's counsel who traveled to Versailles in 1788. The source for his quotes is his travel journal A Tour Through Holland, Dutch Brabant, the Austrian Netherlands, and Part of France: In Which is Included a Description of Paris and its Environs.

Louis-Sébastien Mercier, was a French satirist, dramatist, and writer. His quotes are selected from Panorama of Paris: Selections from Le Tableau de Paris (edited by Jeremy D. Popkin).

Reverend Garland, is the author of the 1766 manuscript Minutes of a Journey through France (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University).

Major Richard Ferrier, was an English military officer and the author of The Journal of Major Richard Ferrier, M.P., While Traveling Through France in the Year 1687 With a Brief Memoir of His Life.

The English Traveler is a travel guide written in 1753.

Martin Lister, an English naturalist and physician, visited Versailles in 1698. His texts come from his Account of Paris, at the Close of the Seventeenth Century.

Teofila Konstancja z Radziwiłłów Morawska, a Polish noblewoman who was in Paris in 1773. Her account is excerpted from her travel diary Diariusz podróży europejskiej w latach 1773–1774.

Hester Thrale, a British diarist, author, and patron of the arts who visited Versailles in 1775. Her text is taken from her travel account Observations and reflections made in the course of a journey through France, Italy, and Germany.

Count Conrad von Dehn was a special envoyé for the Duke of Braunschweig Wolffenbüttel. He was sent to Versailles in 1723. His text is based on his unpublished correspondence with the duke (Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv, Staatsarchiv Wolfenbüttel).

Johann Peter Willebrand, a German lawyer and judge who was known as a travel writer. His account derives from his 1758 Historische Berichte und Practische Anmerckungen auf Reisen in Deutschland,und andern Landern.

Henry Swinburne, a British travel writer who visited Versailles in 1774. His text is taken from his book Secret Memories of the Courts of Europe: Letters Written at The End of The Eighteenth Century.

Madame Cradock, an English author. Her account is taken from the Journal de Madame Cradock, Voyage en France (1783–86).

American Wanderer, a travel guide dating to 1776–77: American Wanderer through Various Parts of Europe in a Series of Letters to a Lady, (Interspersed with a Variety of Anecdotes).

Reverend Richard Valpy, a British schoolmaster who visited Versailles in 1788. His excerpts are taken from his "Short Sketch of a Short Trip to Paris," published in 1814 in the Pamphleteer.

Otto Bosch, was a Dutch representative in Paris whose 1721 account is based on an unpublished report to the States General in the Hague (Nationaal Archief, Nederland).

Court Gossip, derives from The Discourses at Versailles of the First Siamese Ambassadors to France 1686-7 (edited by Michael Smithies), which includes an inventory of the gifts that the Siamese Embassy presented to Louis XIV.

Court Reporter, quotes the Journal of the Marquis de Dangeau. A French courtier and diarist, Dangeau details the visit of the Siamese Embassy as well as his daily life at Versailles.

Kosa Pan, lead ambassador of the 1686 Siamese Embassy. Part of his speech to Louis XIV is cited in The Discourses at Versailles of the First Siamese Ambassadors to France 1686–7 (edited by Michael Smithies).

Gustav III, King of Sweden, went by the assumed name of Count Haga when visiting Versailles in 1771. Detailing a celebration at the Petit Trianon, the text is taken from his letters to the Comte de Creutz, published in Gustave III par ses lettres (edited by Gunnar von Proschwitz).

Nikolai Karamzin, a Russian writer, poet, historian, and critic whose account describes a visit to Versailles in 1790 after the royal family was forced to return to Paris. His quotes are excerpted from Nikolai Karamzin: Letters of a Russian Traveller (edited and translated by Andrew Kahn).

Special thanks to Torbay Development Agency for permission to record in Oldway Mansion in Paignton, Devon, UK.

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