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베르사이유의 장미 1 - 새로운 운명의 소용돌이 속으로
이케다 리요코 지음 / 대원씨아이(만화) / 2001년 3월
평점 :
절판
Half soap opera, half history lesson, ROSE tells the fascinating story of a young woman living in 18th century France, spanning the 20 years prior to the French Revolution. She is only so fascinating because she was raised as a man, and led a life as a man. Named 'Oscar' by her heirless father, she was forced into a military career at the tender age of 14 when King Louis XV appointed her Royal Guard Commander for the Royal Family.
The fact that a 14-year-old girl was chosen as the Royal Guard Commander is quite unbelievable, but Oscar's steely character - wise beyond her time and age - makes it perfectly believable. During a time when women had no careers, she was able to succeed in the military - of all places - like no other. While it was no mystery that she was a woman, Oscar did many things other women could not. And she got away with it only because she did it better than many men.
Through Riyoko's mastery storytelling - weaving historical fact with fiction (the character of Oscar is all fiction) - we are able to follow Oscar's life from the Court of Versailles, where she protected Marie Antoinette as a Royal Guard, to the turbulent streets of Paris, where she went on to command the French Guards at the dawn of the French Revolution.
Aside from giving us an original character in Oscar, Riyoko also does a damn good job of humanizing the various historical characters surrounding our fictional heroine, especially Antoinette, whose gruesome death during the Reign of Terror is common knowledge. This foreboding fact gives the story - as it slowly unfolds her fate up to the guillotine - a tragic undertone unlike any shoujo I've seen.