Rose of Versailles

 ベルサイユのばら 

Berusaiyu no Bara or The Rose of Versailles is a historical fantasy, written by Riyoko Ikeda, set in France in the years before the French Revolution. Its three main characters are: Oscar Francois de Jarjeyes, a fictional swordswomen; Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France; and Andre, Oscar's childhood friend and companion. Beginning just before Marie's arrival at Versailles and her marriage to the heir to the French throne, we follow the lives and loves of these people at the very top of French society, all the while seeing the signs of the upcoming Revolution that will bring it all crashing down. The Rose of Versailles incorporates many real French historical figures and events into its story, all the while maintaining the emphasis on human relations and emotions.  

Oscar, the story's central character and a creation of Ikeda, is a girl raised by her father as a man, who commands the palace guards at Versailles. Her beauty, ambiguous sexuality, and noble spirit makes her a shining figure in the eyes of both men and women, but herself is often torn between her chosen life of service and duty to her class and country, and her own heart and desires. She lives a splendid life as a noble among the opulence of Versailles and as a close confident of the Queen. But this cannot blind her keen senses and compassion to the appalling poverty endured by the French people. Oscar's struggle with this duality in her world and within herself is the center about which the story turns.