MADAME DE POMPADOUR
Date of First Publication: 1954
‘The only thing that was not perfect in this relationship was its sexual side. Louis XV was a Bourbon, and had their terrible temperament, while Madame de Pompadour was a physically cold woman. She was not strong enough for continual love-making and it exhausted her. She tried to work herself up to respond to the King’s ardours by every means known to quackery, so terrified was she that he would one day find out her secret; but she began to make herself ill. Her maid spoke of this to the Duchesse de Brancas . . .“It can’t be good for her, she is living on a diet of vanilla, truffles and celery.”’