Thomas was born in Lyon in 1945 and was raised in
Arcachon,
Bordeaux, and
Paris. Her life has included teaching jobs at American and French universities (such as
Yale and
Princeton) as well as a publishing career. She has published nineteen works, including essays on the
Marquis de Sade,
Casanova, and
Marie Antoinette. In 2002, Thomas published
Les adieux à la reine (
Farewell, My Queen). The novel gives a fictional account of the final days of Marie Antoinette in power through the perspective of one of her servants. It won the
Prix Femina in 2002, and was later adapted into the 2012 film
Farewell, My Queen. The film stars
Diane Kruger as the titular queen and
Léa Seydoux as her servant Sidonie Laborde. Thomas co-wrote the screenplay, and it opened the
62nd Berlin International Film Festival. Helen Falconer of
The Guardian called the work "a well written slice of history" with "evocative, observant prose," but criticized it for creating a narrator who "merely provides us with a pair of eyes to see through rather than capturing our interest in her own right." While disagreeing with its classification as a novel, Falconer did however add that
Farewell, My Queen "generates in the reader a real sense of being a fly on the wall, eavesdropping on the affairs of the great and the not-so-good." Thomas is currently the director of research at the
French National Centre for Scientific Research. ==Works==