A long and leisurely book, history absorbingly presented but without romantic fictionalization. As history it is...

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A long and leisurely book, history absorbingly presented but without romantic fictionalization. As history it is meticulously fashioned, with so convincingly detailed a picture of the court of Louis XVI and Antoinette, so specific a rationalization of the machinations in favor of and against participation in the American cause that one feels that Feuchtwanger must have had an observer on the inside. Beaumarchais, too seldom recognized for the impressive part he played in supplying arms, impedimenta and funds for the Revolution across the seas is in the center of the stage, pitted against not only the unsympathetic and self-seeking court favorites but even against the wily philosopher, statesman, patriot, Benjamin Franklin, who disliked and distrusted him. But this is more than a study of the battle to bring France into line with the cause of liberty. It is a picture of the life of the court- of a decaying society, brilliant, unstable, lascivious, extravagant- of the inner politics and petty jealousies- of the great figures of the times, Voltaire, Joseph of Austria, the members of the Lilac Coterie, people of stage, of literature, of the arts- and working in various ways for the American cause, Lee, Dean, Dubourg, Paul Theveneau- and always the principals, Beaumarchais and Franklin. The Literary Guild selection will give it greater impetus to immediate popularity than, possibly, the author's previous record, which established Feuchtwanger in this country as well as Europe as a sound historical novelist. A book for the long haul.

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 1947

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1947

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