A master novelist-historian has here produced a new landmark, one of the towering historical novels of our time-a full, rich, inspiring and exciting story set in one of the most fascinating periods in history. The most imaginative of novelists could not invent anything approaching the color and enchantment of the French court under Louis xvi and his Antoinette. At the time of our story, the shadow of revolution had not yet grayed the splendors of Versailles, although the cold wind of impending change was occasionally felt along its corridors. United States had already revolted against royal tyranny, and Benjamin Franklin was in France, pitting his wisdom and patience against subtle and devious French diplomacy in the all-important negotiations for the arms and money without which the American Revolution might end in disaster. Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais, the worldly author of The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, shares the limelight with Franklin. Mixture of avarice and idealism, petty weaknesses and fiery spirit, lover of liberty but equally enamored of intrigue and alliance, Beaumarchais provides an elegant foil for the American's wily good humor and quiet pertinacity. Both worked with all the devotion and strength of their souls for the same cause-liberty, equality, and fraternity, though each approached the problem from a different angle, each the quintessence of the characteristics of his own nation. ...
