The Third Lion: A Novel about Talleyrand
The Third Lion: A Novel about Talleyrand
Catbird Press | 224 pages | 1997 | ISBN: 0945774382 | PDF | 3.4 mb
Catbird Press | 224 pages | 1997 | ISBN: 0945774382 | PDF | 3.4 mb
French aristocrat, bishop, revolutionary, government minister. Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand- Périgord (1754-1838), known to history simply as Talleyrand, betrayed nearly everything and everyone—the aristocracy, the Church, the French Revolution, the Monarchy, and Napoleon. The Third Lion is an intimate novel about this man who out-Machiavellied Machiavelli, a survivor who not only outlived all his enemies, but plotted the coups and restorations that destroyed them.
It's the story of a younger son with a clubfoot, disinherited, abandoned to his wet-nurse, then handed over to the Church. A penniless aristocrat who could handle neither sword nor gun—only people. A great betrayer ruled only by the obligations of civility. A cripple who dined and bedded all the women he could. In the tradition of I, Claudius, this novel of personal and political intrigue reassesses and celebrates a vilified figure who lived through, and molded, the wars and revolutions that gave birth to the modern era.