Auel author of The Clan of the Cave Bear & The Land of Painted Caves 'A baroque cornucopia spilling over with intrigue, passion, jealousy, ambition, and rich historical detail, Before Versailles offers a glittering glimpse of the crucial months.
A pervasive tone of gentility grounds the novel in its period, and Koen's smooth prose and nicely integrated background details make this a superior historical romance. 'In this magnificently written and researched novel, Karleen Koen brings to vibrant life the early years and loves of the future Sun King.'-Jean M. Koen doesn't hesitate to make her heroine less perfect than conventional characters of this genre Lady Devane comments in a rare moment of self-reflection that her pity for her favorite servant never led her to seriously consider his feelings. These flamboyant gestures often seem shallow, however, and Lady Devane's dismay at the treatment of the slaves in the New World characteristically seems more picturesque than humane. Before Versailles is the luscious, sweeping story of the young Louis XIV in his first year as king of France. Spunky and headstrong, she bristles when she is patronizingly described by one of her many admirers as a ``fragile black butterfly'' anything but fragile, she takes lovers across political divides and frees her slaves against all advice. Having been widowed at age 20, she has embarked for colonial Virginia, determined to develop a plantation there.
Before Versailles A Novel of Louis XIV by Karleen Koen. The settling of America and the courtly intrigues of the Jacobite rebellion in England serve as both backdrop and parallel for Lady Devane's path toward her own independence as an aristocrat and as a woman. Before Versailles by Karleen Koen, Jun 28, 2011, Blackstone Audio, Inc. Ten years after Koen introduced heroine Barbara Devane in her bestselling debut novel, Through a Glass Darkly, she brings back the strong-willed young woman to face further challenges among the baroque world of the European and colonial American nobility of the early 18th century.
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