Follows two sisters, both beautiful through the trials if their life in Paris high society, Their affairs, both literally and figuratively were shocking but mostly because their societal 'friends', took great pleasure in seeing them touted by the pamphleteers, even though they themselves were doing much the same thing.
All persons and circumstances in the book are real, Private dialogues are the author's, This book has probably long been out of print, but it was extremely vivid, full of details about these two sisters in seventeenthcentury France.
My grandmother and my mother read it my mom was in high school and then the copy got lost.
I found a free copy of it at a tiny
branch library in Chicago, I gave it to my mom for Christmas awhile ago, but decided this year to read it myself.
This book is my Grandma's book, she died when I was only a year old, It makes me feel close to her when I read it, I've read it about six times now, I never tire of it, It's a true story of a family in France in theth Century, . embellished I'm sure for the reader's entertainment, yet not too obnoxious and/or flowery, . and stays true to the events and time lines, One of my absolute favorite books in the entire world, I have my Grandmother's copy that has been in our family library for all of my life and my Mom made sure I got it before she and my Dad departed.
I have read it four times in my life, I don't reread a lot of books as a rule as there are so many to read, but this one warrants rereading, not only for sentimental reasons.
It's historically accurate, and each time I have read it it's as if I am reading it for the first time.
I was enthralled, beginning to end,
An intricate, gossipy novel of manners set in theth century,
The best part is the author's note at the beginning: "None of the characters in this novel is imaginary.
"
All the people, all the affairs, all the adulteries, all the backbiting, all the clothes and vacations and furniture, all the social ins and outsthe author took these delicious things straight from the many memoirs and letters of the social and literary lights of Louis XIV's Paris.
The main characters are the beautiful de la Loupe sisters, Catherine and Magdelaineand if there had been reality shows in the's, theirs would have run for decades.
They both lived into their eighties,
I know I'm not going to start a rush on this book only available secondhand, or maybe in your grandmother's attic, so I won't spend much time warning you to keep a cast list as you go, because they all keep popping back in.
Once you're past the firstpages or so, the new ones don't appear so thick and fast, .