A King's Ransom: The Life of Charles Théveneau de Morande, Blackmailer, Scandalmonger & Master-Spy - Hardcover

Burrows, Professor Simon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826419895 ISBN 13: 9780826419897

Verlag: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2010

Inhaltsangabe

xvi 288p hardback, red illustrated dustjacket, white lettering to spine, extensive notes, an excellent copy, like new

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Críticas:

Good review in Standpoint.--Standpoint Good review in Standpoint.--, [Morande's] life reads like the script of a film, but in this minutely researched and well-written book the author uses his extraordinary life to demonstrate the scope and importance of the world-changing events Morande lived through and chronicled. --Sanford Lakoff Morande's career [is] finely illuminated in Simon Burrows's biography--Sanford Lakoff Good review in Standpoint.--Sanford Lakoff Simon Burrows, in the first attempt to reconstruct [Morande's] shadowy life since 1886, pursues him relentlessly through print and archive and the mists of obfuscation that were his natural habitat, and produces a fascinating portrait of a paradoxical man who lived by his poisonous pen.--Sanford Lakoff

Reseña del editor:

If Charles Theveneau de Morande was a character in a novel, he would be considered the ultimate anti-hero. He has variously been described as 'the incarnation of an eighteenth-century rogue', 'a minor prince among blackmailers', and 'a man so cunning that he outwitted Figaro himself.' Morande (1741-1805) was notorious among his contemporaries for successfully blackmailing Louis XV and his mistress Madame Du Barry, and inspiring a veritable extortion industry to develop in London. To historians he is even better known as and archetypical 'Grub Street' hack and the author of the Gazetier cuirasse. However, Morande's historical significance far transcends his success as a blackmailer and scandalous pamphleteer. For, having extorted the monarchy, he turned coat and during the War of American Independence and throughout the 1780s was France's leading political spy in London. In addition, he was a highly successful police agent among his fellow exiles and one of the most influential journalists of his time. Morande's life story is a tale of intrigue, blackmail, espionage, duels, kidnap, murder, politics, conspiracy and crime. At the same time, it offers a chance to examine some of the most important issues of French history and revolution.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0826419895
• ISBN 13: 9780826419897
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 304