Get Free eBook Sample
Louis Auchincloss was honored in the year 2000 as a “Living Landmark” by the New York Landmarks Conservancy. During his long career he wrote more than sixty books, including the story collection Manhattan Monologues and the novel The Rector of Justin. The former president of the Academy of Arts and Letters, he resided in New York City until his death in January 2010.
The Cat and the King
eBook
$9.99
-
ISBN-13:
9780547947013
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Publication date: 03/17/1981
- Sold by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 183
- File size: 767 KB
Available on NOOK devices and apps
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
- Share
- LendMe LendMe™ Learn More
9.99
In Stock
A cat may look at a king, says an old proverb. The king is the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, whose fabled court at Versailles was the wonder of Europe; the cat is the watchful chronicler, Louis de Rouvroy, second duc de Saint-Simon, author of the famous Memoirs which are the definitive record of Louis’ reign.
Auchincloss has conceived his novel as an extension of the Memoirs, in which Saint-Simon reveals his own story—as well as a great deal about the private lives of the great and near-great that did not find its way into the published record. With his inimitable gift for characterization, Auchincloss portrays Saint-Simon, the meticulous, proud aristocrat of the old school who is at once fascinated and threatened by the powerful centralized monarchy Louis is building and by the king’s plot to bolster his position by marrying off his illegitimate children to princes of the blood.
Elegant, crisp, and abounding in authentic detail, The Cat and the King shows us the factions, liaisons, intrigues and dalliances that made up daily life at Versailles as they might have been seen from Saint-Simon’s highly critical perspective. Auchincloss imagines the dominant figures of this greatest period in French history—the aging Louis; his pious morganatic spouse, Madame de Maintenon; Monsieur, the king’s homosexual brother; the great warrior and ladies’ man Conti; and many others—as wholly believable individuals with peculiar tics and foibles of their own; but none is stranger, more fascinating, or more believable than Saint-Simon himself.
A remarkable portrait of a quintessential man of his time, a discerning study of the use and abuse of power, and an utterly convincing recreation of a turbulent age that bears no small resemblance to our own, The Cat and the King is a many-faceted jewel that represents a new dimension of achievement in Louis Auchincloss’ distinguished career as a novelist.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
-
- The Marriage of the Sea: A…
- by Jane Alison
-
- We've Already Gone This…
- by Patrick Dacey
-
- Everybody Loves Somebody
- by Joanna Scott
-
- Dogfight: And Other Stories
- by Michael Knight
-
- The Curse of the Appropriate…
- by Lynn Freed
-
- The Chrysanthemum Palace
- by Bruce Wagner
-
- A School for Fools
- by Sasha Sokolov
-
- Bright Magic: Stories
- by Alfred DoblinDamion SearlsGunter Grass
-
- Weir of Hermiston (Barnes &…
- by Robert Louis Stevenson
-
- Our Lives Are the Rivers: A…
- by Jaime Manrique
-
- The Four Corners of Palermo: A…
- by Giuseppe Di PiazzaAntony Shugaar
-
- The Witch and Other Stories…
- by Anton ChekhovConstance Garnett
-
- Hypatia (Barnes & Noble…
- by Charles Kingsley
-
- Afterwards
- by Rachel Seiffert
-
- Tranquility
- by Attila BartisImre Goldstein
-
- Stillness: And Other Stories
- by Courtney Angela Brkic
-
- The Frozen Pirate (Barnes &…
- by W. Clark Russell
