2024-06-07
The second volume of Flinn’s trilogy, which imagines the life of servant turned French revolutionary Louis-Benoit Zamor.
Zamor, a Black Indian from Bengal, was born into poverty and as a child was sold by his mother to a slave trader. When he was 10 years old, he was purchased by France’s King Louis XV and given as a gift to his favorite mistress, Jeanne du Barry. At the Palace of Versailles, du Barry delights in her gift: Louis-Benoit is the little boy she and the king have never had. As Book Two opens, Zamor is a grown man, albeit still physically small in stature. It is the revolutionary year of 1789, and discontent is building among the French populace. Louis XV has died, and Louis XVI and his Austrian wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, now head the monarchy. Du Barry now resides in the Chateau de Louveciennes, where she entertains lesser royals; Zamor serves as her trusted page and confidant, accustomed to royal luxuries but denied the one thing he desires most: his emancipation. He convinces du Barry to allow him to visit Paris in the evenings, and there he becomes acquainted with members of the Jacobin Club, a group of enlightened thinkers who strive to make France a constitutional monarchy. As Zamor becomes more enmeshed with the Jacobins, he begins writing his own treatises. For most of the novel, through intermittent inserts presented as journal entries written in 1820, Zamor relates his tale in the past tense, immersing readers in the hopes, dreams, and brutality of the French Revolution. The story has some notably ironic moments, as when the king approves a more efficient method of execution—the guillotine—the very mechanism by which he will meet his own demise. Zamor himself is a complex character, equal parts philosopher and damaged soul. Flinn’s eloquent, historically astute prose combines the visceral horror of the revolution with tender sections, most of which are devoted to Zamor’s deep love for the seamstress Véronique.
A vivid portrayal of the raging passions and ideals that fomented the French Revolution.
