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A Gentleman of France by Stanley Weyman, Fiction, Literary, Historical

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A Gentleman of France by Stanley Weyman, Fiction, Literary, Historical

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Description

Forty-year-old M. de Marsac, a gentleman soldier, is in terrible straights. Money is the problem -- his finances have gone to hell, and soon enough his status will follow. He's a gentleman -- that is, he's gentry -- but being a gentleman isn't like being a beggared baron; there is no title for him to trade on. He grooms his own horse by cover of night, and when he goes before the court of Henry of Navarre seeking a commission, he faces ridicule because of his frayed, wear-worn clothes. But M. de Marsac knows a thing we all could stand to learn: he knows that clothes in no way make the man -- and that a true gentleman can win the respect he deserves by boldness and by courage.

Author Biography

Stanley John Weyman (1855 - 1928) was an English writer of historical romance. His most popular works were written in 1890-1895 and set in late 16th and early 17th-century France. While very successful at the time, they are now largely forgotten. Weyman in his day was immensely popular and admired by Robert Louis Stevenson and Oscar Wilde. Works like The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas had established a market for popular historical fiction and it was a crowded field. Contemporary rivals included Baroness Orczy, A. E. W. Mason, John Buchan and Rafael Sabatini. The biographer Reginald Pound grouped Weyman with Arnold Bennett, Anthony Hope, Aldous Huxley, Dorothy L. Sayers and Somerset Maugham as Strand writers. He is now perhaps the least familiar of all these. His greatest success came before 1895 (Under the Red Robe, A Gentleman of France and The Red Cockade) and he stopped writing entirely between 1908 and 1919. His style and focus are more typical of Victorian writers. Weyman's strength lies in historical detail, often in less familiar areas. The Long Night is based on the Duke of Savoy's attempt to storm Geneva in December 1602, an event still celebrated annually in a festival called L'Escalade. Weyman received an award from the city for his research. The financial security of early success allowed him to choose subjects of personal interest. Some had less general appeal, such as the 1832 Reform Bill (treated in Chippinge), post-1815 industrialisation (Starvecrow Farm) or the 1825 financial crisis (Ovington's Bank, reprinted in 2012 and 2015 on the back of a similar crisis in 2008). Weyman called his own books "pleasant fables" and was aware of their modest literary value.
Release date NZ
September 1st, 2003
Audience
  • General (US: Trade)
Country of Publication
United States
Imprint
Wildside Press
Pages
316
Publisher
Wildside Press
Dimensions
154x229x22
ISBN-13
9781592243976
Product ID
11906856

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