The Man Who Outshone The Sun King: Ambition, Triumph and Treachery in the Reign of Louis XIV

Description

Amidst the chaos and anarchy of civil war-wracked France, one man's spectacular rise and devastating fall was lost to history - until now. *In 1664, the musketeer D'Artagnan rode beside a heavily-armoured carriage as it rumbled slowly southwards from Paris, carrying his great friend Nicolas Foucquet to internal exile and life imprisonment in the fortress of Pignerol. There he would be incarcerated in a cell next door to the Man with the Iron Mask... *From a glittering zenith as the King's first minister, builder of the breathtaking chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, collector of books, patron of the arts and lover of beautiful women, Foucquet had fallen like Icarus. Charged with embezzlement, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. *Charles Drazin's riveting account brings to life the rich, hazardous and machiavellian world in which Foucquet lived. His charm, cunning and charisma enchanted and beguiled those around him, but in them lay the seeds of his destruction.

Charles Drazin was born in Hampshire in 1960. He grew up in North London and was educated at Highgate School and Oxford University, where he read Classics. He has worked for many years as a writer and editor, and also teaches at Queen Mary, University of London. His other books include In Search of the Third Man (1999), Korda- Britain's Only Movie Mogul (2002), The Man Who Outshone the Sun King (2008) and The Faber Book of French Cinema (2011).

A gripping account of one of the most spectacular - and tragic - careers in French history * Munro Price * This is the story of the seventeenth century's most audacious aesthete brought low by its most elegant tyrant - and it is as fresh, dramatic and poignant today as it was when it first engrossed Europe nearly four hundred years ago. Charles Drazin's refined, meticulous approach is perfectly suited to his protagonist. Stylish and compelling * Lisa Hilton * Charles Drazin not only tells a great story; he has also produced a vivid and compelling account of the French court in all its treacherous complexity. A marvellous book * Adrian Tinniswood *