France, 1793. Aurore de Marigny, born into an aristocratic family, is drawn into the dangerous political and emotional world of André Vallon, a self-made republican whose service to the Revolution has carried him from the battlefield to Danton’s circle. Their attachment is strained by class resentment, family memory and opposing ideas of honour at a time when private loyalties can become evidence of treason.
As the Reign of Terror consumes its own leaders, Aurore and André are caught between denunciation, imprisonment and the rapidly changing balance of power in Paris. The Scarlet Pimpernel intervenes not simply to remove victims from France but to untangle a relationship formed across the Revolution’s social divide. The novel closes around the fall of Robespierre, using the Thermidorian Reaction as the point at which political certainty collapses and personal choices can be reconsidered.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
24 books
Ken Follett
16 books
Edgar Rice Burroughs
41 books