Winner of the 2015 American Library in Paris Book Award The Marquis de Lafayette at age nineteen volunteered to fight under George Washington and became the French hero of the American Revolution. In this major biography Laura Auricchio looks past the storybook hero and selfless champion of righteous causes who cast aside family and fortune to advance the transcendent aims of liberty and fully reveals a man driven by dreams of glory only to be felled by tragic, human weaknesses. Drawing on substantial new research conducted in libraries, archives, museums, and private homes in France and the United States, Auricchio, gives us history on a grand scale revealing the man and his complex life, while challenging and exploring the complicated myths that have surrounded his name for more than two centuries

In eighteenth-century Venisalle, faith governs life and death, and the guilty hide their shame behind masks, showing their faces only in the secret rites of the confessional. It is to this stronghold of the Inquisition that the souls of Hell have escaped to possess the living, spreading sin, murder, and chaos. Amid the carnage, one man is blessed with the clarity to recognize the demons that prey on his countrymen — and the means to return them to the fires of Hell. But as the stakes rise, the lines separating good and evil begin to blur, and the Marquis — the dark avenger whom even demons fear to cross — finds himself torn between the blind faith that has defined his life and the bitter truths exposed under his new sight.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.

Next in the USA Today–bestselling Regency romance series—A daring rescue, a disreputable reputation, and a dangerous road ahead. Lady Charlotte Carpenter’s brother-in-law has put an infamous brothel owner out of business—yet it is Charlotte who suffers the consequences. Abducted by thugs and held at an inn, she is plotting her escape when she’s suddenly rescued by a dashing gentleman. Only afterward does she realize she’s seen him before—with two courtesans! Unwilling to tarry with such a man, Charlotte makes her second escape. But it is too late to repair her reputation… A known gossip has spied Charlotte’s movements, and his report is speeding through the rumor mill. Soon, everyone knows that Charlotte spent the night with Constantine, Marquis of Kenilworth. And everyone agrees the only answer is marriage, including Constantine himself, his overjoyed mother—and his mistress! But Charlotte’s abductors aren’t finished with her yet. Now Constantine will do anything to protect the spirited woman he loves and win her heart… “Romance builds in this satisfying, memorable read, perfect for fans of Grace Burrowes and Tessa Dare.”—Booklist “A surprising Regency romance that combines intelligence and intrigue for satisfying results.”—Kirkus Reviews “Full of payoffs for longtime readers while welcoming the new.”—Publishers Weekly

Donatien Alphonse Francois, Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), one of the most perplexing personalities of Western culture, has been called 'the freest spirit who ever lived' and 'a frenetic and abominable assemblage of all crimes and obscenities'. Yet scant attention has been given to the two women who were the catalysts of his fate: his loyal, tolerant wife, Renee-Pelagie, and his vindictive mother-in-law, Madame de Montreuil. This groundbreaking account vividly brings to life these two dynamic women and the complex bonds they evolved with the rakish Marquis, as they dedicated themselves to protecting, curbing and, ultimately, confining him. Francine du Plessix Gray draws on thousands of pages of correspondence between the magnetic, aristocratic Marquis de Sade and his plain, bourgeois wife, to explore in historical and psychological detail what it was like to live with this maverick adventurer and man of letters in the decades before the French Revolution. She brilliantly recreates the extravagant hedonism and corruption of late-18th-century France, the ensuing Terror, and the oppression of the Napoleonic regime under which de Sade spent his last years.

London is rife with impoverished French nobility who have escaped the horror of the French revolution. Quentin de Morlaix, sympathetic to these disenfranchised aristocrats, finds that he too has his own personal reasons to pray for an end to the Revolution. He sets off for France, and enters a life of confusion, mystery, and bloody execution.

Daughter of a wealthy duke, Blaze Flambeau has no shortage of gentlemen vying for her hand in marriage--yet all she desires is her independence. She'd much rather devote her energies to caring for her prized thoroughbred than to the fortune hunters who knock down her door. But her father is ready to see her wed, so he makes her a bargain: she may participate in the racing season only if she gives each suitor a fighting chance at her heart. One man, however, makes Blaze a far more scandalous proposition: her reputation or his bed! For Ross MacArthur, Marquis of Awe, knows something that could ruin her, and he will not hesitate to use it to win her. Blaze cannot let the Scottish rogue have his way--or her innocence--but never in her life has she been so tempted. Perhaps the Marquis's scheme doesn't pose such a dilemma after all. . . Praise for Patricia Grasso and Tempting The Prince. . . "Charming. . .her characters are a joy." --Publishers Weekly "Great fun." --Romantic Times

Introduction -- A young nobleman -- The runaway bestseller -- Monarchs and philosophes -- Pride and privilege-and political economy -- The revolutionaries -- The celebrated marquis -- Conclusion

"This is the first book to examine the cultural history of Marquis de Sade's (1740-1814) philosophical ideas and their lasting influence on political and artistic debates. An icon of free expression, Sade lived through France's Reign of Terror, and his writings offer both a pitiless mirror on humanity and a series of subversive metaphors that allow for the exploration of political, sexual, and psychological terror. Generations of avant-garde writers and artists have responded to Sade's philosophy as a means of liberation and as a radical engagement with social politics and sexual desire, writing fiction modelled on Sade's novels, illustrating luxury editions of his works, and translating his ideas into film, photography, and painting. In The Sadean Imagination, Alyce Mahon examines how Sade used images and texts as forms that could explore and dramatize the concept of terror on political, physical, and psychic levels, and how avant-garde artists have continued to engage in a complex dialogue with his works. Studying Sade's influence on art from the French Revolution through the twentieth century, Mahon examines works ranging from Anne Desclos's The Story of O, to images, texts, and films by Man Ray, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean-Jacques Lebel, and Peter Brook. She also discusses writings and responses to Sade by feminist theorists including Angela Carter and Judith Butler. Throughout, she shows how Sade's work challenged traditional artistic expectations and pushed the boundaries of the body and the body politic, inspiring future artists, writers, and filmmakers to imagine and portray the unthinkable"--

Against a magnificently embroidered backdrop of 18th-century France, Schaeffer shows us Sade's incredible life of sexual appetite, adherence to Enlightenment principles, imprisonment, scandal, and above all inexhaustible imagination.