The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron - Softcover

Lewis, Janet

3.81

64 ratings by Goodreads

9780804001335: The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804001332 ISBN 13: 9780804001335

Publisher: Swallow Press, 1981

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This third novel in the three Cases of Circumstantial Evidence provides an intimate portrayal of deception and corruption in one small poor Parisian family in the late 1600s. In contrast to the majesty of the court of Louis XIV and the bloodthirsty crowds of Paris at that time, the simple lives of Jean Larcher and his wife and son are pitiably ruined by the presence of a seducer and his political pamphlets. The result: personal and public passions mesh to hang an innocent man.

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About the Author:

Janet Lewis was a novelist, poet, and short-story writer whose literary career spanned almost the entire twentieth century. The New York Times has praised her novels as "some of the 20th century's most vividly imagined and finely wrought literature." Born and educated in Chicago, she lived in California for most of her adult life and taught at both Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. Her works include The Wife of Martin Guerre (1941), The Trial of S�ren Qvist (1947), The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron (1959), Good-Bye, Son and Other Stories (1946), and Poems Old and New (1982).

Review:

“A poetic work which exerts a spell-binding effect on the reader...it is with such as Hawthorne that this exquisite and authoritative writer should be ranked.”
― The Guardian

“The musty, historical episode surrounding the publication of a scurrilous pamphlet against Louis XIV and Madame de Maintenon (formerly Mme. Scarron) serves as background to this novel which brilliantly explores the excesses of the French court. Seventeenth century life is examined in terms of both the aristocracy and the working people. In fact, one of the most effective elements in the novel is the description of the daily life of a bookbinder and his family. The essential humanity of the characters dominates the sometimes grim plot which blends truth and imagination. And, as always, Janet Lewis writes with wonderful lucidity.”
― Writer's Choice

"Bristles with characterization, the atmosphere of a cruel and dingy Paris, considerable suspense, and the smell of blood."
― San Francisco Chronicle

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