A King's Ransom: The Life of Charles Théveneau de Morande, Blackmailer, Scandalmonger & Master-Spy - Hardcover

Burrows, Simon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826419895 ISBN 13: 9780826419897

Publisher: Continuum, 2010

Synopsis

If Charles Théveneau de Morande was a character in a novel, he would be considered the ultimate anti-hero. Morande's historical significance far transcends his success as a blackmailer and scandalous pamphleteer. Having extorted the French monarchy he turned coat and during the War of American Independence and throughout the 1780s was France's leading political spy in London. In addition, he was a highly successful police agent among his fellow exiles and one of the most influential journalists of his time. His enemies or victims - who invariably suffered intense damage to their reputations - included many of the most colourful figures of his day. Nevertheless, Morande survived the wrath of both Louis XV and the revolution, outlived his enemies, and died peacefully in his bed.

Morande's life story is a tale of intrigue, blackmail, espionage, duels, kidnap, murder, politics, conspiracy and crime. At the same time, it offers a chance to examine some of the most important issues of French history and revolution.

About this title

About the Author:

Simon Burrows is a leading scholar of European print culture and French political life in the period 1760-1815. In the course of a rich career, he has worked at the Universities of Waikato (New Zealand), Leeds (UK) and is currently Professor of History at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) in Australia. He has published six books as author or co-editor and over 20 articles and chapters in well-received themed collections. He is the principal investigator of the highly acclaimed French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe database project, which was founded at the University of Leeds, funded by a research grant from the British Arts and Humanities Research Council between 2007 and 2011, and is now housed at UWS.

Review:

[Morande's] life reads like the script of a film, but in this minutely researched and well-written book the author uses his extraordinary life to demonstrate the scope and importance of the world-changing events Morande lived through and chronicled. (Good Book Guide)

Morande's career [is] finely illuminated in Simon Burrows's biography (Colin Jones, New York Review of Books)

Good review in Standpoint. (Standpoint)

[An] excellent resurrection of Morande ... pacily written with a delicious sense of absurdity (Literary Review)

Simon Burrows, in the first attempt to reconstruct [Morande's] shadowy life since 1886, pursues him relentlessly through print and archive and the mists of obfuscation that were his natural habitat, and produces a fascinating portrait of a paradoxical man who lived by his poisonous pen. (Times Literary Supplement)

[Morande's] life reads like the script of a film, but in this minutely researched and well-written book the author uses his extraordinary life to demonstrate the scope and importance of the world-changing events Morande lived through and chronicled. (Sanford Lakoff)

Morande's career [is] finely illuminated in Simon Burrows's biography (Sanford Lakoff)

Good review in Standpoint. (Sanford Lakoff)

Simon Burrows, in the first attempt to reconstruct [Morande's] shadowy life since 1886, pursues him relentlessly through print and archive and the mists of obfuscation that were his natural habitat, and produces a fascinating portrait of a paradoxical man who lived by his poisonous pen. (Sanford Lakoff)

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0826419895
• ISBN 13: 9780826419897
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304