The Abyssinian

Rufin, Jean-Christophe

ISBN 10: 0393321096 / ISBN 13: 9780393321098

Published by W. W. Norton & Company, 2000

About this Item

Fast Free Shipping â Good condition. It may show normal signs of use, such as light writing, highlighting, or library markings, but all pages are intact and the book is fully readable. A solid, complete copy that's ready to enjoy.

Seller Inventory # GWV.0393321096.G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Abyssinian
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393321096
• ISBN 13: 9780393321098
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: good

About this title

Synopsis

Friendship, humor, love, and discovery are the elements of this gorgeous adventure, a glittering historical romance in which a young French physician braves the wilds of Abyssinia to cure its king, then returns to France on an equally perilous mission to the court at Versailles.

In 1699, Louis XIV of France sent an embassy to the most mysterious of oriental sovereigns, the Negus, or King, of Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia). Louis's hope was to lure that country into the political and religious orbit of France. Jean-Baptiste Poncet, young apothecary/physician to the pashas of Cairo, is the hero of this romantic epic embroidering upon the known details of that long-forgotten embassy. Selected by the French consul to lead the mission, Poncet travels through the deserts of Egypt and the mountains of Abyssinia to the court of the Negus, thence to Versailles and back again. Along the way he falls madly in love with the consul's daughter, treats the Negus for a mysterious skin ailment, and gains a disastrous audience with the king of France.

About the Author

Jean-Christophe Rufin is a founder of Doctors without Borders and author of the prize-winning first novel The Abyssinian. He lives in France.