Finished

  It was a great book, a haunting melancholy love story, that had very little action in the romantic novel sense. The novel is more about the love for one's country, one's countryman, and fair treatment of others. It is a hero's novel that has passion for justice. I am thankful it wasn't romantic dribble.

The author stitched together a very believable novel and as he put it in his own words " My job, then, was not to change what is known but to use my own imagination to fill in the gaps of what isn't known." ( Tipton, James, 2009.)  

Annette Vallon was , in real life, a counterrevolutionary, who aided  refugees during the Terror, the Directoire, and Napolean. She was also the mother to a child of Wordsworth and was watched, suspected, but never caught by The Committee of Surveillance, later the Committee of Public Safety, and  Napoleon's Secret Police.  For twenty-five years this woman with no thought of personal gain aided persecuted persons.

I do have to say that many books lead me on a kind of scavenger hunt. I love the author who gives me a book list or reading/learning material. James Tipton did not disappoint.

New books of interest:
David Andress, The Terror, Civil War in the French Revolution (2005)
Emilie Legouis, William Wordsworth and Annette Vallon (1922)
R.R. Palmer, The Twelve Who Ruled (2005)
Aileen Ribeiro, Fashion in the French Revolution (1988)
Simon Schama, Citizens (1989)
Elisabeth Scotto, France, The Beautiful Cookbook (1989)

I have picked up The Seven Ages of Paris (2004) by Alastair Horne and am reading the 100 or so pages that concern the reign of the Sun King to Napoleon. I use this book as a primer, something to fill in the gaps where my information is lacking or just not there. I have not read it from cover to cover and probably won't. It's kind of like the additional material a college class gives to increase your understanding.