Season of Light

Author(s): Katharine McMahon

Location(s): Paris

Genre(s): Historical, Romance

Era(s): Late 1700s (French Revolution)

Location

Content

It’s the summer of 1788 and Paris is ablaze with revolutionary ideas. Swept along in the excitement is Asa Ardleigh, a 19-year-old Englishwoman visiting the city with her newly-married sister, Philippa.

At the literary salon of Madame de Genlis (mistress of the Duc d’Orléans), she meets and falls in love with a young lawyer, Didier Paulin. Accepting Didier’s invitation to visit him in his rooms above the Rue du Cherche-Midi, she enthusiastically sacrifices herself to the cause. But as her sister’s pregnancy progresses, Asa is forced to return to England. In 1793, at Didier’s request, Asa secretly returns to France. Louis XVI is dead and the horrors of the Terror have been unleashed. Finding herself in Caen, Didier’s home town, Asa is introduced to Charlotte Corday (yet to surprise Marat in his bath) and witnesses ordinary citizens sent to the guillotine at the merest whisper of political incorrectness. (the Independent)

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