Michael Margolis

The work meets the criteria to be called a great novel. It has integrated the political, psychological and historical in a way only a few authors have done. Political and personal passions alternate as the story of the uneven and violent growth of 19th century Democratic currents merged with the intensity of youth and the understanding of the old. The prose often verges on poetry and there are dozens of lyrical passages of sublime beauty covering such diverse topics as the soul of Paris, the nature of parental and romantic love, and the inevitability of violent Democratic revolution against Monarchy.