Merivel: A Man of His Time

Description

NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only.

Number of Pages: 352

Get ready to laugh, prepare to weep — Robert Merivel is back in Rose Tremain’s magical sequel to Restoration. Robert Merivel, courtier to Charles II is no longer a young man — but off he goes to France in search of the Sun King and to Switzerland in pursuit of a handsome woman. Versailles — all glitter in front and squalor behind — is a fiasco- Merivel is forced to share an attic (and a chamber pot) with a Dutch clock-maker while attempting to sustain himself on peas and jam and water from the fountains. Switzerland, by contrast, is perhaps a little too comfortable. But the lady, a clever botanist, leads Merivel deliciously on — until her jealous husband bursts in with duelling pistols…As he narrates the picaresque journey, Merivel gets into all sorts of scrapes; he is torn between enjoying himself and making something of his life, through medicine and the study of science. He tries to be diligent, but constantly backslides into laugher and laziness. A big-hearted rogue who loves his daughter, his country house and the English King … Merivel is Everyman — and he speaks directly to us down the centuries.