Kemske, best known for his quirky takes on latter-day organization men, smoothly shifts gears to deliver
a wryly engrossing historical novel featuring the duplicitous French statesman ...
An offbeat account of a world-class rogue from yesteryear, whose ingratiating
civility and utter lack of scruples helped him leave large footprints on the sands of time.
--Kirkus Reviews
This tale of the Enlightenment’s bitter end finds an apt teller in Kemske, who brings the
irony and psychological acuity that his formidable protagonist demands.
--Publishers Weekly
Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, better known as Talleyrand (1754-1838), is one of the most vilified and unprincipled men in history. He was also one of the most civilized. That is, his only guiding principle was civility. This Machiavellian statesman, the ultimate Enlightenment aristocrat, helped make and break both the Frech Revolution and Napoleon. An elder son disinherited due to his clubfoot, Talleyrand betrayed everyone and everything he worked for, slept with everybody's wives, took graft right and left, and practically invented insider trading. Unable to handle swords or guns, he learned to handle people. No matter how much France was turned upside down, often through his own doing, Talleyrand came out on top -- powerful, wealthy, and attended by beautiful women to the very end. Truly an anti-hero for America today.
The Third Lion is a dryly humorous, intimate, compelling look at this great survivor, betrayer, and womanizer. Kemske makes this consummate villain not only understandable, but also sympathetic. By sharing Talleyrand's abandonment, his education by a string of duchesses in everything from civility to lovemaking, his humor and his viewpoints, the reader gets inside a man they might otherwise despise.
$22.95 cloth, 224 pages, ISBN 0-945774-37-0
Order from your local bookstore via Book Sense
To read the first chapter of The Third Lion, in PDF format, click here.
For a shorter excerpt, see below.
Both men looked toward the doorway. Catherine stood there in only her anklet and neck ribbon.
Talleyrand sensed the General tensing in his chair and realized Catherine had just earned them classification among the libertines and reprobates who were sapping the moral fiber of the country.
"General," she said, "how delightful to see you!"
She advanced into the room, and Bonaparte, apparently speechless, said nothing.
Talleyrand stood. "Is dinner finished, my dear?"
"The men are having tobacco and brandy." She extended her hand across the desk to Bonaparte.
Bonaparte stood. He kissed Catherine's hand stiffly, then looked at Talleyrand as if trying to comprehend what was happening.
"My dear," said Talleyrand, "the General and I are engaged. Would you excuse us?"
"Oh pooh." She sighed. "I suppose I will reitre. General, please remember me to Madame Bonaparte."
The General said nothing, but Catherine appeared not to notice that he had not spoken since she entered the room. She smiled fetchingly at Talleyrand, then left. When she closed the door, the room became quiet as a tomb.
The two men sat down again. Talleyrand decided he must break the silence.
"The Republic of Virtue is gone, General. Some of the more spirited of our citizens seem to feel they have been bottled up too long."
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