A Conversation on the Quai Voltaire by Lee Langley

by Lee Langley

Collector, adventurer and artist, Vivant Denon was a youthful courtier at Versailles; he lived through the French Revolution, and galloped across Egypt with Bonaparte. A skilled survivor, he knew everyone and found world fame without seeking it, risking his life and happiness in an endless quest, a love affair with art.Taking a real historical figure, his extraordinary life, his passions, his friendship with Napoleon and the Venetian contessa who was Denon's great love, Lee Langley has created a rich canvas that captures the dying grandeur of Venice, Robespierre's terror, the battle of the Nile and a dazzling liaison dangereuse, alongside a tender love story. With wit and imaginative invention, she brings to life a tumultuous period and a fascinating man.Living in his shadow is Baptiste, his servant, watching as his master, ever closer to Napoleon, fills the Louvre museum with treasures looted from the enemies of France. Denon's private life is also open to the valet's watchful eye. And he too has hopes. And secrets.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Award-winning novelist and travel-writer, Lee Langley was born in Calcutta in the late 1930s, of Scottish parents, and she spent most of her early childhood there. Her parents separated when she was 4, and she spent the next 6 years travelling through India with her mother, where she got caught up in the Indian independence riots. Her family returned to the UK as feelings rose higher against the British. Lee Langley has since written of a sense of loss and exile from a place that she had loved as a child. She won the Writers’ Guild Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Lee Langley has also written film scripts and has adapted novels for TV. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is also an active committee member of the P.E.N., the writers’ organization that campaigns for freedom of speech internationally. Lee Langley is married to the novelist Theo Richmond, and lives in Richmond in London.

Reviews

[Patty Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rather slow moving book about a painter who is also a diplomat but is really VERY interested in the art he'll encounter on his diplomatic missions. He is drawn to beautiful women as well, He has a valet who has been his trusted servant since childhood, in Venice the valet meets a chambermaid, they fall in love and marry (which they didn't tell their master and mistress about, that was illegal in those days). The book lurches from one era to another so I'm sorry Lee Langley I for one didn't enjoy your book

[Zane Louw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book about the french society during Napoleon era.