The Condor's Head

Tales of History and Imagination #3

by Ferdinand Mount

An enjoyable, sophisticated and intelligent historical novel about Americans in Paris on the eve of the French Revolution, seen from the naïve yet entertaining perspective of William Short, secretary to Thomas Jefferson.

Genres: Historical Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 24, 2007

About the author

Ferdinand Mount was born in 1939. For many years he was a columnist at the Spectator and then the Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times. In between, he was head of the Downing Street Policy Unit and then editor of the Times Literary Supplement. He is now a prize-winning novelist and author of, most recently, the bestselling memoir Cold Cream. He lives in London.

Reviews

[Ani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the main portion of the book--the historical fiction, particularly the depiction of France before and during the Revolution. I also appreciated the afterword that explained the historical evidence behind the decisions the author made. Historical fiction is always better for me when the author shows they've done some research and explains fact vs fiction. However, I don't understand the purpose for the first and last chapters that bookend the main story. It takes place in the "current" time period and doesn't add anything to the main story for me. I think those two chapters could have been left out, and I could just as easily have skipped them. This made the book a bit uneven.

[Heidi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Diabolical, and poor on period detail.