The French Lesson (Henrietta Lightfoot) - Hardcover

"Compelling and operatic...Reads like a modern thriller". (Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs). "A dark and irresistible novel". (Lucy Worsley). 1789: Henrietta Lightfoot, a young Englishwoman, trips on her silk gown as she runs for her life along the bloodstained streets of revolutionary Paris. She finds refuge in the opulent home of Grace Dalyrmple Elliott, the city's most celebrated courtesan. But heads are rolling, neighbours fear neighbours, and masters whisper before servants. As the sound of the guillotine echoes outside, within the gilded salons of high society Henrietta becomes a pawn in a vicious game of female power. How will she survive in a world where no one can be trusted? Finely plotted and stylishly told, this story of a lone woman making her way through the bloodiest times in history resonates with a sense of modern revolution and tyranny. THE FRENCH LESSON shows with panache how the tides of history and human nature never change.

"Henrietta Lightfoot's exploits in Revolutionary France are irresistible. She's a heroine you can't put down." (LUCY WORSLEY)

"A deliciously dark novel" (Red Magazine)

"Georgette Heyer meets Flashman ... A gleefully modern retelling of a juicy chapter in history" (The Times)

"Rubenhold unfolds a complicated plot with great dexterity, brilliantly evoking a society in which traditional bonds are being sundered." (Sunday Times)

"'Compelling and operatic . . . Reads like a modern thriller’" (SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE, author of The Romanovs)