The Trampling of the Lilies

Caron la Boulaye is an avid student of Rousseau's Discourses who earns his living as a secretary for the Marquise de Bellecour. In this subservient position, he ill-advisedly falls in love with his master's daughter, Mademoiselle Suzanne de Bellecour, who true to her class, spurns his love. Not content with that, her father, on learning of this presumption, attacks poor Caron with a horsewhip, the only acceptable way to deal with such an upstart. Within a day, Caron further witnesses the arrogance and inhumanity of his erstwhile master as the Marquis demands his droit de seigneur of a young newlywed friend. La Boulaye rashly and unsuccessfully intervenes thus marking himself as one to be reckoned with. Set against the stirrings of the French Revolution, Sabatini spins his story giving us an unsparing look at aristocratic infamy as well as aristocratic honor. There are heroes and villains on both sides and both are presented as natural outcomes of their ancestry; sometimes trapped by it and other times released from it. Suzanne's evolution provides the case in point. Citizen Robespierre plays a small but critical role. Delightful. (Pushpa Rao)