France eagerly awaits the day the young King, Louis XV, comes of age and breaks free from the rule of his ministers. The country hopes Louis will bring back glory and prosperity to France. However, he is too preoccupied with the thrills of hunting and gambling to notice the power struggle going on in his own court. Soon, the King is introduced to the pleasures of mistresses and a succession of lovers follows. From the gentle persuasions of Madame de Mailley to her overtly ambitious sister, Madame Vintimille, France stands by and watches a King ruled by his women…
The Well-Beloved is a novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1897. The main setting of the novel was The Isle of Slingers, a caricature of the Isle of Portland in Dorset, southern England. The Well Beloved was one of Hardy's last novels. It was first published in three-part serial form in 1892. The novel tells the story of the sculptor Jocelyn Pierston's search for the ideal woman, through three generations of a Portland family. A cottage housing what is now Portland Museum, on the Isle of Portland, founded by Marie Stopes, a friend of Hardy and his wife, was an inspiration for the book.