For the King

Similar in plot, style, and setting to Balzac's The Chouans, Delors' uneven second novel (following Mistress of the Revolution, 2008) bogs down under the weight of a mixture of French terms, tangential details, and a large cast of characters, most of whom are referred to by nicknames, titles, proper names, and surnames. Readers who persevere, however, will be struck by the author's evocation of eighteenth-century Paris: the physical descriptions of post-Revolutionary life, the unsavory and treacherous political climate, and the blatant injustice and corruption perpetrated under Napoléon Bonaparte.