The third lion

by Floyd Kemske

French aristocrat, bishop, revolutionary, and statesman, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754-1838), known to history simply as Talleyrand, helped to make and break both the French Revolution and Napoleon. This great survivor, womanizer, and betrayer of Church and State was ruled only by the obligations of civility. The Third Lion is an intimate novel about this Machiavellian man of the Enlightenment, a survivor who not only outlived his enemies, but plotted the coups and restorations that destroyed them. It's the story of an elder son with a clubfoot, abandoned to his wet-nurse, disinherited, and handed over to the Church. A penniless aristocrat able to handle neither sword nor gun - just people. A cripple who dined and bedded all the women he could. In the tradition of I, Claudius, this wry novel of personal and political intrigue celebrates, and lets the reader get inside, a vilified figure who molded the wars and revolutions that gave birth to the modern era.