Armand; or The Peer and The Peasant

Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie was one of the most remarkable women in American theater history, and this romantic melodrama was arguably her greatest theatrical triumph, even more popular than her groundbreaking comedy "Fashion." Set in the glittering courts and dangerous shadows of Louis XV's France, the play follows Blanche, a beautiful peasant maiden who discovers she may be the illegitimate daughter of the scheming Duke de Richelieu. Her lover, the noble but impoverished Armand, must prove himself worthy of her love by defending her honor against the predatory advances of King Louis XV himself. <br><br>Mowatt brilliantly tapped into the 1840s transatlantic obsession with Dumas' Musketeer novels, delivering a theater of heightened emotion, passionate declarations, dangerous intrigue, and the radical suggestion that love and character matter more than birth. This is pre-Civil War American drama at its most audacious, a sweeping romance that challenges the rigid class structures of its era. For readers who enjoy classic melodrama, historical romance, or want to discover a forgotten masterpiece of American theater, this play delivers pure theatrical thrills.