Castles in the Air

Hector Ratichon is the kind of man history prefers to forget: a former aide to Robespierre who somehow survived the Terror, later a confidant of Napoleon, and now a self-styled 'confidant' to anyone who'll pay him in Parisian society. He's a fraud, a thief, and a rogue of considerable charm. Baroness Orczy, creator of The Scarlet Pimpernel, gives us a protagonist who delights in his own dubious accomplishments while navigating a world of shifting alliances and treacherous assistants. When Ratichon steals and duplicates a secret treaty, he finds himself entangled in a scheme that threatens both his fortune and his life. Theodore, his ingratiating assistant, proves as slippery as his master. Yet beneath the wit and wigs lies something softer: a man haunted by his past, longing for respectability and love in a society that will never quite accept him. Castles in the Air is a picaresque delight, funny and faintly sad, capturing the absurdity and danger of those who manipulate history from the shadows.