France is bleeding. The Wars of Religion have split the nation apart, yet at the glittering court of Catherine de' Medici, duty still demands more than passion can survive. When the beautiful Mlle de Mézières is forced to marry the Prince de Montpensier, her heart belongs to another: the Duc de Guise, whose family stands on the front lines of Catholic resistance. As if courtly intrigue and political machinations weren't enough, the brilliant Duc d'Anjou, future King Henri III, becomes dangerously captivated by her, while the Comte de Chabanes, her husband's former tutor, nurses his own quiet devotion. Trapped between the man she must honor and the man she cannot forget, the Princess discovers that in a world of political marriages and shifting alliances, a woman's heart is the most dangerous currency of all. Written with the cool precision that would define the French classical tradition, Madame de La Fayette's 1662 novella is a devastating portrait of desire thwarted by duty, and one of the earliest masterpieces of the French novel.
