Le Bossu: Aventures De Cape Et D'épée. Volume 5

In the Paris of the Regency (1715-1722), gripped by the intoxicating madness of John Law's financial system, a humble hunchback lends his back to the city's speculators and schemers, but beneath that deformed silhouette hides the sword arm of the knight de Lagardère. When Aurore de Nevers is stripped of her father, her name, and her fortune by the cynical and corrupt, Lagardère takes up her cause with deadly seriousness. What follows is a tempest of intrigues, duels, ambushes, and breathtaking reversals: a shadowy figure moves through the squalid backstreets and glittering halls of a depraved court, gathering evidence, evading assassins, and waiting for the precise moment to strike. The novel builds toward one of the most iconic moments in French popular literature: the terrible "botte de Nevers," the fatal thrust that finally punishes crime and restores justice. Féval created a character who would take his place beside Jean Valjean, d'Artagnan, and Cyrano, proof that sometimes the most unlikely heroes deliver the most satisfying retribution.