The Pocket Bible; Or, Christian the Printer: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century
The Pocket Bible; Or, Christian the Printer: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century
Translated by Daniel De Leon
Paris, 1534. As the Reformation reshapes Europe, a humble printer named Christian Lebrenn watches his world fracture. His son Hervé has fallen under the sway of religious fanaticism, transforming from a trustworthy young man into someone the family barely recognizes. When money vanishes money meant for his daughter's dowry suspicion tears through the household like wildfire. In this meticulously rendered sixteenth-century Paris, where crime festers and moral decay spreads, one family must confront how deeply ideology can poison the bonds of love. Eugène Sue, the master of socially conscious fiction, weaves a tale that feels startlingly contemporary: a story about what happens when radical belief enters a household, when a father's faith is tested by his son's certainty, and when the great currents of history crash against the small, precious realities of family. This is historical fiction at its most intimate and devastating.
