Written in the 1920s but set directly before the French Revolution, this is the story of a young lawyer from the provinces, Andre-Louis. Raised and educated among the nobility, he has not the wealth, parentage, or hypocrisy needed to remain in their midst. When the Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr viciously and cold-bloodedly kills Andre-Louis's best friend, a naive priest, Andre swears vengeance. The corrupt system of laws is no help, and Andre is turned from his home and profession for his trouble-making. In extremity, he becomes in turn a rabble-rouser, an actor, a fencing-master, and finally, a politician. In each guise, he heaps another humiliation upon the Marquis, until finally 1792 is upon them, and blood must be spilt.This is a book filled with duels, rhetoric, mob violence and lots and lots of clever dialog*. Andre is a rather more sarcastic twist on The Princess Bride's Wesley--Aline is a much smarter version of Buttercup. Scaramouche would be a fantastic movie.
*example:
"From M. le Marquis there was a slight play of eyebrows, a vague, indulgent smile. His dark, liquid eyes looked squarely into the face of M. de Vilmorin.
"You have been deceived in that, I fear."
"Deceived?"
"Your sentiments betray the indiscretion of which madame your mother must have been guilty."
The brutally affronting words were sped beyond recall, and the lips that had uttered them, coldly, as if they had been the merest commonplace, remained calm and faintly sneering.
A dead silence followed."