Talleyrand: The Art Of Survival (1974) By Jean Orieux
 
Some lives are shaped in childhood, others in the course of time; still others must reach the threshold of advanced age before their purpose is clear. But not the life of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, born on February 2, 1754, whose family bore an illustrious name and had held a pre-eminent rank in society since the ninth century. At birth, his life pattern was set: opulence and renown, coupled with spiritual privation. He limped from the start, yet he was destined to go far. 
 
Jean Orieux's biography of Talleyrand reads like a novel, which, considering his subject, is only just. Talleyrand, descended from the cadet branch of a noble family as old as that of the king, survived and prospered under every regime in France from monarchy thru the directorate and Napoleon's empire and beyond. (On taking his oath of allegiance to King Louis Phillipe, Talleyrand remarked, "Well, sire, that makes my thirteenth.") A major force in the post-Napoleanic world, his air of mystery and his laconic manner earned him the nickname "The Sphinx." In both virtues and vices, he was an odd mix; greedy, vain, amoral in many respects, but he had an iron will and an unquenchable love for France, no matter who ruled her. Orieux's book is both informative and eminently readable.
 
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
677 pages
In Good condition