This book represents an original and important contribution to our knowledge of Beaumarchais's life and times and is the first-ever serious study of Beaumarchais's contribution to the American Revolution. As such, it offers a wealth of detailed insights into not only eighteenth-century diplomacy among nations but among individuals in the Republic of Letters. The intertwining of personal relationships and power ... Read morepolitics is an important element of the age of Enlightenment, with which scholars and students are only recently coming to understand fully. No one working in French literature today has read as many original sources on the life of Beaumarchais as Donald Spinelli and Brian Morton, and this extensive research gives their work a richness, density and originality unmatched by any other Beaumarchais scholar.
Gregory S. Brown, University of Nevada, Las Vegas This fascinating and meticulously researched account of French dramatists Pierre Augustan Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) focuses on his activities as a maverick gunrunner during the American Revolution, a role most readers do not associate with the well-known auhthor who inspired Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro (1784). After reading this exciting book one wonders how he found time to write at all, consumed as he was by his business dealings in America and by his business dealings in America and by his efforts to avoid personal bankruptcy in France.
The French Review
A splendid book on a fascinating topic, superbly researched and engagingly written.
Jonathan R. Dull, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin Show Less