Word: praslin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...book is essentially in two parts, the first when Henrlette is living in Paris as governess in the home of the Due du Praslin; the second, entirely different and almost entirely divorced from the first, when she is the wife of Henry Field living in West Springfield and then in New York City. But the whole is well knit. Under the gay lights of Paris, before tragedy has struck her life and with the handsome Due Du Praslin at here side, she sees the actress Rachel. Many years later, as Mrs. Henry Field, she again relieves the past...
...revolution of 1848, is a compelling story. The many sided and fascinating character of Henrlette opens out and blossoms as she faces the trials of working for a due with whom she is in love and a duchesse whose complete lack of reason and understanding at times make the Praslin mansions mad-houses. Added to this is a story that you cannot set down; every scene, every conversation leads with maddening deliberation to the inevitable crisis...
Henriette was the notorious governess, "Mademoiselle D," who in 1847 was one of the central figures in the internationally famous murder trial, in Paris, of the Duc de Praslin, who was accused of the hatchet-murder of his voluptuous wife. (Because he committed suicide when arrested, the Praslin case is included among famous unsolved murders...
Rachel Field's fictionized biography centres on Henriette's six years in the Praslin household, emphasizes her genius with children, her unimpeachable tact in dealing with her violently jealous mistress, her innocence of the scandals that linked her name with the handsome Duc, the injustice of contemporaries (among them Victor Hugo) who characterized her as "a rare woman...at once wicked and charming...