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  • Robert Damiens

    • September 28, 2019
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    • Category: Character Focus
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      Robert Damiens makes his appearance directly in The Shadows of the King – part 1 in only one double-page spread, although they are, graphically, amongst the most striking pages in the whole novel with their ingenious manipulation of space and time.  His attempt upon the life of Louis XV and his subsequent torture and
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  • The Encyclopédie

    • March 17, 2018
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    • Category: Venice and Paris
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      A fascinating Melvyn Bragg BBC podcast on the Encyclopédie, that embodiment of the Enlightenment and product of the intellectual hothouse that was Paris at the time (and which supposedly inspired Robert Damiens to attempt to assassinate Louis XV). However, good as it is, the podcast was broadcast in 2006 and does contain comments on
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  • The curious case of Louis-le-Grand

    • February 28, 2018
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    • Category: Venice and Paris
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      What do Abbé de Bernis, Voltaire and Robert Damiens all have in common, as well as being characters in ‘Casanova in Paris: The Shadows of the King’?  Well, all three either studied at, or were employed by, Louis-le-Grand, one of the most prestigious schools in Paris.  De Bernis and Voltaire were students and Robert
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