Romain Gary

This is a thoroughly interesting tale about aristocracy, appearances and amour! We meet the aging version of Lady L at her 80th birthday party. All of her esteemed grandchildren, her son and their families have gathered. On her estate is a pavilion, which Lady L keeps locked with her treasured memorabilia. The land is being taken by the government and so the pavilion must be demolished. Most of the book happens in flashback as Lady L takes her trusted but stuffy friend Percy whose help she needs in saving the pavilion and relates to him the beginning of a young girl Annette Boudin whose father was an anarchist and whose mother ran away with another man. Her unusual upbringing was complicated by her father's demise, where the unusually attractive young woman took to earning her way in the world's oldest profession. She meets the also greatly attractive Armand Denis, who happens to also be an anarchist and delights in assassinations of powerful royal figures across Europe. As the tale unfolds, Lady L is taken under wing by a powerful but bohemian wealthy man named Glendale nearing the end of his life. Discovering she is pregnant with Armand's child, she marries Glendale to protect her child. She assumes a great estate and wealth upon Glendale's passing. The story comes to a crashing climax as years later when the now known Lady L in her second society marriage gets word that Armand has been released from prison. The flames of passion run through her again. The novel comes to a crashing conclusion with its final heist and Lady L's revealed secret of why she cares so deeply about what will happen to her pavilion. --Lee Armstrong at Amazon.com. This book was made into a 1965 movie of the same title.