The Second Footman

Sortie littéraire: The Second Footman de Jasper Barry

By No author
08/02/2013

Jasper Barry has always been keenly interested in European history and literature. His most recent title, The Second Footman, is a 19th century novel with a contemporary twist: a love affair between two men.

About the book

France, 1880 - despite nearly a century of social upheaval, the aristocracy are still firmly entrenched in their hôtels and châteaux. Nineteen year-old Max is second footman to the duchesse de Claireville. But he does not intend to endure the indignities of service for long. He has a plan: to find an aristocratic patron who will become his unwitting accomplice in a spectacular fraud. Yet it is one thing to devise this plan and another to execute it: the noble guests who attend Mme de Claireville's Paris Thursdays or spend the summer with her in Bordeaux naturally pay little regard to the servants. But then a chance encounter with the marquis de Miremont changes Max's luck. The middle-aged marquis, who has spent the last two years struggling with the discovery that he is attracted to his own sex, is easily seduced. A shy man, uncomfortable in society despite his distinguished lineage, Armand de Miremont is unfashionably preoccupied with honour, integrity and truth. Max, who sees himself as above conventional morality, views him as an innocent. Yet he proves far from easy to manipulate. And Max finds that obeying his own ruthless code is not so easy either.

Price: £9.99 pb / £4.99 eBook

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