Review: Not quite good
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 1, 2014
Given the wealth of interesting material available to Ms. McGrath any 19rth century novelist worth his/her salt could have written a three-decker to rival A Tale of Two Cities. Instead, we get a spare, uninflected narrative of episodes with little connection carried out by characters with little motivation. In fact the only clear motivation is romantic love. We meet a master thief but see nothing of the Paris underworld. We hear references to partisans but get only the briefest explanations of their ideas, the forces that shaped them, or their actions. The French political and social situation is only hinted at. What were the consequences of the Revolution? we are not told. How did Napoleon achieve the status of First Consul? What IS a First Consul? no information. What was his motivation from switching the pursuit of people who probably tried to assassinate him to pursuit of people who probably didn't? No explanation. Moderately pleasant reading but very,very superficial.