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Marianne #5
Marianne and the Lords of the East
‘With the mere mention of Napoleon’s name, it was as though the Corsican himself had swept into the room, with booted feet and flashing eyes ...’
Beneath the red silk canopy of the royal barge, Marianne crosses the satin smooth waters of the Bosphorus.
In her womb she carries the child forced upon her by the sinister Matteo Damiani. In her trust is a vital mission for her Emperor, the conquering Napoleon.
She is bound for the court of the legendary Sultana of the Ottoman Empire to enlist her aid for the day that the Grand Army marches on Moscow.
Her mission takes Marianne through palaces and prisons, from Constantinople to the shores of Russia itself...
Beneath the red silk canopy of the royal barge, Marianne crosses the satin smooth waters of the Bosphorus.
In her womb she carries the child forced upon her by the sinister Matteo Damiani. In her trust is a vital mission for her Emperor, the conquering Napoleon.
She is bound for the court of the legendary Sultana of the Ottoman Empire to enlist her aid for the day that the Grand Army marches on Moscow.
Her mission takes Marianne through palaces and prisons, from Constantinople to the shores of Russia itself...
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 6, 2019
Predato u štampu :) Ovaj tom Hrvati nisu preveli (informacija za čitaoce iz Hrvatske)
December 28, 2011
Une bonne suite, le secret du prince Sant'Anna relève du plus total inattendu.
June 10, 2020
Le dénouement est un peu cliché mais cela reste toujours Benzoni. On arrive facilement au dernier livre sans ressentir qu'elle se répète. On découvre toujours des nouvelles intrigues, de nouveaux secrets. On ne s'ennuie pas.
October 24, 2021
I thought this would be the obligatory "trapped in a harem" instalment of the series, similar to Angelique and the Sultan/Angelique in Barbary or Catherine and a Time for Love, but it's not. A harem does feature, as the book opens with Marianne on her way to complete her diplomatic mission to the Sultana Nakshidil, a cousin of the Empress Josephine captured by pirates in her youth. There doesn't seem to be much evidence that the Sultana really was related to Josephine, but it was believed in the 19th century and played into Orientalist fantasies of white women in harems.
Marianne makes a good friend in the Sultana and gets help and advice on her current dilemma, her pregnancy by the man who kidnapped and raped her in the previous book. It's a distressing situation only resolved by her husband returning from the dead. I was pretty sure one of her husbands would return from the dead and fortunately it's the Prince Sant'Anna. In one of the best twists of the series, we finally discover his secret and why he is a recluse. Marianne agrees to keep the baby for his sake, but doesn't attempt to make the marriage work because as usual she's obsessed with rescuing her on/off lover, privateer Jason Beaufort.
There's not as much of Jason in this book, thankfully, because he's convalescing elsewhere for most of it, then he gets thrown into prison again. He is described as a highly controlled man of strict principles, but these are entirely informed attributes as he's a slave owner and former slave trader who behaves like a hormonal teen on steroids. His strict principles never apply to himself and don't stop him from committing arson in the last chapter. But enough of this tedious man. I am now officially Team MariAnna and hoping Marianne ditches Jason, but she hasn't much time to see the light as there's only one more book in the series.
I preferred the first half of the book, with the harem scenes, the dead husband reveal and Marianne becoming a mother, to the second half, where she takes off to Odessa in pursuit of Jason - the Prince having spirited the baby away to parts unknown in the mistaken belief that Marianne doesn't want to be involved with the child. In Odessa she immediately gets scammed by one Madame de Gachet, actually another returnee from the dead who was involved in the Affair of the Necklace and still dresses like it's the 1780s for some reason. Luckily Marianne's godfather, the Cardinal de Chazay, turns up and sorts everything out. He's undercover as an ordinary priest, but only has to show people the symbol on a ring he wears for them to quail and do his will. I thought he must be in SPECTRE, but Marianne concludes he's a Jesuit.
Marianne ends up in possession of a diamond implied to have come from the Queen's Necklace, which Chazay charges her to hand over to a minion who will come to her house in Paris in six months' time. She must do this to serve the Royalist cause, which is a bit awkward as Marianne is anything but a royalist and her primary concern is serving Napoleon's cause. She's discovered in Odessa that a key ally has betrayed him and she has to find him and warn him. So the last chapter sees the band, rather implausibly, back together, with Marianne, Jason and their various sidekicks heading to Moscow to find Napoleon.
Marianne makes a good friend in the Sultana and gets help and advice on her current dilemma, her pregnancy by the man who kidnapped and raped her in the previous book. It's a distressing situation only resolved by her husband returning from the dead. I was pretty sure one of her husbands would return from the dead and fortunately it's the Prince Sant'Anna. In one of the best twists of the series, we finally discover his secret and why he is a recluse. Marianne agrees to keep the baby for his sake, but doesn't attempt to make the marriage work because as usual she's obsessed with rescuing her on/off lover, privateer Jason Beaufort.
There's not as much of Jason in this book, thankfully, because he's convalescing elsewhere for most of it, then he gets thrown into prison again. He is described as a highly controlled man of strict principles, but these are entirely informed attributes as he's a slave owner and former slave trader who behaves like a hormonal teen on steroids. His strict principles never apply to himself and don't stop him from committing arson in the last chapter. But enough of this tedious man. I am now officially Team MariAnna and hoping Marianne ditches Jason, but she hasn't much time to see the light as there's only one more book in the series.
I preferred the first half of the book, with the harem scenes, the dead husband reveal and Marianne becoming a mother, to the second half, where she takes off to Odessa in pursuit of Jason - the Prince having spirited the baby away to parts unknown in the mistaken belief that Marianne doesn't want to be involved with the child. In Odessa she immediately gets scammed by one Madame de Gachet, actually another returnee from the dead who was involved in the Affair of the Necklace and still dresses like it's the 1780s for some reason. Luckily Marianne's godfather, the Cardinal de Chazay, turns up and sorts everything out. He's undercover as an ordinary priest, but only has to show people the symbol on a ring he wears for them to quail and do his will. I thought he must be in SPECTRE, but Marianne concludes he's a Jesuit.
Marianne ends up in possession of a diamond implied to have come from the Queen's Necklace, which Chazay charges her to hand over to a minion who will come to her house in Paris in six months' time. She must do this to serve the Royalist cause, which is a bit awkward as Marianne is anything but a royalist and her primary concern is serving Napoleon's cause. She's discovered in Odessa that a key ally has betrayed him and she has to find him and warn him. So the last chapter sees the band, rather implausibly, back together, with Marianne, Jason and their various sidekicks heading to Moscow to find Napoleon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2023
Perhaps not the best of Benzoni's Marianne series, but still an enjoyable read.
September 13, 2010
Only one more left in the series, darn it.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews