La Fleur du Roi

Un Diable de Français nommé La Tulipe #1

by Benjamin Rochefort

Un Diable de Français nommé La Tulipe - tome 1

Fanfan la Tulipe ! C'est une chanson, ce fut un film. C'est aujourd'hui un roman, le plus vif, le plus intelligent, le plus joyeux qui se puisse lire. Un roman à l'image de son héros - tel, du moins, que le campe, avec une extraordinaire maestria, Benjamin Rochefort. Fanfan cache sous son pied un secret d’État, il a les yeux pervenche de la belle Du Barry et, dans le bonheur comme dans l'infortune, une veine insensée. Mais quel mystérieux pouvoir le protège - ne dit-on pas qu'il est fils de roi, ou presque ? - et quel autre le poursuit? Du faubourg Saint-Denis aux bas-fonds de Londres, de Nantes et de Bordeaux en Corse et en Espagne, il vole d’aventures en exploits, de conquête féminine en conquête féminine... Ses mille et une folies: un incomparable divertissement - et le vrai plaisir de lire.

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Kinga · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this tome was more than 700 pages (in audiobook format more than 30 hrs). No matter how fun it was in the beginning, it was getting cumbersome by the end. Mainly because it seems to me that its author did not have a 'plan' about the novel. It lacks any kind of structure, arc, anything that would have been some kind of organizational tool for writing. Rochefort (anyone knows anything about him? even deep googling did not bring up any information on him, not even his age, nationality, no other books, nothing) was evidently just writing and writing and writing, whatever popped in his head regarding his main character and everyone who had any contact with him. And he made sure his hero did have contacts: everyone who counted in history at that time (the late 18th century) all over the world shows up sooner or later on a page. For a start, Fan Fan, our hero is the son (!) of Jeanne Bécu (a. k. a. Madame du Barry) and the Prince of Orléans (!). Then he meets and becomes friends with (are you ready?) Voltaire, Emma Hart (a. k. a. Lady Hamilton), Gilbert du Motier (the Marquis de La Fayette, yep, THAT Lafayette!), Washington, all the Native American tribe leaders, Napoleon Bonaparte, and a lot of other celebs of his time.

But mostly and more importantly Fan Fan jumps from one bed into another (and not for taking a nap). One after the other after the other through 700+ pages. There is no way to go around it: the book is a (very) soft porn, sometimes quite graphic and direct and while the descriptions do have a comic aspect, these are getting tired too. Very tired.

There were parts when I did laugh, but mostly I was just rolling my eyes constantly to be honest.