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Abyssinian
In 1699, Louis XIV of France sent an embassy to the most mysterious of oriental sovereigns, the Negus, or King, of Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia). Louis's hope was to lure that country into the political and religious orbit of France. Jean-Baptiste Poncet, young apothecary/physician to the pashas of Cairo, is the hero of this romantic epic embroidering upon the known details of that long-forgotten embassy. Selected by the French consul to lead the mission, Poncet travels through the deserts of Egypt and the mountains of Abyssinia to the court of the Negus, thence to Versailles and back again. Along the way he falls madly in love with the consul's daughter, treats the Negus for a mysterious skin ailment, and gains a disastrous audience with the king of France.
Book Details
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
- Publish Date: Nov 17th, 2000
- Pages: 430
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.23in - 5.54in - 1.09in - 0.89lb
- EAN: 9780393321098
- Categories: • Historical - General
About the Author
Rufin, Jean-Christophe: - Jean-Christophe Rufin is a founder of Doctors without Borders and author of the prize-winning first novel The Abyssinian. He lives in France.
Praise for this book
[A] fiercely imagined, entertaining novel...Wildly gratifying.--Jay Parini "Boston Sunday Globe"
Rufin maintains a perfect balance between impatient detachment and compassionate curiosity. The Abyssinian, like Thackeray's Vanity Fair, carries the weight of history with good-humoured finesse.-- "The Times (London)"
Gracefully written, with fine characterization and a strong sense of time and place.--Library Journal (starred review)
A superb first novel, rife with political, religious, and romantic intrigue...Evokes the same sense of history and wonder as Michelle Jaffe in The Stargazer.-- "Booklist"
France's hottest new writer...[The Abyssinian is] filled with adventure, romance, and political intrigue.-- "Seattle Times"
An absorbing and unforgettable book.-- "Los Angeles Times"
Here is a fine rare new talent, an author who writes in a French of classical purity...that translates naturally and faithfully into its elegant English equivalent. An author, furthermore, who is perfectly at home in his most particular world: the Cairo of the late seventeenth century.--Patrick O'Brian
A Dumas-style romp...Dust, intrigue, devastating partings, and joyous reunions abound.-- "The New Yorker"
Dashing, abundant, and, when necessary, vividly theatrical.-- "Times Literary Supplement (London)"