Certain scenes form the very flesh of the novel: battles, secret missions, audiences at court, night crossings, moral reckonings, moments of intimacy where silence weighs heavier than words.
These scenes are not merely historical. They are sensory — and it is through what plays out in the shadows, the quiet choices, the renunciations, the unspoken alliances, that the Grand Siècle is best understood.
- The kitchens
- The siege of Namur
- The morning after
- Lauzun’s escort to Pignerol
- The fortress-prison of Pignerol
- The wrestling matches at Pignerol
- Chambers of the forbidden
- Lust in the Grand Siècle
- The mixed bathhouses
- Homoeroticism in the seventeenth century
- The duel
- Quentin’s prostration
- The Luxembourg Gardens
- Louis decorated by Louis XIV