Antoine de Baecque
Antoine de Baecque est historien, Professeur à l’École normale supérieure. Il a été rédacteur en chef des Cahiers du cinéma, puis des pages culturelles de Libération et...
Les talons rouges
Auteur
Parution :
23/08/2017
Collection :
La Bleue
RED HEELS
By Antoine de Baecque
By Antoine de Baecque
The French revolution erupts into the lives of an aristocratic family, the Villemorts, tearing it apart: they are vampires, but some of them decide to forsake blood and embrace new ideas...
June 1789, The Ancient World is crumbling. The Villemorts are descended from a long line of aristocrats, a family held together by the age-old legend of their pure blood, and blood is precisely what they crave... because the Villemorts, the “red talons”, are vampires. Two of them forsake the blood of their forefathers to devote themselves to an egalitarian community. They are the heroes of this novel which hovers between fantasy and the very real backdrop of revolutionary times. We have William, an uncle returned from America where he acquired a liking for freedom and now espouses the cause of freed slaves, surrounding himself by an ebony-skinned guard. And there is Louis, the handsome headstrong nephew thrust into the turmoil of revolution, and so in love with Marie de Méricourt he wants to give her eternal life. How can they escape a curse that has travelled across centuries?
Historian Antoine de Baecque devoted a trilogy to the French revolution: Le corps de l’histoire (Calmann-Lévy, 1993), La Gloire et l’Effroi (Grasset, 1996), and Les Éclats du rire (Calmann-Lévy, 2000). He is a cinema critic and has published acclaimed biographies of Truffaut and Godard, both translated into many languages. Red Heels, his first novel, is the product of his passion for the French revolution and vampire films.
June 1789, The Ancient World is crumbling. The Villemorts are descended from a long line of aristocrats, a family held together by the age-old legend of their pure blood, and blood is precisely what they crave... because the Villemorts, the “red talons”, are vampires. Two of them forsake the blood of their forefathers to devote themselves to an egalitarian community. They are the heroes of this novel which hovers between fantasy and the very real backdrop of revolutionary times. We have William, an uncle returned from America where he acquired a liking for freedom and now espouses the cause of freed slaves, surrounding himself by an ebony-skinned guard. And there is Louis, the handsome headstrong nephew thrust into the turmoil of revolution, and so in love with Marie de Méricourt he wants to give her eternal life. How can they escape a curse that has travelled across centuries?
Historian Antoine de Baecque devoted a trilogy to the French revolution: Le corps de l’histoire (Calmann-Lévy, 1993), La Gloire et l’Effroi (Grasset, 1996), and Les Éclats du rire (Calmann-Lévy, 2000). He is a cinema critic and has published acclaimed biographies of Truffaut and Godard, both translated into many languages. Red Heels, his first novel, is the product of his passion for the French revolution and vampire films.
Juin 1789, l’Ancien Monde bascule. Les Villemort forment une longue lignée d’aristocrates, un clan soudé par l’idée ancestrale de leur sang pur, un sang dont précisément cette famille se délecte. Les Villemort, ces « talons rouges », sont aussi des vampires. Deux d’entre eux veulent renoncer au sang de la race pour se fondre dans la communauté des égaux. Ils sont les héros de ce roman oscillant entre le fantastique et le réel des journées révolutionnaires. Voici William, l’oncle revenu d’Amérique, qui a pris là-bas le goût de la liberté et épouse la cause des esclaves affranchis, s’entourant d’une garde couleur ébène. Voici Louis, le neveu exalté, beau, précipité dans l’action révolutionnaire, épris de Marie de Méricourt jusqu’à lui donner la vie éternelle. Comment échapper à la malédiction venue du fond des âges ?
312 pages
Format :
135 x 215 mm
EAN :
9782234078871
Prix :
20.00 €
