The Last Libertines

“Fanning out far beyond the individual stories of her protagonists, Craveri describes in fascinating detail France’s war against the British in America, the high politics and alliances of the European courts and the fashion for all things English that swept through Paris in the 1780s… Craveri’s use of the archives and prodigious amount of printed material is extremely impressive…There is little she does not touch on and she has a gift for bringing scenes alive….With these seven characters, Craveri has painted a rich, scholarly, highly enjoyable portrait of an extraordinary moment in French history.”
—Caroline Moorehead, The Guardian

“… . The Last Libertines provides a warmer picture of Craveri’s flawed but engaging subjects. Among its great charms are the quality and quantity of its gossipy anecdotes and the colorful portraits of its many incidental characters, including Joseph de Sabran who, running out of cannonballs in a naval battle against the British, packed his last gun with his table silver and blasted away. Throughout, Craveri quotes from her subjects’ witty writings—evidence of extraordinarily agile and imaginative minds, and largely representative of their class. This, along with their battle-tested courage leads one to wonder the question never really addressed by Craveri: how could men like them have lost to men like Saint-Just?”
—James F. Penrose, New Criterion

“The sheer energy of these seven aristocrats is astounding… . In the end, we can’t help admiring these extraordinary people … they adhere to an aristocratic code of honour es exacting as any religiously-inspired ethic — but much more stylish.”
—Ivan Hewett, The Daily Telegraph

“The Last Libertines is a composite picture, brilliantly written, of the young aristocrats who lived through the last days of the French monarchy, subscribed both to loyalty to the throne and to Enlightenment ideals of equality, and sometimes survived the Terror to move into the Napoleonic period. Like us they had to go through these difficult transitions, in their case with elegance and extraordinary gaiety.”
—Edmund White

“The Last Libertines is an elegant tale of intrigue—amorous and political. Through the lives of seven aristocrats, Benedetta Craveri convincingly explores the ideals of libertinism as a link between the ancient regime and the new world order that followed.”
—Cathleen Schine

“A beautiful subject of reflection on the end of a world too perfect in its essence to find the ways of its future.”
—Culture-Tops

Benedetta Craveri is currently a professor of French literature at the University Suor Orsola Benincasa, Naples. She is a corresponding member of Accademia dei Lincei and contributes to The New York Review of Books and to the cultural pages of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. Her books include Madame du Deffand and Her World, Mistresses and Queens, and The Age of Conversation. She is married to a French diplomat and in 2017 was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca by l’Institut de France.

Aaron Kerner is a translator, editor, and teacher who lives in Boston.

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