Author: Hugh Stokes

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-21

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 9781331963301

Excerpt from Madame De Brinvilliers and Her Times, 1630-1676 Nietzsche tells us that "woman is unutterably more wicked than man." If Madame de Brinvilliers could be taken as a normal type of her sex one might be disposed to agree with the German philosopher. But Marie Marguerite d'Aubray was far from being an ordinary example of womanhood, and it is exactly that which makes her case so engrossing. Amongst the records of famous criminals the trial of this highly-born lady has always taken a prominent place. If criminology be at times a trifle morbid it is often valuable, and in this instance it enables us to follow rather closely a curiously complex society from which was evolved a mighty state. This volume is not intended to be so much a recital of the crimes of the Marquise as a picture of the lively circles in which she lived. One idea will certainly arise before the last page is i reached, and the reader must guard his mind against it. It is unfortunate that the wicked people are generally more interesting than the good. There was much vice in the reign of Louis XIV., much hypocrisy, much double-dealing. We, by the way, in the twentieth century are not so virtuous that we need cast stones at the seventeenth. But France, it must always be remembered, cannot be judged from Paris, and France was not wholly bad. Had it been so, Louis XIV. and his ministers with all their prescience could never have made it the first nation in Europe. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.