Books Set in Europe: France

The Coral Thief, by Rebecca Stott (2010)

The Coral Thief is a historical novel that is set in France during the end of Napoleonic era. The story begins as the narrator, Daniel Connor, was a young man traveling from Edinburgh to Paris to study comparative anatomy with the great Professor George Cuvier at the Jardin des Plantes. Napoleon, too, was traveling, but he was on his way to exile on Sainte Helena.

Paris is no longer the intellectual hotbed it was under the Emperor Napoleon. The city has become a military base for the Allied forces, who are trying to regain their art and scientific specimens. The city is in chaos and rumors abound that Napoleon’s armies are hiding in the catacombs beneath the city awaiting the moment for a comeback and attack.

Paris was filled with foreigners and items stolen from the Napoleonic conquests, including fossils and scientific specimens, were being hidden from prying eyes. On his trek to Paris, Daniel met up with a beautiful, but older fellow passenger who stole the fossils and scientific papers he was to present to Cuvier. Thus, begins Daniel’s descent into the mysterious world of post-Napoleonic France.

Once Daniel discovered that his possessions were stolen, he was forced to choose between seeking recovery on his own, or employing the services of Jagot, a former thief and current Head of Police. He steps out on his own and finds his mysterious traveling companion, Lucienne, whom he learns was a countess who managed to escape death during the French Revolution. She was also a brilliant scientist, which is one reason she took Daniel’s papers.

The Coral Thief seeks to combine the beginning of scientific theories, which ultimately lead to our modern theory of evolution, with a mystery-thriller. Some of the peripheral characters are based on real people of the time. The scientific debates presented in the book were the hot topics of the day.

The Coral Thief was an interesting book, but I was not totally enamored by the author’s style of writing. I will probably not seek out her other works.

Read: September 10, 2011