I have been diving into eighteenth century France for some reason (…circumspice) and my reading has veering into the historical, albeit through fiction. No surprise: I learned most of my history from fiction — books, television, films — because Americans are not generally taught history so much as a narrative of Manifest Destiny. Which is not to say that other nations do not also teach propaganda as history (ce ne sont pas mes oignons), but that at my schools aiming to create better auto workers for tomorrow, history focused on the revolutionary war and local history (brave settlers massacring the indigenous folks).

So if my knowledge of the French Revolution begins at The Scarlet Pimpernel and gets little further afield than Depardieu’s Danton, you will understand why I have a lot of holes to fill in.

But no one is testing me on the history so I turn once more to fiction because I am a woman of leisure (cough unemployed). Naturally Anya Bergman’s novel about Marie Lenormand seized my attention. Few names are more indelibly tied to the history of cartomancy (pace Etteilla, I know it should be cartonomancy) than the tarot reader of Versailles — who also read for more humble folk, too. She did not, however, invent the Lenormand deck which leveraged her fame for its own ends. The book is an entertaining gallop through the life of the sybil, twinned with the more fanciful tale of an Irish woman inspired by the Morrigan whose paths intertwine unexpectedly. It offers a breathless take on the many eruptions of Paris life in these turbulent times, as well as a bit of fun with the history of cartomancy (M. Etteilla appears briefly) and an imagined plot to save the dauphin from the Reign of Terror (a time honoured tradition). The point of view bounces between the two women, sometimes jumping back and forth in time, and occasionally shifting to the third person to offer information neither could well convey.

It also offers a number of Egyptian-influenced tarot spreads for your delight, for as we all know (or claim) the great secret of tarot is its Egyptian origin. More on that anon. But I think many of you who read my ramblings would find it entertaining.

So I am also reading Dumas because I was thinking about Cagliostro — Freemason, alchemist, magician, physician, mesmerist, and more — and having already seen Black Magic, I decided I needed a deeper dive. Joseph Balsamo opens with a secretive meeting amongst masonic conspirators which unveils the many powers of Cagliostro AKA Joseph AKA the Duke de Fenix etc. Just the stuff! So I settle down to read the 600+ pages.

But we quickly veer into the fates of the Taverney family and how they end up at Versailles, as does their dependent Gilbert, who refuses to be a servant because he has read Rousseau. And we digress into the life at Versailles, Louis XV and Madame DuBarry and all the machinations around them and the new dauphiness (a certain Austrian Marie) whose travels to the palace to meet her husband bring all these folks together.

So much political and social shenanigans! But it’s Dumas so he makes it fun and interesting and always full of far more than is apparent on the surface and we get a grand finale with fireworks — and tragedy because it is a horrific show gone awry which both brings together many of the people we have been following and blows them apart too: le grande étouffement de la Place Louis XV.

But just as we get back to Cagliostro THE BOOK ENDS! And so now I am reading Memoirs of a Physician which starts with 400 pages of Balsamo and then goes on, so I only have about 200 pages or so to go before I am on to the next because it promises to cover the Affair of the Necklace, which he has been preparing for from the opening chapters of the first novel. That is Dumas: willing to draw out the story as long as possible but he will make you forget he is doing so.

In addition to the Welles film, there is a French television series starring Jean Marais as Balsamo and as the would-be revolutionary Gilbert, Udo Kier! Adding it to the list — along with the need to read Dumas’ plays — his first fame. I had no idea. There is always more to learn. Do you know this song? If not, it might be a good time to learn it.