Dancing to the Precipice

“[A] remarkable biography….Moorehead deftly wields periods detail…to tell the story of a captivating woman who kept her sense of self amid the vicissitudes of politics.”
—Vogue From acclaimed biographer Caroline Moorhead comes Dancing to the Precipice, a sweeping chronicle of the remarkable life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin—“an astute, thoroughly engaging biography of a formidable woman” (Boston Globe) who, over the span of some 80 years, was witness to, and often a participant in the major social upheavals of eighteenth-century French history.
This definitive French Revolution biography brings a turbulent era to life through the eyes of one of its most resilient observers, chronicling:
- Life at Versailles: An insider’s account of the glittering, decadent, and treacherous court of Louis XVI in the final years before the fall of the French monarchy.- Surviving the Terror: A harrowing narrative of how Lucie navigated the most dangerous days of the French Revolution, witnessing friends and family arrested and sent to the guillotine.- Escape to America: The remarkable story of an aristocratic family building a new life as farmers in upstate New York, grappling with a rugged landscape and new democratic ideals.- The Bourbon Restoration: A firsthand perspective on the return of the French kings and the complex social landscape of post-Napoleonic Paris, including friendships with figures like Talleyrand and the Duke of Wellington.