COURTING THE SUN

A beautiful young country girl navigates the perilous corridors of the court of the Sun King in Williams’ historical novel.

In late-17th-century France, when the reign of Louis XIV is at the pinnacle of its splendor, beautiful 16-year-old country girl Sylvienne d’Aubert’s life is transformed by a totally unexpected summons to join the glittering court of the Sun King as a lady-in-waiting. Raised by a single mother and educated by nuns, Sylvienne has grown up in modest comfort, almost entirely ignorant of her own origins. Not long before the king’s invitation arrives, she’s shocked to learn that her mother was the illegitimate daughter of the king’s uncle, and that her own father had been a local lord whose estate, upon his accidental death, was seized by a scheming brother. Now living in a servant’s cottage on a modest pension and considering marriage to a kind young shoemaker, Sylvienne is suddenly uprooted and finds herself alone at the very epicenter of French politics and society. Arriving at the Palais de Tuileries, the king’s residence in Paris, Sylvienne is overwhelmed by the magnificence of her new surroundings: “My eyes were drawn to the gilded ceiling embedded with opulent paintings. Now I was gawking. Chandeliers and wall sconces illuminated portraits of royal ancestors.” But as Sylvienne serves the king’s favorite mistress, the beautiful Madame de Montespan, she must fend off a lascivious nobleman, brave the sometimes-vicious intrigues of the court, and steel herself against the glare of the popular press. Williams’ knowledge of the period is thorough, and the novel’s setting in the royal court is clearly drawn and always compelling. The author provides readers with a strong and intriguing central character whose growth toward self-realization is one of the novel’s principal strengths. While the narrative sometimes dwells too much on ambience at the expense of a fast-moving plot, readers of historical fiction will no doubt enjoy the novel’s authentic and seductive atmosphere.

An absorbing tale set in Louis XIV’s France.