Bøker av Julia Gasper

Anne-Marie Fauques de Vaucluse fled from France to England in 1756 to avoid being sent to the Bastille for writing a book denouncing the tyranny of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour. When the book was printed the French government tried to get it suppressed and the author arrested, but failed. Author of twenty books in both French and English, she was an eccentric, brilliant, and wayward woman who escaped from a convent in her youth and had numerous love-affairs, some disastrous. Novelist, political satirist, poet, feminist and animal rights advocate, she was determined to play a role in the Enlightenment intellectual scene and succeeded despite all the odds. Fauques was at one time the mistress of the Young Pretender and was a friend of some of the most scandal-prone figures of the time, including John Cleland, Elizabeth Craven and William Beckford.This biography unravels the confusion surrounding the identity of a woman who was nun, whore, criminal, lunatic and genius.The cover picture shows the Fountain of Vaucluse, painting by Thomas Cole 1841.

Grace Arnold was sent to Felstead Hall to give her opinion about some old pictures. She found many things puzzling. Why was Melissa Meredith, who had just moved into the house, so famous? Why was she doomed to "die later"? And who was the unknown woman portrayed in the painting in the attic? How had it got there and what was the story behind it?Two storylines interweave in this tale of mystery, Victorian life and lost love.

The extraordinary life of Sophie de Tott, an artist, writer, musician and secret agent who witnessed the French Revolution first hand. Born in Constantinople, she came to France as a young woman and resisted all attempts tp force her into a marriage of convenience, preferring to train as a painter and be independent. She was adopted by the Comtesse de Tessé, who hosted a leading intellectual salon in Paris, until they had to flee the country during the revolution. De Tott lived in Switzerland and Germany where she earned her living as a portrait painter before coming as a refugee to England. She wrote a tragic novel that mirrored her own unhappy love-life. She knew many of the most famous people of her time, including the French monarchs and Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States. This biography becomes a detective story in seeking to unravel the truth about her secret love-child and the lengths she went to in order to avoid scandal. Julia Gasper is the author of "Elizabeth Craven: Writer, Feminist and European".

The extraordinary life of Sophie de Tott, an artist, writer, musician and secret agent who witnessed the French Revolution first hand. Born in Constantinople, she came to France as a young woman and resisted all attempts to force her into a marriage of convenience, preferring to train as a painter and be independent. She was the protegée of the Comtesse de Tessé, who held a leading intellectual salon in Paris, until they had to flee the country during the revolution. De Tott lived in Switzerland and Germany where she earned her living as a portrait painter before coming as a refugee to England. She wrote a tragic novel that mirrored her own unhappy love-life. She knew many of the most famous people of her time, including the French monarchs and Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States. This biography becomes a detective story in seeking to unravel the truth about her secret love-child and the lengths she went to in order to avoid scandal. Julia Gasper is the author of "Elizabeth Craven: Writer, Feminist and European".

In The Marquis d'Argens: A Philosophical Life Julia Gasper analyzes the life and works of an influential Enlightenment writer and philosopher. The facts of d'Argens' life as well as his works have been a source of controversy due to the many rumors and anonymous publications erroneously linked to him. Through meticulous research, Gasper provides the only comprehensive list of d'Argens' works and separates the realities of his life from the myths that have built up around him. Accused of being a libertine or an unoriginal mimic of greater minds, d'Argens has too often been dismissed as an unimportant figure. Gasper defends this much maligned philosopher and reveals how imaginative and influential he truly was.

"A visionary and a madman" was how one British statesman, Lord Carteret, described Theodore von Neuhoff. This exciting biography, Theodore von Neuhoff, King of Corsica: The Man behind the Legend by Julia Gasper, traces the unlikely career of the German baron who in 1736 had himself proclaimed and crowned King of Corsica.