Eminence
Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France
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Eminence
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Narrated by:
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Mary Kane
About this listen
Chief minister to King Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu was the architect of a new France in the 17th century, and the force behind the nation's rise as a European power. Among the first statesmen to clearly understand the necessity of a balance of powers, he was one of the early realist politicians, practicing in the wake of Niccol Machiavelli. Truly larger than life, he has captured the imagination of generations, both through his own story and through his portrayal as a ruthless political mastermind in Alexandre Dumas's classic The Three Musketeers.
Forging a nation-state amid the swirl of unruly, grasping nobles, widespread corruption, wars of religion, and an ambitious Habsburg empire, Richelieu's hands were always full. Serving his fickle monarch, he mastered the politics of absolute power. Jean-Vincent Blanchard's rich and insightful new biography brings Richelieu fully to life in all his complexity. At times cruel and ruthless, Richelieu was always devoted to creating a lasting central authority vested in the power of monarchy, a power essential to France's position on the European stage for the next two centuries. Richelieu's careful understanding of politics as spectacle speaks to contemporary readers; much of what he accomplished was promoted strategically through his great passion for theater and literature, and through the romance of power. Eminence offers a rich portrait of a fascinating man and his era, and gives us a keener understanding of the dark arts of politics.
©2011 Jean-Vincent Blanchard (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 405
Lancater and York is a riveting account of the Wars of the Roses, from beloved historian Alison Weir. The war between the houses of Lancaster and York was characterised by treachery, deceit, and bloody battles. Alison Weir's lucid and gripping account focuses on the human side of history. At the centre of the book stands Henry VI, the pious king whose mental instability led to political chaos, and his wife Margaret of Anjou, who took up her arms in her husband's cause and battled in a violent man's world.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Dense, fascinating history...questionable delivery
- By Anonymous User on 10-04-17
By: Alison Weir
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The White King
- Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr
- By: Leanda de Lisle
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 112
Less than 40 years after England's golden age under Elizabeth I, the country was at war with itself. Split between loyalty to the Crown or to Parliament, war raged on English soil. Its casualties were immense. At the head of the disintegrating kingdom was King Charles I. In this vivid portrait - informed by previously unseen manuscripts, including royal correspondence between the king and his queen - Leanda de Lisle depicts a man who was principled and brave but fatally blinkered.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Enlightening Stuart history
- By Anonymous User on 01-25-18
By: Leanda de Lisle
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Catherine de Medici
- Renaissance Queen of France
- By: Leonie Frieda
- Narrated by: Sarah Le Fevre
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 507
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 437
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 434
Poisoner, despot, necromancer - the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds - from a troubled childhood in Florence to her marriage to Henry, son of King Francis I of France; from her transformation of French culture to her fight to protect her throne and her sons' birthright. Based on thousands of private letters, it is a remarkable account of one of the most influential women to wear a crown.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Narrator didn't get one name right
- By Anonymous User on 09-15-19
By: Leonie Frieda
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Four Princes
- Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe
- By: John Julius Norwich
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 192
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 167
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 168
John Julius Norwich - whom the Wall Street Journal called "the very model of a popular historian" - has crafted a big, bold tapestry of the early 16th century, when Europe and the Middle East were overshadowed by a quartet of legendary rulers, all born within a 10-year period. Against the vibrant background of the Renaissance, these four men laid the foundations for modern Europe and the Middle East, as they collectively impacted the culture, religion, and politics of their respective domains.
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4 out of 5 stars
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For the most part, very informative.
- By Anonymous User on 02-05-18
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Heretic Queen
- Queen Elizabeth I and the Wars of Religion
- By: Susan Ronald
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 287
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 261
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 260
Acclaimed biographer Susan Ronald delivers a stunning account of Elizabeth I that focuses on her role in the Wars of Religion - the battle between Protestantism and Catholicism that tore Europe apart in the sixteenth century. Elizabeth’s 1558 coronation procession was met with an extravagant outpouring of love. Only 25 years old, the young queen saw herself as the nation’s Protestant savior, aiming to provide new hope, prosperity, and independence from the foreign influence that had plagued her sister Mary’s reign. Given the scars of the Reformation, Elizabeth would need all of the powers of diplomacy and tact she could summon.
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2 out of 5 stars
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a thorough history of a great lady
- By Anonymous User on 07-24-18
By: Susan Ronald
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The Rival Queens
- Catherine de' Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal That Ignited a Kingdom
- By: Nancy Goldstone
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 803
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 723
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 720
Catherine de' Medici was a ruthless pragmatist and powerbroker who dominated the throne for 30 years. Her youngest daughter, Marguerite, the glamorous "Queen Margot," was a passionate free spirit, the only adversary whom her mother could neither intimidate nor control.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Definitely not a dull bio!
- By Anonymous User on 07-04-15
By: Nancy Goldstone
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Peter the Great
- His Life and World
- By: Robert K. Massie
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 43 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,206
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,020
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,009
This superbly told story brings to life one of the most remarkable rulers––and men––in all of history and conveys the drama of his life and world. The Russia of Peter's birth was very different from the Russia his energy, genius, and ruthlessness shaped. Crowned co-Tsar as a child of ten, after witnessing bloody uprisings in the streets of Moscow, he would grow up propelled by an unquenchable curiosity, everywhere looking, asking, tinkering, and learning, fired by Western ideas.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Narrater ruins everything
- By Anonymous User on 12-30-11
By: Robert K. Massie
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Defenders of the Faith
- Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe, 1520-1536
- By: James Reston Jr.
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 68
In the best-selling Warriors of God and Dogs of God, James Reston Jr. limned two epochal conflicts between Islam and Christendom. Here he examines the ultimate battle in that centuries-long war, which found Europe at its most vulnerable and Islam on the attack. This drama was propelled by two astonishing young sovereigns: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Turkish sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Though they represented two colliding worlds, they were remarkably similar.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good account of interesting period of history
- By Anonymous User on 03-11-22
By: James Reston Jr.
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The Pope Who Would Be King
- The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe
- By: David I. Kertzer
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 91
Only two years after Pope Pius IX’s election in 1846 had triggered great popular enthusiasm across Italy, the pope found himself a virtual prisoner in his own palace. The revolutions that swept through Europe and shook Rome threatened to end the popes’ thousand-year reign over the Papal States, if not the papacy itself. The resulting drama was rife with treachery, tragedy, and international power politics. David Kertzer, one of the world’s foremost experts on the history of Italy and the Vatican, brings this pivotal moment vividly to life.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Imbalanced and theologically confused
- By Anonymous User on 06-18-19
By: David I. Kertzer
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Mary Queen of Scots
- The True Life of Mary Stuart
- By: John Guy
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 25 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 327
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 295
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 293
In the first full-scale biography of Mary Stuart in more than 30 years, John Guy creates an intimate and absorbing portrait of one of history's most famous women, depicting her world and her place in the sweep of history with stunning immediacy. Bringing together all surviving documents and uncovering a trove of new sources for the first time, Guy dispels the popular image of Mary Queen of Scots as a romantic leading lady - achieving her ends through feminine wiles - and establishes her as the intellectual and political equal of Elizabeth I.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Horrible narration - don’t purchase
- By Anonymous User on 12-27-18
By: John Guy
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Francis I
- The Maker of Modern France
- By: Leonie Frieda
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 131
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 116
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 115
Catherine de Medici's father-in-law, King Francis of France, was the perfect Renaissance knight, the movement's exemplar and its Gallic interpreter. An aesthete, diplomat par excellence, and contemporary of Machiavelli, Francis was the founder of modern France, whose sheer force of will and personality molded his kingdom into the first European superpower. Arguably the man who introduced the Renaissance to France, Francis was also the prototype Frenchman - a national identity was modeled on his character.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Rekindling salamandrine fires...
- By Anonymous User on 09-29-18
By: Leonie Frieda
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Imprudent King
- A New Life of Philip II
- By: Geoffrey Parker
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 111
Philip II is not only the most famous king in Spanish history, but one of the most famous monarchs in English history: the man who married Mary Tudor and later launched the Spanish Armada against her sister Elizabeth I. This compelling biography of the most powerful European monarch of his day begins with his conception (1526) and ends with his ascent to Paradise (1603), two occurrences surprisingly well documented by contemporaries. Eminent historian Geoffrey Parker draws on four decades of research on Philip as well as a recent, extraordinary archival discovery - a trove of 3,000 documents in vaults in New York City....
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great, but I jumbled
- By Anonymous User on 03-18-19
By: Geoffrey Parker
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Henry V
- The Warrior King of 1415
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 25 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 271
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 239
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 238
This insightful look at the life of Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt casts new light on a period in history often held up as legend. A great English hero, Henry V was lionized by Shakespeare and revered by his countrymen for his religious commitment, his sense of justice, and his military victories. Here, noted historian and biographer Ian Mortimer takes a look at the man behind the legend and offers a clear, historically accurate, and realistic representation of a ruler who was all too human.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Accessible, grounded, enjoyable
- By Anonymous User on 04-10-18
By: Ian Mortimer
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The Black Prince
- England's Greatest Medieval Warrior
- By: Michael Jones
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 235
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 203
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 202
As a child, he was given his own suit of armor; at the age of 16, he helped defeat the French at Crecy. At Poitiers, in 1356, his victory over King John II of France forced the French into a humiliating surrender that marked the zenith of England's dominance in the Hundred Years War. As lord of Aquitaine, he ruled a vast swathe of territory across the west and southwest of France, holding a magnificent court at Bordeaux that mesmerized the brave but unruly Gascon nobility. He was Edward of Woodstock, eldest son of Edward III, and better known to posterity as "the Black Prince".
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding history
- By Anonymous User on 02-17-19
By: Michael Jones
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Daughters of the Winter Queen
- Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots
- By: Nancy Goldstone
- Narrated by: Laura Kirman
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 340
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 294
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 294
Young Elizabeth Stuart was thrust into a life of wealth and splendor when her godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, died and her father, James I, ascended to the illustrious throne of England. At 16 she was married to a dashing German count far below her rank, with the understanding that James would help her husband achieve the crown of Bohemia. Her father's terrible betrayal of this promise would ruin "the Winter Queen", as Elizabeth would forever be known, imperil the lives of those she loved, and launch a war that would last for 30 years.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Misnamed but Wonderful
- By Anonymous User on 05-16-18
By: Nancy Goldstone
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Foundation
- The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors: The History of England, Book 1
- By: Peter Ackroyd
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 18 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 845
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 766
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 761
In Foundation the chronicler of London and of its river, the Thames, takes us from the primeval forests of England's prehistory to the death of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, in 1509. He guides us from the building of Stonehenge to the founding of the two great glories of medieval England: common law and the cathedrals. He shows us glimpses of the country's most distant past - a Neolithic stirrup found in a grave, a Roman fort, a Saxon tomb, a medieval manor house.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Most Annoying Narrator EVER
- By Anonymous User on 12-25-15
By: Peter Ackroyd
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- A History of the Holy Roman Empire
- By: Peter H. Wilson
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The Holy Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, far longer than ancient Rome. Yet this formidable dominion never inspired the awe of its predecessor. Voltaire quipped that it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. Yet as Peter H. Wilson shows, the Holy Roman Empire tells a millennial story of Europe better than the histories of individual nation-states.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Mixed feelings on this one.
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French Legends: The Life and Legacy