The Lightstep - Plot Summary
It is 1797: a lull in the French Revolutionary Wars. Michel Wéry, once a Belgian patriot and revolutionary, has taken service as a spy for a minor German prince in order to work against the Revolution, which he feels has betrayed him. When Maria von Adelsheim, the sister of a dead friend, seeks his help, he has a price. She must travel into the French-occupied Rhineland and return with a message vital to the safety of their little city state. As the crisis nears, Maria must consider what price she is prepared to pay for her own liberty, and Michel must face a final choice: to remain true to his ideas , or to his humanity, for it is no longer possible to do both. (Look this up on Amazon)
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Germany in the late eighteenth century is the richest of settings, especially for a novel of intrigue, espionage and the corruption of ideals. The political structure is a patchwork of statelets, ruled by kings, princes, dukes, bishops, abbesses and a body of nobility who might own little more than an intricate coat of arms. It's the time of the Enlightenment and the beginning of the Romantic movement. Goethe and Schiller are in Weimar, Kant is in Koenigsberg, Haydn in Vienna. Bored aristocrats and gentlemen band secretly together, calling themselves Illuminati, Rosicrucians or Martinists, and search for higher knowledge. Yet the streets are for the most part narrow and medieval, commerce is dominated by guilds and powerful forces in the church resist all change and all question.
Crashing into this ordered world comes the French Revolution. Once welcomed by many, it is now spreading war in the name of fraternity and military dictatorship in the name of freedom. It has humbled the powers of Europe and turned the known world upside down.
Against this background The Lightstep tells a story that would be relevant in any time. It's about a man who is a fanatic, and who is ready for the world to pay a monstrous price. And yet he is also human, thoughtful and compassionate, and he becomes more human because he falls in love. The interplay between his convictions and his affections is the heart of the novel. The Lightstep asks: can Love corrupt the incorruptible? (Back to Books)