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The Executioner's Heir: A Novel of Eighteenth-Century France
The Executioner's Heir A Novel of EighteenthCentury France Author:Susanne Alleyn Charles Sanson is young, handsome, sophisticated, and rich. He is also the eldest son of Paris?s most dreaded public official?and in the 1760s, after centuries of superstition, the executioner and all his family are outcasts. Charles knows far too well, despite the loathing he feels for the job, that the hangman?s son must become one himself or ... more »starve, for society?s doors are closed to him. For years Charles reluctantly administers the monarchy?s merciless justice, while trying to put out of his mind the horrors of public whipping, hanging, breaking, and burning that he witnesses daily. But at last the day comes when?faced with stark injustice?he cannot reconcile the law?s brutal demands with his conscience. Sure to appeal to fans of the ?Hangman?s Daughter? tales, The Executioner?s Heir, the true story of a pair of tragic, converging lives, is a darkly atmospheric novel of prerevolutionary France in all its elegance, decadence, and cruelty.« less