Helie, Jerome
Louis Xv- Un Regine De Paradoxes
"Presses Universitaires de France and Frémeaux & Associés present this biography of Louis XV, analyzed and explained by Jérôme Hélie, a modern history scholar specializing in international relations in early modern Europe. Louis XV is a king who remains relatively little known to the French, despite having reigned for nearly half of the eighteenth century. His name is primarily associated with a style of furniture and with personal scandals, but Louis XV was a far more complex figure, whose intentions and thoughts remain difficult to decipher due to the scarcity of written accounts. He was initially reluctant to govern, but later ruled with determination, introducing major reforms that marked a break with the Ancien Régime and foreshadowed the France of the Revolution and the Empire. Although he was often criticized for his military failures, particularly the loss of most of France's overseas possessions to the English, his reign also coincided with the development of the colonial economy. Jérôme Hélie thus offers us a fascinating insight into this reign and into the paradoxical century that accompanied it. Claude COLOMBINI FRÉMEAUX"