Dancing to the Precipice

“[A] remarkable biography….Moorehead deftly wields periods detail…to tell the story of a captivating woman who kept her sense of self amid the vicissitudes of politics.”

—Vogue

From acclaimed biographer Caroline Moorhead comes Dancing to the Precipice, a sweeping chronicle of the remarkable life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin—“an astute, thoroughly engaging biography of a formidable woman” (Boston Globe) who, over the span of some 80 years, was witness to, and often a participant in the major social upheavals of eighteenth-century French history.

This definitive historical biography includes:
A firsthand look at the Ancien Régime: Experience the glittering, corrupt court of Louis XVI in its final days before being consumed by revolution.Escape from The Terror: Follow Lucie’s harrowing flight from the guillotine, which claimed many of her friends and family, and her surprising reinvention as a farmer in fledgling America.An Unflinching Eyewitness Account: An intimate chronicle of resilience through the Napoleonic era and the Bourbon Restoration, told with shrewdness, humor, and remarkable recall.A Who's Who of History: Walk the halls of power alongside a woman who knew everyone, from Talleyrand and Lafayette to the Empress Josephine herself.