La fortune de Richard Wallace [French]

By Perreau-L

On August 25th 1870, as Paris was preparing to resist the siege of the Prussian army, the Marquis of Hertford, Lord of England, died in his Chateau de Bagatelle near Paris. As a childless bachelor, he left behind a colossal fortune and a most extraordinary art collection fit to be displayed in the greatest national museums. This heritage, accumulated by several generations of an illustrious British aristocratic family will meet with a strange destiny.
A testament is discovered and a short codicil states that the entire Hertford fortune shall go to his private secretary, a certain Richard Wallace. Who is this Richard Wallace, unexpected heir to such amazing wealth, whose world renowned London collection still bears his name? Could this unassuming, shy man who was abandoned as a child, brought up by a concierge who abused him, then adopted by the Marquis' mother whom he cared for in her old age, possibly be an illegitimate descendant of the Hertford family? This philanthropist, who generously distributed goods and money to the starving Parisians during the war of 1870 and gave the capitol its Wallace fountains, could he be a usurper who fraudulently acquired the Hertford inheritance ?
The novel covers a century of history. From London to Paris the Hertfords were caught up in some of the most important events of their time. Close acquaintances to Kings George III, Georges IV, and Napoleon III, the Hertford family's passionate lives, forbidden loves, scandals and illegitimate children were largely publicised.
The characters and historical events of this novel are true, based on testimony by their contemporaries. Three annexes confront the official version of the RichardWallace story with the astonishing documents recently discovered by Lydie Perreau that shed an amazing new light on Richard Wallace.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: French
• ISBN: 2709630737
• ISBN13: 9782709630733
• Release Date: August 2019
• Publisher: Editions J.C. Lattes
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.9"