As Lacour-Gayet said of Talleyrand: "Let us think of an existence which lasted 84 years, from the reign of Louis XV to the reign of Louis-Philippe; it was involved, in an active manner and in the most varied forms, in the history of the ancien régime, the Revolution, the Empire, the Restoration, the July Monarchy. In his private life and in his public life, his character was certainly one of the most complex that history has known. Madame de Staël declared him "the Most impenetrable and the Most indecipherable of men." Volume I covers childhood, priesthood, as Bishop of Autun, delegate to the Estates General, Constituent Assembly, London embassy, exile in America, return to France, Minister of External Relations, 18 Fructidor, alliance with Bonaparte, Egyptian expedition, resignation, and coup of 18 Brumaire. Covers both the public role and private life.
Georges Lacour-Gayet (1856-1935) was born in Marseille, and he died in Paris, age 79. He published his four volume biography of Talleyrand beginning with volume I in 1928, and ending with volume IV in 1934. He began academic work at the École Navale, and follwing a maritime theme, he published well received monographs, La marine militaire de la France sous le règne de Louis XV (1902) and La marine militaire de France sous le règne de Louis XVI (1905). Lacour-Gayet was also a professor in the École polytechnique, Paris, from 1919 to 1929; a member of the Institut, Académie des sciences morales et politiques; member of the Académie de marine. Recipient of the 1890 Prix Montyon for his Antonin le Pieux et son temps (138-161), he also won the 1899 Prix Guizot for his study entitled L'éducation politique de Louis XIV.
This is the first and only complete translation into English of the four volumes. F.H. Wallis translations continues to seek out and publish older works of the highest scholarship on the history of France.
