Unlikely Allies: How a Merchant, a Playwright, and a Spy Saved the American Revolution

by Joel Richard Paul Narrated by Arthur Morey

Overview

Unlikely Allies is the story of three remarkable historical figures. Silas Deane was a Connecticut merchant and delegate to the Continental Congress as the American colonies struggled to break with England. Caron de Beaumarchais was a successful playwright who wrote The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. And the flamboyant and mysterious Chevalier d'Eon-officer, diplomat, and sometime spy-was the talk of London and Paris. Is the Chevalier a man or a woman?



When Deane is sent to France to convince the French government to support the revolutionary cause, he enlists the help of Beaumarchais. Together, they successfully smuggle weapons, ammunition, and supplies to New England just in time for the crucial Battle of Saratoga, which turned the tide of the American Revolution. And the catalyst for Louis XVI's support of the Americans against England was the Chevalier d'Eon, whose decision to declare herself a woman helped to lead to the Franco-American alliance. These three people spin a fascinating web of political intrigue and international politics that stretches across oceans as they ricochet from Versailles to Georgian London to the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. Each man has his own reasons for wanting to see America triumph over the British, and each contends daily with the certainty that no one is what they seem. The line between friends and enemies is blurred, spies lurk in every corner, and the only way to survive is to trust no one.



An edge-of-your-seat story full of fascinating characters and lavish with period detail and sense of place, Unlikely Allies is Revolutionary history in all of its juicy, lurid glory.

Editorial Reviews

Carolyn See

Unlikely Allies is a nonfiction account, but it reads like a Monty Python movie.
—The Washington Post

Kirkus Reviews

A tantalizing reassessment of America's earliest foreign policy. Paul (International and Constitutional Law/Univ. of California, Hastings) explores the network of spies, diplomats and profoundly self-serving aristocrats whose actions helped determine the outcome of the American Revolution. The primary characters are Silas Deane, the Connecticut merchant charged by the Continental Congress to secure financial and military aid from France, and two French counterparts, Beaumarchais, the playwright and inventor, and Chevalier d'Eon, the transgendered officer and secret agent. A web of personal and professional machinations are brought to bear on each of these players as they engineer sometimes duplicitous missions for the French, British and American governments with often unintended but weighty consequences. We learn about the intricacies of Beaumarchais's covert arrangements with Deane and King Louis XVI to smuggle arms to the Americans; a partnership between Deane and his fellow diplomat, Benjamin Franklin, built as much on a shared interest in the dirty politics of a domestic land-grab scheme as a love of liberty; and the intriguing and self-absorbed political ramifications of d'Eon's transgendered identity. Paul handles each of these relationships with diligent care, accounting not only for the grand schemes and boisterous actions of his subjects, but also the nuanced textures of their daily lives in revolutionary-era Europe and America. The author keeps a close eye on the weather, fashion and, most importantly, the sense of time-the unreliable and painfully slow pace of trans-Atlantic communication plays heavily into the narrative. Occasionally, the author's detail work moves fromharmless quotidian chronicling to questionable character assessments, as when he asserts that "it was precisely because d'Eon was so readily swayed by her heart's desire, rather than by rational self-interest, that she found herself in this predicament," as a primary reason that she became alienated from the French king. A few such quibbles are not enough, however, to undermine an otherwise keen, intriguing assessment of how personal politics might play out on the international stage. Agent: Doe Coover/The Doe Coover Agency

author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Rad Gordon S. Wood

An engaging and entertaining account of three of the most colorful characters involved in the American Revolution. It is hard to believe that their story is true, but it is.”

bestselling author of John Paul Jones Evan Thomas

Rollicking and surprising, this is history as it really happened—as it was made by all-too-human actors. Unlikely Allies is a lively read and an important counterpoint to Founder hagiography.”

Bancroft Prize–winning author of The Minutem Robert A. Gross

"Unlikely Allies is an amazing story compellingly told. I kept turning the pages in eagerness to find out what would happen next. Conspiracies abounded, and hardly anyone was what he or she seemed. If the eighteenth century in Europe was an era of Enlightenment, it was also an Age of Deception. Yet thanks to Joel Paul’s sympathetic portrayal, Silas Deane emerges as an unsung hero of the American Revolution.”

Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Khrushchev& William Taubman

Ever tire of worshipful accounts of the Founding Fathers’ wisdom and fortitude? Then try this wonderful book about how an American businessman and two Frenchmen, a dramatist and a spy, came to their aid. A rollicking romp as well as a serious history, it reminds us of the role of duplicity, hypocrisy and corruption, and of human frailty and chance, in safeguarding the American revolution.”

From the Publisher

"[A] keen, intriguing assessment of how personal politics might play out on the international stage." ---Kirkus

APRIL 2010 - AudioFile

A cabal in France may have secured the revolutionary fortunes of the American Colonies in 1776. This book is written in English—with plentiful French—and listeners can expect to hear the ideal narrator for this account of a little-known alliance. Arthur Morey's command of the two languages changes a zirconium into a diamond as he masterfully delivers the true story of "a merchant, a playwright, and a cross-dressing spy." The author embellishes his narrative by constructing it to read like a complex and compelling novel. Taking advantage of the form, Morey employs nuances to augment both the character development and the intrigue. His bilingual fluency turns the pain of reading French into the exquisite pleasure of hearing it. J.A.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171037529
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	01/18/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged

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