Tea at Trianon: The Aztec

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Aztec

International intrigue and espionage mix with old Bolshevik secrets in this thriller by Bill Vidal. British professor Jack Hadley is gathering data for a biography on the notorious Mexican Communist Jesús Florin, called “the Aztec,” the former comrade of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev. Florin has spent a lifetime igniting revolutions all over South America and Africa, making friends and enemies along the way. Hadley and wild child girlfriend Mercedes are duped by the Spanish secret service into helping to discover what became of the gold which the Spanish Communists sent to the Soviet Union in 1936, some of which became lost. The missing gold is comprised of rare coins, at least $200 million worth, and Florin is the only one left alive who might know where it is hidden. As Hadley travels from Spain to Cuba to the Balkans to Africa in search not only of the treasure but trying to unravel the mysteries of Florin’s life, the Aztec has a score of his own to settle. The novel has frequent flashbacks in the first few chapters which make the chronology difficult to follow at times. However, the vivid descriptions of the various cities where the protagonists find themselves are fascinating, especially the mouth-watering depictions of Spanish restaurants. For those interested in the Cold War period, The Aztec gives a view of what was happening outside of Europe and the Soviet Union, as country after country became Marxist, while others became dominated by Fascist, totalitarian regimes, some of which were supported by the CIA. The human cost of war and revolution is assessed in Vidal’s riveting novel of suspense.

(*NOTE: This review was originally published in the November 2011 issue of the Historical Novels Review. The Aztec was sent to me by the Historical Novel Society in exchange for my honest opinion.)