"The Quest of Glory" by Marjorie Bowen is a magnificent romance novel that is unlike any other story about the French courts. It makes the reader feel pity for its befuddled young majesty hero, the Marquis de Vauvenargues, who is also a soldier, courtier, and philosopher. Excerpt: "The Austrian guns had ceased with the early sunset, and the desolate city of Prague was silent, encompassed by the enemy and the hard, continuous cold of a Bohemian December: in the hall of Vladislav in the Hradcany, that ancient palace of ancient kings that rose above the town, several French officers wrapped in heavy cloaks were walking up and down, as they had done night after night since the dragging siege began."