Saint-Simon

Non-Fiction

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Saint-Simon spent a lifetime seeking out scandals at the court of the Sun King, whom he thought an arrogant monster whose extravagant wars and buildings would bankrupt France and bring about the fall of the French monarchy – as it did, ultimately causing the French Revolution. He knew precisely who was who at court, whose genealogies were fake and who slept with whom and how many bastards they had and how much they drank. During the dissolute Regency that followed, he held high office but was involved in the tragic Mississippi bubble. He spent his last ten years writing his memoirs. He had the last laugh. Many who thought they were his friends would have been amazed.

Roger Grounds is the author of some dozen books on various subjects. He started his writing career as a journalist but soon move to advertising copywriting becoming in time creative director of an international advertising agency. Later he became a commissioning editor for a West End publisher. He lives in Gloucestershire.

Saint-Simon lived through one of the most dramatic periods of French history. His Mémoires bring vividly to life the last years of the once glorious Sun King and the scandalous regency of his debauched friend, the duke d’Orléans, during which Saint-Simon played part in the history about which he would write.

Saint-Simon’s aim was ‘to discover the interests, the vices, the virtues, the passions, the hatreds, the friendships, the motives, the intrigues, the actions both public and private…’ of those at Court, with the result that his pages contain a human comedy of kings and favourites, mad dukes and scheming duchesses, godless bishops, saintly whores, together with rogues and scoundrels all obsessed with status, sex and death.

Saint-Simon wrote his Mémoires secretly, at night, knowing that if he were caught, it might cost him his life. Why did he write them, knowing they could never be published in his lifetime? That they might never see the light of day? Why were they confiscated at his death? And held as prisoners of state? Why did they not appear in print until 50 years after his death? And why were they such a success when they did?

This is the only biography of Saint-Simon in English. There is one English translation of the memoirs in three volumes by Lucy Norton, but that covers only 40% of the original; and two American abridgements—by Bayle St John and Francis Arkwright. There are two brief critical introductions by Clifton W. Collins and Arthur Tilley, both pre-1930.