Une chronique finement ouvragée, riche de détails d’une époque désormais révolue et de lieux oubliés par le temps, dévoile son essence profonde : un roman d’aventures, le début d’une épopée initiatique au cœur d’une société monarchique et d’un empire colonial au bord du précipice. Ce récit résonne curieusement avec les tourments de notre propre époque.
à suivre !
His name is Pierre, he is a Norman. Clear looking. He was born in 1751, on March 11, he is the youngest of an old aristocratic family. As a child, he understood that his place was no longer at the estate. His older brother Charles will inherit it.
Pierre dreams of escape, of adventure, of taking to the open sea. The army will not escape it, he joins the company of cadets-gentilhommes for the service of the troops of the colonies of Rochefort in 1764. At the military school on the banks of the Charente, Pierre will befriend 7 other cadets. Together they will grow and learn the art of war. Having become officers, they embark to join Saint Domingue and the colonial infantry regiment of Port-au-Prince.
Landing in Port-au-Prince is a wonder, the city has been under reconstruction since the earthquake of 1770 and the excitement is everywhere. In the heart of the Caribbean, adventures and setbacks await young recruits more accustomed to the military rigor of the Royal Navy than to Creole erethism. But in 1777 France mobilized its armies to fight the English during the American War of Independence, and the colonial troops integrate the expeditionary forces. All men must embark without delay at Cap-Français... Pierre and his friends will be missing.
The richness of this epic made up of extraordinary experiences, chases and battles, discoveries and exoticism, but also setbacks in a monarchical and colonialist society on the verge of explosion, resonates astonishment with the news of our contemporary era.