Set in rural France in 1793 and centering on the civil war between royalists and rebel republicans, this is Trollope's only historical novel. Trollope's support for the rebels emerges not only through his treatment of the military conflict, but also in a romantic subplot, where the lovers are as doomed as the rebellion itself. The subversive themes that run beneath the surface of the narrative are treated fully in the introduction, which also sheds light on how this book constituted Trollope's own rebellion against his family. This edition, with its extensive notes and gazetteer, is the only critical version of Trollope's piercing pscychological study available.