Talleyrand: A Biographical Study

Talleyrand: A Biographical Study

By Joseph McCabe
Michael Caine
Listen with Sir Michael Caine™ and 1,000+ voices
Length10h 12m

About this audiobook

Excerpt: "The life-story of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, as I propose to write it, begins when, in his third or fourth year, he falls off a chest of drawers and permanently injures his foot. That wrench of muscles and tendons, making him limp for life, led to a perverse action on the part of his educators that did equal violence to an excellent natural disposition. They say now that the education of a child begins a hundred years before he is born. In the case of Talleyrand you may just as well say a thousand. On his father's side he came of one of the oldest noble families in France, and his mother was a daughter of the Marquis d'Antigny. But these hereditary influences only shape the general contour of his character—give the refinement, the instinct to rise (Talleyrand, or Tailleran—as Napoleon always pronounced it—is said to be from "tailler les rangs"), the "sensibility" and "spirituality" (as people spoke then), the self-possession. When you wish to trace the growth of the peculiar traits of Prince Talleyrand, you find the beginning in that fateful fall and dislocation of the foot."

Audiobook details

GenreHistory, Biography and Memoir
Length10 hrs 12 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateAug 30, 2021
LanguageEnglish

Table of contents

1PREFACE
10CHAPTER IX
2CHAPTER I
11CHAPTER X
3CHAPTER II
12CHAPTER XI
4CHAPTER III
13CHAPTER XII
5CHAPTER IV
14CHAPTER XIII
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6CHAPTER V
15CHAPTER XIV
7CHAPTER VI
16CHAPTER XV
8CHAPTER VII
17CHAPTER XVI
9CHAPTER VIII
18CHAPTER XVII

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