Henriette-Lucy Dillon was born in 1770 in Paris, into a an Irish Jacobite military family. At 16 she was a lady in waiting to Marie Antionette. At 17 she married the Comte de Gouvernet, a diplomat in the royal court. Caught up in the French revolution she was forced to flee for her life, seeking refuge in the Gironde where she narrowly missed being guillotined by the terror. She and her husband escaped to America where they set up a farm near Albany. After the establishment of the Directorate they returned to France where she helped her husband resume his diplomatic carreer under Napoleon. This continued under the Boubon restoration but she was forced again to leave France for Switzerland following her son's involvement in the failed coup against King Louis Philipe.
She died in Pisa, Italy in 1853.
The memoirs were set down in her fiftieth year and give a first hand account of lthe turmoil that saw the destruction of the French court and the aristrocacy, the rise and fall of Napolean and the eventual reinstatement of the Monarchy throughout the latter quarter of the C18th. She demonstrates in her account, a sound appreciation of the politcal and social events that surrounded the Revolution and exhibits a strength of character that enabled her and her family to adapt and survive the desperate circumstances into which they were cast.
An excellent read for fans of this historical period and a must read for students of revolutionary France.