Mon Cher Papa: Franklin and the Ladies of Paris

Claude-Anne Lopez has given us a delightful and careful examination of a man too often classed as "quaint" and "lecherous". With subtle strokes, the portrait of Franklin the man-complex, the dreamer who builds, the lover who waits - emerges complete with vanity, pride, anxiousness, humility, generosity and fervor all intact. Ms. Lopez's works (she has written many) are as important to understanding Dr. Franklin as is his own (as we call it) "Autobiography".