France, 1797: the country lies prostrate, but the revolution rages on, pulverising what little is left of a nation once considered the pinnacle of European civilisation, the apex of elegance, fashion, and refinement. 17,000 people guillotined, including the King and his wife, Marie Antoinette; stately homes ransacked, libraries turned to ash, farms picked clean by theft and confiscations, severed heads and limbs on public display, and in the countryside,...