A review by ambnicoa
The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered by Laura Auricchio

3.0

This book is not exactly what I'd call a "major biography" -- and that was what I was looking for and was expecting from this book. The events of Lafayette's life before the French Revolution are a bit skimmed over; even his contributions to the American Revolution weren't given as much attention. In fact, the battle of Yorktown only received a single paragraph of explanation. The same can be said about his life after the French Revolution. The last 35 years of his life only received about 20 pages at the end of the books. It just didn't have the level of explanation that I was used to read in in biographies.

However, the vast majority of the book that is dedicated to Lafayette's involvement in the French Revolution is quite good. It's clear the author went through some extensive research for this part.

So if you are looking for a Chernow level biography that truly covers every bit of the life of the Marquis, from birth to death and then some, I wouldn't choose this one. I would choose this one, though, if you are mainly interested in his involvement in the French Revolution as that's basically all this biography covers.