The Diamond

Baumgold's Napoléon-centered historical features deft, magazine profile–like characterizations and a gracefully brisk pace. Found by a slave in India in 1701 and transported to England by one Thomas Pitt, the Régent diamond (the title McGuffin) was sold to the French Bourbons, eventually ending up, for a time, with Napoléon. Baumgold (Creatures of Habit ), a former columnist for Esquire and New York , writes in the first person of real imperial historian Comte de las Casas (1766–1842), who accompanied Napoléon to exile at St. Helena. There, Napoléon tells him of the jewel, and de las Casas quickly dashes off its rollicking history (the rest of the book), which stretches from 1672 backstory to the exile, with a clunky epilogue from "Abraham," an invented character. The utter horror of the revolution and the constantly tumultuous state of French politics are not glossed over, and great personalities of the time (Louis XIV–XVI, Marie Antoinette, Josephine, William Pitt the Elder and the Younger) are highlighted, briefly, as they sweep by in the jewel's wake. The absorbing and entertaining result is what de las Casas calls "the wit achieved on the staircase," explaining well the failings of these sad historical effigies, if not the qualities that raised them. (Nov.)