A Woman Mannd Two Kingdoms: The Story of Madame D'Epinay and the ABBE Galiani

Steegmuller, whose biography Cocteau was a 1971 National Book Award winner, informs and delights again with this history/biography. From 1769 until 1779, French aristocrat Louise dEpinay (1726-1783), known best for her slightly novelized memoirs and her letters to her granddaughter, engaged in a witty, intellectual correspondence with Ferdinando Galiani, a Neapolitan priest who had been called home from his post in Paris. Their letters display the correspondents' insight, charm and intelligence. Steegmuller's text and the period illustrations fill out this re-creation of the times and its great figures, including Diderot and Voltaire. The book, a heady experience, is among the author's best since his pseudonmymous debut, as Byron Steel, in 1927 with O Rare Ben Jonson. (Oct.)