Twilight of Princes introduces the reader to the kings and their challengers, the statesmen and philosophers, the scientists and artists whose ambitions transformed their times: Louis XIV, the glittering symbol of absolute power who brought France to the apogee of its glory; Ch'ien-lung, on the other side of the world, who presided over an equally bedazzling Chinese Empire; James Watt, who devised the first efficient steam engine: Henry Fielding whose rollicking Tom Jones set the English novel along lines it continues to follow; Thomas Jefferson, the Virginia patriot who drafted the American colonies' declaration of independence; Frederick the Great of Prussia, whose cynical deal with Catherine the Great of Russia and Maria Theresa of Austria partitioned Poland, thereby eliminating for a century a great sovereign state. - from Amzon