Plot
The action takes place at the time of the Swedish-Russian war of 1709. The King of France, Louis XIV, sends two duelists into exile. One of them is ordered to go to the camp of the King, Karl XII, of the Swedes and the other is sent to the camp of the Russian Tsar, Peter the First. Both Frenchmen face various dangers along their way. They witness the grand battle of Poltava from opposite sides. Court plots and romantic adventures stay in the past as both our milksops are plunged head first in the boiling pot of war and the horrors it brings into their lives.
Read more about this topic: The Sovereign's Servant
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“Ends in themselves, my letters plot no change;
They carry nothing dutiable; they won’t
Aspire, astound, establish or estrange.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one’s actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)