One of Alexander Dumas’s best historical novels. It describes a period in the life of the famous Italian sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini, when he, together with his beloved student Ascanio, was in the service of the French king Francis I. The plot foundation of the work, permeated with bold and good-natured humor, is Cellini’s struggle against powerful court nobility.
Dumas’s adventure novel is full of vivid pictures of everyday life and customs of the 16th century.