The most popular of the historical-adventure novels by French writer Théophile Gautier. First published in Paris in 1863 with illustrations by Gustave Doré, and later translated into many languages of the world.
Various characters of the novel—titled nobles, wandering actors, and regulars of Paris taverns—are, at the author’s will, as if performing a fun, entertaining show on the pages of the novel in the spirit of the “exotic” 17th century.