This sober but larger-than-life tale gives a look at what a woman's lot might have been like in society in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A world away from Georgette Heyer, it gives a bleak look at a life with no freedom unless you break the rules. There are many books dealing with this theme, but this one has the added dimension of the Rosetta Stone and the race between the English and French to decipher the inscriptions. It also deals with the theme of love in all its variations, and wisely keeps a tongue in its cheek to save it from being too melodramatic. My own favorite parts dealt with Rosetta's time in Egypt, which brought the place to life and gave a look at how it might have been in those days when Egyptology was just beginning and had all the excitement of the very new.