A very vivid account of one of the sensational crimes of the French Romantic era, preceded by an even more vivid evocation of the era itself , its neo-medievalism and fascination with melodramatic evil. Frankly, several of the other crimes briefly described in the opening sound much more interesting than the one which is the focus of the book, the story of a respectable young woman married to a dubious scoundrel who was accused of poisoning him and of stealing a diamond necklace, convicted in a trial which the author regards as very unfair, at least by Anglo-American standards of procedure, and sentenced to life in prison. oddly enough, all the other accused in the opening are people the author regards as guilty, but this one he sees as the exception. ( )