Novelist Madison Smartt Bell has penned the nearly unbelievable story of a man who exemplified an age, then died at its hands. The son of a wealthy Parisian family, Antoine Lavoisier (1743-94) embodied the ideals of the Enlightenment. A prominent leader in the burgeoning international scientific community, he almost single-handedly created the chemical revolution that helped define modern science. A political liberal as well as a scientific revolutionary, he supported the French Revolution and served in the new government. But his record could not protect from the ravages of the Terror, and he was guillotined in May 1794, prompting one observer to note, "A moment was all that was necessary in which to strike off this head, and probably a hundred years will not be sufficient to produce another like it."