“A novel of extraordinary richness and power. Sensual, witty, vividly evocative in every sentence. A fine book which achieves the real texture of life so often absent from fiction, and as such is not only entirely satisfying but resonantly memorable. —William Styron Lovers and Tyrants is at once an erotic, urgent, and beautifully written novel that established Francine du Plessix Gray as one of the most brilliant and exuberant fiction talents to emerge in America’s literary history. This is the story of Stephanie, whose life we follow from her extraordinary childhood in France, through her father's mysterious disappearance, her emigration with her mother to America, her private schooling in New York, her tempestuous sexual relationships with a European nobleman, her marriage to an American, her children, and ultimately, her self-liberation. Every phase of Stephanie’s life illustrates our painful ambivalence toward the irreconcilable poles of love and liberation, security and freedom.