The Hope Diamond - the largest and most beautiful blue diamond ever found - has inspired centuries of legends and lies, great superstition and fierce passion. French kings and stunning heiresses have worn it next to their hearts. Reckless aristocrats have let it slip through their fingers.
Flaunted, hidden, stolen and cursed, the Hope Diamond still tantalises and inspires all who lay eyes on it. Now in this book, Marian Fowler tells the story of this mythical gem and the extraordinary men and women who have owned and lost it.
It is a tale that begins more than a billion years ago in the mountains of India where the gem was forged of the basest materials. Unearthed sometime before the birth of Christ, it was more than twice its present size and wondrously shaped. For centuries the immense blue stone, revered as a divine gift, probably served as the unwinking eye in the statue of a Hindu god.
We follow its journey through time, from the arrival of the Europeans, through the hands of King Louis XIV of France when it was cut and polished to half its original size, through theft during the French Revolution, and on to when it was donated to the Smithsonian Institute, ensuring its safety.
A sweeping saga peopled with the world's most beautiful women and most unprincipled men, this is at once a page-turning thriller and a glittering social history of the astonishing characters who craved - and could afford - such a gem. Dazzling and delicious, this is a book truly worth of its flawless, priceless subject.
