The Black Tower Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, The Vidocq Society and our BookBrowse Review of The Black Tower.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

Introduction

Vidocq. The name strikes terror into the Parisian underworld of 1818. As founder and chief of the newly created plain-clothes force known as the Sûreté, Vidocq has used his mastery of disguise and surveillance to nab some of France's most notorious and elusive criminals. But to meet his greatest challenge yet, he will need the help of Hector Carpentier, a young medical student whose name has turned up on a dead man's body. Hector and Vidocq follow the mystery's trail from a Marais slum to the royal gardens of Saint-Cloud, and as more bodies rise up around them, they find themselves tantalizingly close to unveiling an explosive secret—the whereabouts of Marie Antoinette's son—whose ultimate fate may have been known only to Hector's own father.


Questions for Discussion

1. In The Black Tower, Louis Bayard depicts a Paris that has gone through many political and social upheavals. How have the attempts to sweep away the past failed? Are countries able to shed their history completely?
2. The relationship between parent and child is a theme that plays out throughout the book. How are the characters' lives affected by the actions of their parents?
3. How can the senior Dr. Carpentier reconcile the things he did and saw in the Temple with his medical ethics? How do his notes reflect the change in his feelings? Why do you think he never told his family of his experiences?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Harper Perennial. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.