The Road to Paris

A chance find at a secondhand bookshop supplies the frame for Richard Wetheral's adventures in America, England, France and Germany between 1775 and 1778. Robert Neilson Stephens introduces the young traveller through an account supposedly recovered in three old volumes. The story then turns to his family background in the Pennsylvania wilderness, where Alexander Wetheral builds a new life after fleeing the Jacobite defeat.

The contrast between frontier life and fashionable society gives the historical adventure much of its variety. In Bath, Dick accepts the hospitality of Lord George Winston, whose lively conversation and appetite for company carry him into a world of inns, fine clothes and the Assembly Rooms. Military danger, personal rivalries and unexpected help shape the experiences described in the excerpts. Readers interested in the American Revolution and eighteenth-century manners can find both public upheaval and the smaller uncertainties of a young man's changing fortunes.