Beaumarchais – Watchmaker, music teacher, politician, opportunist, publisher, secret agent for Louis XVI, yet fomenter of revolution in both France and America – and yet again imprisoned for being an enemy of the Revolution. . . Friend of Voltaire, libertarian, arms dealer, and dramatist whose famous Figaro trio of satirical plays reflects the dissolution of Medieval society and torturous emergence of a new democratic era. This biography by John Rivers was originally published in 1922. (Summary by Lynette Caulkins)