When Empires Collide is a history of the famous encounter between the French philosopher Denis Diderot and his patron, Empress Catherine II of Russia, in 1773. The book begins many years earlier and traces the life of Diderot and Catherine in alternating chapters, painting a vivid and complex portrait of eighteenth-century Europe where new Enlightenment thinking co-existed with old monarchical systems. Robert Zaretsky has written an intellectual and...

In 1760s France, Suzanne is a beautiful young girl with a natural talent for music, enjoying a quietly privileged life. Inexplicably sent off to a convent, she resists structure at every turn until she discovers that she is an illegitimate child. Left with no other option, she pronounces her vows and suffers the consequences of her mother's sin. Still uncertain of her path and oppressed by aggressive and inappropriate Mother Superiors, Suzanne continues...