In the Style of Louis XIV

Jonathan Yardley reviews Joan DeJean's How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour in The Washington Post. Somewhat related: Currently on my nightstand is Stendhal’s The Charterhouse of Parma in which our dashing and Napoleon-loving hero Fabrizio del Dongo must choose between the purple stockings of the seminary or the languid, dissolute café lifestyle of gambling and horses popularized by the court of Louis XIV.