Monsieur de Saint-George: Virtuoso, Swordsman, Revolutionary, a Legendary Life Rediscovered.

Monsieur de Saint-George: Virtuoso, Swordsman, Revolutionary, A Legendary Life Rediscovered by Alain Guede, Picador, December 2003 $26.00, ISBN 0-312-30927-9

The life of Joseph de Saint-George was so incredible it seems almost fictitious. Born in 1739 to an African-born enslaved mother oil the island of Guadeloupe, Saint George grew up to become one of Europe's top swordsmen, musicians and military leaders. Known in some circles as "Black Mozart" and in other circles as the "Black Don Juan," Saint-George experienced great highs and, toward the end of his life, humbling lows. Through it all, Saint George remained a man of principle, believing firmly in the right of all men to be free.

The son of an ambitious French nobleman who brought Joseph and his mother back to Paris and was intent on giving him all the perks befitting a child of the aristocracy, he grew up in Paris and, by his early twenties, was that country's best fencer, as well as equestrian. By his early thirties, Saint-George was one of France's top musicians, composers and conductors; he gave Marie Antoinette music lessons, led her husband's (King Louis XVI) national orchestra and was responsible for handing Hayden one of his first big breaks. Saint-George also mentored Alexandre Dumas's lather in fencing, met with Toussaint-Louverture and caused the future American President John Adams to scribble in his diary that Saint-George was '<the most accomplished man in Europe in riding, running, shooting, fencing, dancing, musick."

Indeed, Saint-George reminds one of a French speaking Forrest Gump; circa 1773, he became the first mixed race person initiated as a Mason, and 19 years latch he was named the first black colonel in the French Army. Yet, despite his accomplishments, Saint George still had black blood coursing through his veins--and no one was going to let him forget it. One of the book's more poignant moments came when Saint-George tell ha love with a white noble girl--and she with him--but her family forbade their union. "Hidden behind a pillar in St. Paul's Church, [Saint-George] watched her mount the steps to the altar on her father's arm and marry another man--white, of course." Saint George went on to have many dalliances, with married and unmarried women alike, but he never again contemplated marriage.

That insight is rare; the lack of glimpses into Saint-George's personal life is the book's major weakness, while the author's tendency to explore the background of each obscure Frenchman mentioned is more than a bit tedious. Still, the book is a gratifying read, allowing one to marvel at the fact that someone like the great Monsieur de Saint George really did exist.

Joy Duckett Cain, a freelance writer and frustrated composer, lives with her husband and three children in Westchester, New York.