The First of All Pleasures
Forthcoming January 2027 (Hikari Press)

‘A sparkling, sophisticated historical novel set inside the decadence of pre-revolutionary France at a moment when the cracks were beginning to show and ideas were becoming as intoxicating and dangerous as sex.’Sarah Dunant, The Marchesa, Blood and Beauty, In the Name of the Family

Paris, 1744. A city of splendour and squalor, where every pleasure has its price.

In the workshops of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, François Mondon creates extraordinary furniture for the wealthy. Among his creations is a magnificent commode, a masterpiece whose hidden story begins with what lay behind its making.

La Pomme, a spirited Opéra girl and kept woman, moves between the worlds of artisans, aristocrats and philosophers. Her life becomes entwined with Mondon and with Pierre, a young man drawn to the dangerous new ideas circulating through Enlightenment Paris.

The First of All Pleasures is a portrait of eighteenth-century Paris built from its rooms outward — the workshop, the salon, the shop counter.

Inspired by an extraordinary surviving object now in the Wallace Collection, London, and drawing on the fragments of lives preserved in archives, the novel is a richly imagined portrait of a city on the threshold of modernity and of the human stories concealed behind beautiful things.

‘…a beautiful and skilful evocation of the luxury and decadence of ancien régime Paris. Katri Skala’s vividly imagined and meticulously researched historical novel is a joyous celebration of the Enlightenment’s unstable sexual, moral and philosophical splendour.’Ruth Scurr, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution

‘…a delectable treat of a book, shimmering with eighteenth-century French life — from silk gowns and champagne, to revolutionary ideas and the seeds of social change. This exquisitely-written novel takes the reader deep into the heart of Parisian society, where prostitutes can mingle with dukes, but a man can be imprisoned for doubting God’s will. Skala writes with humour and poise, bringing to life a world where decadence and poverty jostle shoulder to shoulder. An intricate, sensual and finely crafted tale of beauty, ideas and survival.’Victoria MacKenzie, For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain