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The Trampling of the Lilies — cover
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Aeneas Press edition 20th Century

The Trampling of the Lilies

by Rafael Sabatini 1875–1950

The book, and the century it came out of.

A young man in 1789 who has been beaten by his lord’s servants becomes a lawyer of the Revolution, and rises with it — until the Terror asks him to sign the death of the woman he loves. Sabatini wrote in English because, he said, all the best stories are told in it; this early novel is his coldest look at revolution, and it declines to pick a side that is clean. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Demachy, Bizard and Robert among them.

It was spring at Bellecour—the spring of 1789, a short three months before the fall of the Bastille came to give the nobles pause, and make them realize that these new philosophies, which so long they have derided, were by no means the idle vapors they had deemed them.
The first sentence of The Trampling of the Lilies
A note on this edition

The Trampling of the Lilies, by Rafael Sabatini, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 216 pages
Reading time
about 4 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501971752
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Exposition de Perrin sur la place de la Révolution, le 29 vendémiaire, an II, Pierre-Antoine Demachy
Exposition de Perrin sur la place de la Révolution, le 29 vendémiaire, an II Pierre-Antoine Demachy 1793
Les Marionnettes, Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Les Marionnettes Jean-Honoré Fragonard 1775
A Lady and a Servant, Maria Margaretha la Fargue
A Lady and a Servant Maria Margaretha la Fargue 1777
Landscape with a Shepherdess and a Boy Fishing, Jean-Baptiste Huet
Landscape with a Shepherdess and a Boy Fishing Jean-Baptiste Huet 1793
Landscape with shepherds and cattle, Nicolas Henri Joseph de Fassin
Landscape with shepherds and cattle Nicolas Henri Joseph de Fassin 1779
Mountain Landscape with Bridge, Thomas Gainsborough
Mountain Landscape with Bridge Thomas Gainsborough 1783
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of The Trampling of the Lilies as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Trampling of the Lilies as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Trampling of the Lilies, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Adventure & the Sea shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501971752, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of The Trampling of the Lilies?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Rafael Sabatini's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 216 pages, which is roughly about 4 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
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The Trampling of the Lilies
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