All My Sins by Norbert Estey is a fictionalized biography about the life of the 17th-century French courtesan and philosopher Ninon de Lenclos, and it is a stellar read.

4.5 Stars

The Book – All My Sins

I have searched the internet over and over and still have been unable to dig up any information about Norbert Estey, author of the rollicking biography, All My Sins, about Ninon de Lenclos, a French patroness of the arts and courtesan during the 17th century.

This book was originally published in 1954 and then republished as a bodice-ripper-looking saga in 1978 by Ace–the publisher of Natasha Peters’ great works.

Courtesan and Patron of the Arts

All My Sins starts with one of the best opening lines I’ve ever read: 

“Nicholas Gedouin was my lover when, according to the calendar, I was eighty years old, and I firmly resolved that this time would be the last.”

Damn! She’s an 80-year-old woman and still has it in her to seduce a 20-year-old male who’s about to enter the priesthood. But now he is willing to throw it all away because Ninon is that good, and he begs her for more!

No man can resist Ninon’s beauty: mature Princes, dashing Chevaliers, poets, artists, Cardinal Richelieu, the young King Louis XIV… Even her father and her own son!

Heck, even women cannot deny Ninon’s allure. Queen Christina of Sweden is one of her champions. Ninon is irresistible and undoubtedly one of the most intelligent, loveliest of ladies in the early Enlightenment.

Patron Saint of Whores

Although this novel appears like a torrid romance–and while there are bodice-ripper-like sexual romps and escapades–it’s just a well-written, slightly salacious biography. This is the life story of a woman of such dichotomous nature that she was hailed as the “Patron Saint of Whores.”

Ninon struggled all her life with the questions of good and evil, about the existence and nature of being, and of God. There is such beautiful philosophy she espouses at times: 

“To live life to the fullest one must be both Stoic and Epicurean.” 

Ninon is unabashedly a sinner, but that is what a human must be to live. To quote one of my favorite songs:

“I have to believe that sin can make a better man…”

“One Caress” by Depeche Mode

Ninon de Lenclos, Philosopher

Yet Ninon is no evil woman bent on destruction. While enjoying both periods of decadence and abstinence, she is constantly seeking knowledge that can only be gained by experience.

St. Augsutine’s statement, “Oh Lord, give me chastity and continence…but not yet,” certainly applies to Ninon’s outlook on life.

She is a true Renaissance woman, pursuing knowledge in the arts, sciences, and philosophy, as well as being a philanthropist.

My Opinion

There is so much drama in this book, that it left me wanting to know more of Ninon’s adventures. I was both enthralled and yet unsatisfied by this great book. I really liked it, but I would have LOVED it if there was more!

Ninon’s life story was worthy of 1,000 pages, and this book felt both sumptuous and incomplete.

Who was this Norbert Estey anyway? What a pity that I can’t find any more information on the author besides this one book!

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Synopsis

Ninon de Lenclos was taught by her dashing father to fully savor the sensual pleasures of love. Young, impressionable and in the first blush of her awakening sexuality, she meets Charles de Beaumonts, an infamous charmer, an irresistible rogue who is compelled to conquer women only to desert them. Ninon piques his desire as no woman before…but even she cannot tame him.

Though her heart is torn asunder, Ninon resolves that never again will she be thwarted in love, or denied in desires. And so, in 17th century Paris, the flamboyant, voluptuous Paris of Louis XIV, Molière, Scarron and the infamous Cardinal Richelieu, the exploits, the lovers, the extravagances of Ninon de Lenclos become the most imitated of all sensations.

Still craving the profound fulfillment and sensual abandon of her first love, Ninon meets dashing, sensitive Charles de Villiers…the man she has been searching for…the one man she can never have….

All My Sins by Norbert Estey