Despite her rare beauty, fate did not promise a bright future for Jeanne Becu, the illegitimate daughter of a village seamstress and a Franciscan monk. In 18th-century France, it was considered an indisputable truth that the pretty daughters of the poor were intended exclusively to please the whims of noble gentlemen. This fate did not escape Jeanne, who from a young age fell into the clutches of the secular adventurer and pimp Jean-Baptiste DuBarry. She earned fame as the most coveted courtesan in Paris and, in the end, became the official mistress of the aging King Louis XV. How did Jeanne manage to take the place that was empty after the death of the incomparable “Queen of Rococo,” the all-powerful Marquise de Pompadour? Why did the most demanding court in Europe put up with the presence of a former courtesan? What brought the daughter of the people to the guillotine, where mainly aristocrats were executed during the Great French Revolution? Why are judgments about this woman still so diametrically opposed? You will become acquainted with the true story of the royal favorite by reading this book, the first in Russia dedicated to the extraordinary story of the rise and fall of Countess DuBarry.