Six months after America declared her independence, Congress dispatched Benjamin Franklin to France to solicit their aid and arms for the upcoming fight. He was seventy years old, possessed of the most rudimentary French and without any diplomatic training. But this most remarkable of envoys had been in previous incarnations a paper dealer, a postmaster, a Founding Father and most famously the man who had tamed lightning. In short, at the time of his arrival in Paris, he was the most famous man in the world. In his eight Parisian years he worked harder than he ever had in his life, charmed the haughty French with his humility, outwitted the British secret service, and stirred a passion for a republic in an absolute monarchy. It was largely through his charisma and negotiating skill that France bankrolled the American Revolution. Pulitzer-Prize winner Stacy Schiff follows Franklin throughout his Parisian adventure. She tells a tale of international intrigue entirely from primary sources, working from a host of diplomatic archives, family papers, spy reports, and records of the French foreign service. From her pages emerge the full picture of a brilliant man, as well as a sense of the fragility and improvisation of his country's bid for independence.