COURTESANS PART III - MICHAEL POLOWETZKY

Courtesans, Part III (Finale): Rolande de Montfort goes on her pensive journey across France, visiting many famous sites and being asked to direct visitors to the numerous places often overlooked on traditional tours. At last, realizing her place in life is back in Paris she returns. Soon after reaching the capital, Rolande encounters "The Red Virgin"-Sister Claire, the most famous of the "Five Good Ladies" who continue to advocate the cause of the

martyred artist Pascale Kedarfi . Since that Middle Eastern teenage painter's death, President Markovsky and his regime have attempted to discredit Pascale and her murals. Sister Claire soon persuades her followers to choose Rolande as the new leader of their social-political reformist cause. Rolande accepts. She also makes friends with her mother, Countess Celine's math-whiz chum Ashraf Kermanmshani. Not long afterward, the French military (with NATO compliance) attempts to force Markovsky to abandon his ties with Rolande's mother and the Montfort Ladies. Markovsky, a self-seeking coward, quickly complies with army demands. During the ensuing political crisis, Rolande comes to the fore. She rallies the people of France against the military coup and saves democracy. Believing like her mother "that women should not be involved in politics,'' Rolande at the end withdraws from center stage to await the day when she succeeds her mother as the Montfort countess that subtly directs European events from the dainty sidelines. All the other novel's main characters Ashraf Kermansahi, Sister Claire, and the other "Five Good Ladies" each acquire interesting places in history.