LOVELL — Rumor has it that in 1794, a sea captain named Stephen Clough was plotting to rescue the Queen of France and bring her across the water to a house in Edgecomb, according to a news release from the Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library.

The “Marie Antoinette House” still stands, but was there really such a plot, and if not, why do traces of it still flourish on the Internet?

Sue Lanser investigates the evidence and asks how the story of Marie Antoinette in Maine evokes the entangled troubles of two fledgling republics and the emergence of an American obsession with royalty.

Her online talk is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, May 19, through the Charlotte Hobbs library.

A professor emerita of humanities at Brandeis University and a specialist in 18th-century studies, Lanser lives in Lovell and in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

To join this free event, visit hobbslibrary.org and click on the Zoom link. For a phone link or queries, contact the library at 207-925- 3177.

The Hobbs Library Speaker Series is supported in part by a contribution from Norway Savings Bank.

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