French Revolution fiction and history recommendations??

[Stella Mica]

Hi:
I am interested in any lit from French revolution time, and any history too. I plan on reading A Tale of 2 Cities once I finish bleak house. Anything else? Also, any recommendations for straight history from this time? I have much less tolerance for history than lit, so something easy to read?

Thanks, I'm new to the forum and am enjoying reading the posts!::)

[higley]

I liked The Days of the French Revolution by Christopher Hibbert, a straight history narrative. Somehow I think I've read other books on the subject (aside from A Tale of Two Cities) but nothing's coming to mind at the moment.

[kiki1982]

Dumas wrote a number of things on French history.

The Count of Monte Cristo's start takes place just before the 100 days. Called so because it was the 100 days when Napoleon escaped Elba and conquered France again. After that they got and put him safely on St Helena... La Comptesse de Charny (The Countess of Charny), Les Blancs et les Bleus (The Whites and the Blues). Of the last two I don't really know if they are translated.

Les Misérables of Hugo also plays through the times of the revolution.
1793 is about the period of terror under Robespierre.

The Scarlet Pimpernel looks interesting as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_Pimpernel

Have fun!

[kiki1982]

Balzac's Les Chouans is also about those days.

[Stella Mica]

Thank you so much for the recommendations! I will definitely look them up.

This period in time seems so irrational and scary, I find it interesting. esp. for the common person experiencing it.

Thanks again -- Stell

[kiki1982]

Well, I think it must have been as bad as the Stasi in the former DDR, where people spied even on their family members and denounced them. People could be denounced as 'anti-revolutionaries' and be put in prison without trial or just decapitated. Fortunately there was only a short period of total terror under Robespierre. But even then, the ultimate revenge you could take on someone was to denounce him. With a lot of corruption going on, it did not really matter...

I guess all major changes need some convincing behind them. I suppose if Robespierre hadn't murdered all those people, andif such a lot of other had not been left to rot in prison, that the whole thing would have come to nothing... The English and Austrians did their best at least, but did not succeed, fortunately.

Sad and admirable what happened there. Imagine how we would have lived if that hadn't happened...

[mtpspur]

G. A. Henty In the Reign of of Terror comes to mind plus Baroness Orczy Scarlet Pimpernel novels.

[Emmy Castrol]

G. A. Henty In the Reign of of Terror comes to mind plus Baroness Orczy Scarlet Pimpernel novels.

Yeah I was about to suggest The Scarlet Pimpernel too. They are fun to read even if I don't like the character of Marguerite St Just very much.

[bounty]

agreed on the scarlet pimpernel!

[amalia1985]

Another suggestion might be The Gods Will Have Blood by Anatole France, dealing with the late era of the French Revolution.

[Lynne Fees]

Hey, Stella!
While I was recuperating from my ACL surgery, my sister loaned me a big stack of books to read. One of them was To the Scaffold by Carolly Erickson. I really liked it, and it is a little different and off the beaten path of the usual books. Good luck!

[Pecksie]

History books I loved about the French Revolution were "Blood Sisters" by Marilyn Yalom (about women in that period) and R. R. Palmer's "Twelve who Ruled", about the Committee for Public Safety, who sent so many people to their deaths during the Terror.

As a young girl, I found Alexandre Dumas's "The Road to Varennes" (about the king and queen's attempt to escape France) an absolute page-turner! Very gripping, even if you already know what happened!

Especially harrowing was Deborah Cadbury's "The Lost King of France", about the fate of little Louis XVII after his parents were executed. Antonia Fraser's "Marie Antoinette: the Journey" is a bit too sentimental sometimes, but still an entertaining and enlightening read.

[Whifflingpin]

A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel (Danton/Robespierre conflict)

Scaramouche - Sabatini (Period just before the Revolution)

The Queen's Necklace, Le Chevalier de Maison Rouge - Dumas (Before & during the Revolution)

[Lynne Fees]

The Queen's Necklace is good.

[kelby_lake]

Les Miserables

[bazarov]

Les Misérables of Hugo also plays through the times of the revolution.
1793 is about the period of terror under Robespierre.



Les Miserables deals with later revolutions in France, not THE revolution on 1789. 1789 is mentioned(hugely), but novels deals with revolution in 1832.

1793 is excellent advice.

[kiki1982]

Les Miserables deals with later revolutions in France, not THE revolution on 1789. 1789 is mentioned(hugely), but novels deals with revolution in 1832.

1793 is excellent advice.

Only the last part of Les Misérables takes place during the uprisings of 1832. The rest takes place from the turn of the century to 1832.

The French revolution went on in different stages (as all revolutions do). It did not start or stop with the 14th of July 1789 when the Bastille was stormed. In the 4 years after there was a lot of change which ended in the decapitation of Louis XVI in 1793. The brief Reign of Terror of Robespîerre took place and after that there was a very pieceful period of the Directory after which Napoleon gained power with the result of Waterloo we know.

Although the republican phase of the revolution only took place until Napoleon decided to proclaim himself emperor, the restoration did not start until he was out of the way in 1815. And Napoleon determined a lot that is still in place in France and the countries he (briefly) governed. The civil rights or code civil of the states France, Belgium and the Netherlands for example are still largely based on the rules Napoleon implemented. Also the practice of civil marriage before church wedding results from Napoleon. So, although, the man was not so much part of the republican revolution of 1789, he is still part of the big phase in French history the Revolution. That is at least how we in school learned the phase The French Revolution: starting in 1789 and ending in 1815. One can kick the king out, but one needs legislation, and that is what the rest lacked...

The restoration that started in 1815 after Napoleon had been conquered by Wellington brought kings to power for a brief period until the French had done with it and kicked them out with another revolution in Paris, as told in Les Misérables in the last part.

Les Misérables, for me, plays with all that in the background. With all the phases of the revolution going on and the misérables being part of that despite themselves.

[bazarov]

Story doesn't take place in time of THE revolution, only Hugo's ideas and opinion how really big influence and importance for later history of whole Europe revolution it has. I agree with Hugo, but I don't believe that was the question of this thread :) Robespierre or Danton are not characters of Les Miserables; after all.

[Mark F.]

Flaubert's "L'Education sentimentale" uses the 1848 revolution as a pivotal event.

[pixiedoll_01]

Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser - mainly about the Queen but is a really well marked and accurate account of events and what led up to them. More fact and less fiction like the coined phrase " Let them eat cake" which is fiction.

[Dark Lady]

It depends how explicitly you want the text to be about the French Revolution and whether you're willing to look outside of prose. Personally I think some of William Blake's poetry is amazing as a response to the French Revolution (also amazing for its own sake).

I probably wouldn't recommend his poem actually called 'The French Revolution' but would go more for his Lambeth Prophecies.

[dfloyd]

read Dumas' Marie Antoinette Romances. These include The Memoires of a Physician, The Queen's Necklace, Ange Pitou, Comtesse de Charney, Chevalier de Maisson Rouge. These should be read in the order listed and consist of 11 volumes. Afterward, you can read Carlyle's The French Revolution. Dumas books are filled with fact interwoven with fiction. The Count of Monte Cristo or Les Miserables, are good books, but take place much after the revolution.

[kiki1982]

read Dumas' Marie Antoinette Romances. These include The Memoires of a Physician, The Queen's Necklace, Ange Pitou, Comtesse de Charney, Chevalier de Maisson Rouge. These should be read in the order listed and consist of 11 volumes. Afterward, you can read Carlyle's The French Revolution. Dumas books are filled with fact interwoven with fiction.

But do be careful with Dumas, because he tends to be very liberal with historic fact... People can feature that were just interesting, but were not supposed to be there until in fact 20 years after the times he writes about... As long as you get an annotated version it shouldn't be a problem, or if you do enough research on it. But just don't take Dumas for real in detail. He is a great author, though, for the general atmosphere of an era and the big lines.

[Don Quixote Jr]

Read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas! It begins shortly after the Napoleonic Wars have ended and it's an awesome tale!

[Il Penseroso]

Though I've not read it, Aime Cesaire's historical piece Toussaint L'Ouverture might be fitting to provide a different perspective on the time period.

[mtpspur]

Rafael Sabatini also wrote Scaramouche the Kingmaker and The Lost King set in the time period.

[Equality72521]

Hey Stella, obviously I totally recommend A Tale of Two Cities, it is my favorite novel of all time.

Um, not really French Revolution, but I would say that you should read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. That might be of interest to you as well.

[JohnMelmoth]

Hello Stella,

Edmund Burke responded to the French Revolution with his classic defence of the ancien regime, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) and that prompted Thomas Paine to publish his attack on Burke and defence of liberalism, The Rights of Man (1791). Reading those two political manifestoes together is fascinating because the authors were alive at the time and responding to events. Even the different styles of the authors (Burke is grandiloquent, Paine is democratic) reminds us of the clash of ideas underpinning the Revolution. They're not too long Stella, but essential reading for anyone interested in that period.

[JoBourne]

Consider -- The Only Son by Stephane Audeguy and Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine DeLors, both set during the Revolution and, heck, The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne, that's set 1802.