What Nodier wrote on Saint-Just is divided in different places. There are two I'm thinking of right now. I don't have much time tonight as I'm going out for Halloween, but maybe tomorrow I can give you some more info...?
I'm thinking of using Gateau's writing about him, after he was executed, but that's a suspect piece also, and defiantly not impartial.
All sources on Saint-Just are "suspect", "biased", "bizarre" and "definitely not impartial". Seriously. I suggest you give up trying to ever find anything that would "seem" impartial, because if it seems impartial to you, it might not seem impartial to others. Moreover, you can't only call Gateau "suspect", as they all equally are. The best I can suggest is that you take as many different perspectives you can find and piece them together: for example, those who say Saint-Just was superior to Robespierre and hinted at getting rid of him eventually vs. those who say Saint-Just was his devoted, loyal henchman until death; those who say Saint-Just was debauched vs. those who say he was chaste/pure; those who say Saint-Just was an evil monsters vs. those who say he was a martyr for the cause, etc. You can't find anything in between. Saint-Just's personality was in extremes, and in "contradiction" (it's arguable - all human beings evolve and contradict themselves, we're not archetypes) so it's possible to think that Saint-Just almost did it "on purpose" to be remembered this way.
However, I found that Thermidorian sources said very, very little on Saint-Just. Apart from Courtois, I only have two or three other short testimonies of how he was seen:
1. The title of an engraving calling him "insolent"; 2. A pamphlet-play in which he's mocked for always repeating what Robespierre said and praising him as the best of all and that everybody should think and say like him (something like that, I'll check again); 3. A pamphlet on 9-Thermidor in which he's described as a ci-devant who was pushing his own agenda.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-10-30 10:56 pm (UTC)I'm thinking of using Gateau's writing about him, after he was executed, but that's a suspect piece also, and defiantly not impartial.
All sources on Saint-Just are "suspect", "biased", "bizarre" and "definitely not impartial". Seriously. I suggest you give up trying to ever find anything that would "seem" impartial, because if it seems impartial to you, it might not seem impartial to others. Moreover, you can't only call Gateau "suspect", as they all equally are. The best I can suggest is that you take as many different perspectives you can find and piece them together: for example, those who say Saint-Just was superior to Robespierre and hinted at getting rid of him eventually vs. those who say Saint-Just was his devoted, loyal henchman until death; those who say Saint-Just was debauched vs. those who say he was chaste/pure; those who say Saint-Just was an evil monsters vs. those who say he was a martyr for the cause, etc. You can't find anything in between. Saint-Just's personality was in extremes, and in "contradiction" (it's arguable - all human beings evolve and contradict themselves, we're not archetypes) so it's possible to think that Saint-Just almost did it "on purpose" to be remembered this way.
However, I found that Thermidorian sources said very, very little on Saint-Just. Apart from Courtois, I only have two or three other short testimonies of how he was seen:
1. The title of an engraving calling him "insolent";
2. A pamphlet-play in which he's mocked for always repeating what Robespierre said and praising him as the best of all and that everybody should think and say like him (something like that, I'll check again);
3. A pamphlet on 9-Thermidor in which he's described as a ci-devant who was pushing his own agenda.