Salut!

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Hello all! I was directed here from a few kindly individuals at historical_loveand I must say that this quite made my day.

Now, a question for all youlovely, lovely people:
1. Where might I find a Robespierre icon?
2. Are there any decent books on the French Revolution, fiction or non-fiction, that I should spend my Border's gift card on?

Comments

[vulpea-rea.livejournal.com]

VIVE LA REVOLUTION BY MARK STEEL! GET IT NOWWWWWW!

...i'm the unofficial spokesperson for this most glorious book, apparently.

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Hee, it appears that you aren't alone in this. Into the online shopping cart, it goes.

[jesta-ariadne.livejournal.com]

...OK, books to get... Off the top of my head, right now, three top picks:

Vive La Revolution! by Mark Steel. YES ME TOO. & I'm sure lots of other people here will recommend it. It's hilarious and makes fun of Schama (who is of the Robespierre-is-the-source-of-all-evil school .. ok, I oversimplify, but yeh) every other page or so :)

A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. It is kind of the recent-ish Rev novel that you must read. And then possibly reread and ponder and argue about the characterisation of St. Just etc if you want :) It seems to star Camille, if anyone, except there are points where it feels like you realise it was actually about Robespierre all along... so yeah, I think you'll like!

The Life and Opinions of Maximilien Robespierre by Norman Hampson. I LOVE this book. It's.. basically the most unusual 'biography' ever. It has a 'narrator' plus three people basically trying to work out what Robespierre was really like, bringing along their own personalities and prejudices, and it's reeeeally good. And frustrating because in the end, of course, there's no simple answer.

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I've heard about A Place of Greater safety! I'm usually rather hesitant when it comes to historical fiction about the period, though- the only really decent one I've read is Suzannah Allen's sequel to A Tale of Two Cities, which was fantastic and adorbale and had the cutest Camille ever.

All the other ones forget the rest of the revolutionaries and feature insane!pock-marked!root-of-all-evil!Maxime. It's rather disheartening.

I'm guessing then, that it is sympathetic to Maxime. Is it to St. Just? *is unsure of whether the arguements about the characterization reflect St. Just the kitten- kicker or St. Just the good angel or what*

[jesta-ariadne.livejournal.com]

Hilary Mantel is a huge Maxime fan, yeh :) (OH! Speaking of which... have you read her articles (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n08/mant01_.html) about him (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v22/n07/mant01_.html)??)) St. Just.... well, doesn't exactly kick kittens, but isn't wonderfully sympathetic either to say the least! He really appears nearer the end with quite a lot of DRAAAMAA going on, and he's really rather mysterious- you get less of a look inside his head than you do with the others.

Gwa, I haven't read the Suzannah Allen yet... that reminds me that I still need to track down copies of various things at my earliest convenience...

There's also Tanith Lee's The Gods Are Thirsty, whose outstanding feature is really the EXTREME prose which I did find myself getting surprisingly used to... Robespierre isn't the source of all evil in this one either, but he is a bit mysterious and described in distant mythic terms so it's hard to get a real idea of him. But yeah. Place of Greater Safety is better, but this is maybe one to read too.

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Hm, I shall look into them! And thank so very much for the articles! *inner Robespierre fangirl squeals with glee*

Oh, and a question- someone on historical_love said that I'd gotten my Robespierre history confused because Rousseau actually personally tutored Robespierre. I've never run across that in all my research (which I'm beginning to feel is really small and not terribly impressive now) and I think that Robespierre was enough of a Rousseau devotee to make such a meeting/ such a relationship incredibly notewrothy to historians. Have I just been reading the wrong stuff?

[jesta-ariadne.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I've never read that... I think he may have seen or met him once or something. And wrote something about how impressed he was etc, I seem to remember...

*googles* OK, according to the internet, Robespierre wrote later that he'd seen Rousseau in 1778, shortly before his death.

*checks her wonderful Hampson book* Riiight, according to this....... eh, I shall just quote unneccesarily cos tis easier :)

In a moving passage, probably written in 1789, Robespierre claimed to have seen Rousseau, who died while he was still at Louis-le-Grand. There is no evidence that Rousseau saw him, but this did prevent one of Robespierre's more imaginative biographers [Graterolle, 1894] from giving a long verbatim account of their conversation. Maximilien wrote in 1789 'While I was still young he taught me to appreciate the dignity of my own nature and to reflect on the great principles of the social order."

Maybe out of context someone took "he taught me" to mean literal tutoring rather than just inspiration? (The book does actually go onto say that he might not have really been such a huge Rousseau fan until more shortly before the revolution anyway...! ...Whereupon, yeh, it seems like he became a MAJOR fan, what with the whole carrying around the the Social Contract to quote at people thing ^^)

[twirlychelengk.livejournal.com]

I SECOND vulpea_rea! HUZZAY FOR MARK STEEL!

Ahem. Also, for an impartial and meticulous but slightly dull textbookish take on the Revolution, check out Georges Lefebvre's The French Revolution. Volume II is very good. I can't say anything for the first volume though, because I somehow managed to misplace it. XD

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thank you very much!

[spurnedambition.livejournal.com]

1. *Dunno*
I'm planning to make gangsta!Robespierre icons, if that helps.
2. Vive la Revolution, Mark Steel! Apparently we're all fangirls of that here-and for good reason, too-I mean, have you ever heard of a better idea than a movie called Georges and Max's Wild Weekend in Paris (with Bruce Willis as Robespierre and Jim Carey as Danton)? It's a book that actually doesn't put down the revolutionaries, and it's hilarious, too.
And no, we're not his parents just promoting his book. xD

24601-Les Mis fan? ^^

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Oh yes- the whole reason I joined liejournal was to be a part of a 'Les Mis' fanfic writing community that has long since fallen to the wayside. *reveals her utter nerdiness and abject geekery*

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

1. umm, you can steal mine? I drew this
2. Ooh, Vive la Revolution by Mark Steel!

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Aw, that's adorable! You're such a fantastic artist. I'm sorry to bother you, but have you drawn any other French Revolution type fanart? Your Maxime is utterly adorable here and (eee!) he's even got his green- tinted glasses!

I think I shall take it, then. Credit to you, then!

[vulpea-rea.livejournal.com]

YES! this glorious icon makes the rounds! xD and "GOODY!" to your purchasing that fantastic book we're all raving about. i laughed so hard, oh, oh, the good laughs i had.

[bettylabamba.livejournal.com]

i laughed so hard, oh, oh, the good laughs i had.

Seriously. When I picked it up off the shelf, I cracked up so bad in the history section, I got the stink eye from everyone else. Then, while I was reading it on the subway I almost missed my stop.

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

Oh man, me too, I couldn't stop laughing, I got the interest of a LOT of history teachers though!

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Awww, you're making me blush!

Oh yeah, actually, I do, gimme a sec

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v481/kurotoshi/scan0002-5.jpg
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v481/kurotoshi/marat_bain.jpg
Some of this is REALLY old, so yeah, if you don't know what's going on in one of the pics, let me know, and most of these where done a) during late hours and b) when I was brainded, so enjoy!
:3 glad to hear it!

[bettylabamba.livejournal.com]

I'm in the process of doing major Maxime picspams, so between that and google, there's a bunch of pics you can use to make your own icons if you like. I came across icon_tutorial which has helped me figure out photoshop stuff in general.

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm just horribly inept with computers/ technology/ anything of that sort so I tend to do lj searches and just hope someone with 733ter computer skills than I created icons already....

Also, SO MUCH LOVE for the picspam! And the tutorial!

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

Welcome! :D

1. I've made one or two, but they're not too great.

2. Just because I can't resist giving it its umpteenth plug - Vive la Revolution is veeeeeery funny and awesome. There are some minor factual errors, and I do wonder if some of the stories recounted therein are more anecdotal than anything, but that doesn't prevent enjoyment of the book. I'm reading it for the third time at the moment. :D

Then there are the novels that everyone else has talked about already, so I won't say anything more there.

As for other non-fiction...I would NOT recommend Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution by Ruth Scurr, if that's any help. >< I picked up Twelve Who Ruled by R.R. Palmer this summer, and didn't get very far into it, but from what I remember (hazily, mind you XD;) of what I have read so far, it was pretty good.

You can also check out the posts we've had on various French Revolution books:

Vive la Revolution and Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution (http://community.livejournal.com/revolution_fr/10174.html)
The Terror (http://community.livejournal.com/revolution_fr/7582.html)
A Place of Greater Safety (http://community.livejournal.com/revolution_fr/6986.html)
Saint Just: Colleague of Robespierre (http://community.livejournal.com/revolution_fr/3098.html)