Best Fictional Representations Awards

[morgan-wang.livejournal.com]

Since Citoyenne elyse24601 has started a topic on the worst fictional representations, I thought I'd start a slightly more postive thread about the best fictional representations. So who do you think has written the best peice of french rev. fiction?

Comments

[vulpea-rea.livejournal.com]

i just can't wait to see the replies to this since justice has been done so rarely, much less completely, but you can't have it all, i guess, especially when it comes to the French Revolution.

with that said and since The Rose of Versailles scores so low in on-screen/on-tv depictions, i want to give a nod to the original manga... Robespierre is a sweetheart in it, she did him justice like no other piece of media with a at-any-point-in-time large fanbase, to my knowledge, has. i was ecstatic to see him shown as someone who honestly cared and was devoted to the people, especially those poor and unfortunate. and i quote (as verbatim as i can remember off the top of my head), "He remained loyal and devoted to protecting the less fortunate until the very end." i mean to scan in some of the pages with him in it (and with him as a little boy!) soon.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

All the best fictional representations are in French. Period. A Far Better Rest and City of Darkness, City of Light are the only ones that come close, but they have some problems too, so I can't recommend even them unreservedly.

As for French, while there are still very few things that I don't have some minor problems with, there's a larger selection of decent fictional representations.

So, for movies: La Marseillaise and the two La Terreur et la Vertu films are excellent, though in different ways.

For plays: Romain Rolland's "Robespierre" wins for plausibility, but I'm also rather fond of "Le Bourgeois sans-culotte" by Kateb Yacine and "Le Neuf Thermidor" by Gaston Crémieux. (Also, there are some scenes by Buffenoir that are rather good, but they don't constitute an entire play.)

And for novels: I love Quatrevingt-Treize to death, despite Victor Hugo's tendency to error by exaggeration. Robespierre, Amant de la Patrie has its good points, as does Margerit's series, La Révolution. And nothing surpasses Becker's Histoire de Robespierre series for accuracy. What I've read of Hemmert's Robespierre, l'Incorruptible has been fairly good as well, though I'll have to get back to you all when I finish it.

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

Where on earth did you manage to get a copy of Romain Rolland's "Robespierre"?? I've been searching for it forever!

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I found it on livre-rare-book.com--they seem to have one still, but only one, if you're still interested.

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

Intriguing! Stupid exchange rate/stupid being an impoverished student.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Yes, unfortunately it's gotten rather harder to buy things in euros lately... (When I got it, euros were barely worth more than dollars.)

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

Is it really good? Like 15 euros plus ridiculous amount of shipping good? Or maybe no one will buy it for a year and I can order it when I move to France next year and cut down on the shipping!

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Personally, I couldn't put it down. (And it's a long play too--it pretty much can't be staged, because it would take about six hours to perform.) But I know other people who didn't like it nearly as much. I feel that it gives a more nuanced and probable representation than most plays, but it's hard to say whether you (or anyone else) would share that opinion necessarily. That said, they seem to have some cheaper ones at bookfinder.com: http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?author=rolland&title=robespierre&lang=fr&submit=Begin+search&new_used=*&destination=us¤cy=USD&mode=basic&st=sr&ac=qr.

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

Do you know if it's been translated into German? Cause I found a ton of cheap copies from ABE Books, but they're all sold by German sellers and I don't want to end up with a German copy.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I don't know, unfortunately. I was similarly concerned about that when I was looking for a copy; theoretically they're supposed to be in English, but perhaps it's better not to take chances.

[racaille.livejournal.com]

I fondly remember a children's SciFi book called "L'évadé de l'an II" by Philippe Ebly, where the heroes time-travelled to the French Revolution era to rescue/kidnap Louis XVII. It wasn't actually that stupidly royalist, it just stressed out the difficulties of looking/talking weird at a time when everyone was a suspect. Nice -if blurry- memories...

[lucilla-1789.livejournal.com]

Being a student of cultural history, my favorite must be "Les Dieux ont Soif" by Anatole France. It is not a good book, and the characters are quite stereotypical, but it's pretty much only one that has lots of details about the art and fashion of the period. Even the part when the fanatical revolutionary painter explains lenghtly why he hates rococo furniture so much is enough for me to love reading this book...

[bettylabamba.livejournal.com]

I finally rented the Marat/Sade film. It was fucking incredible and the music was great. Has anyone seen the play in person?