Characterization help?

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Hey all!

I'm writing a NaNoWriMo novel that takes place from approximately 1788- 1799 and being the crazed fangirl that I am, I'm including as many Jacobins as I can get away with. I think I've got a good handle on Robespierre, since he's the main object of my obsession, but I do confess that I have nooooooooo idea at all how to characterize Saint- Just and Desmoulins. Aside from physical descriptions, I'm not quite sure what to do personality- wise to keep them as close to life as possible.

I would look at other historical fiction books as a guide, but then we get blood-thirsty-psycopathic-murderer!Saint- Just and dumb-as-a-rock!Desmoulins and I would rather avoid those since I've figured out that they're pretty much complete fabrications.

Thank you so much to anyone who can shed some light on the subject!

Comments

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

You know, Marat really interests me because his personally gets totally ignored when dealing with the French Revolution. I confess I know very little about him personally, though I've always retained a fondness for Marat/Sade for giving him a deeper analysis. I feel he's treated a lot like Saint-Just in that they're both figures that historians seem to have a hard time understanding, so they just become personifications of the Terror and the "bloodthirsty rabble" respectively. Anyway, I'm interested in Marat, what should I look into? Or is there a good cliff notes version out there for a busy college student? ;-)

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

Haha, hmm, most of the good books on Marat (the OH-SO rare good books) on him are big and hefty - so, I'll give you the cliff notes - 1, he's not bloodthirsty, he was just very theatrical, so he exaggerated, when he screamed for 10 thousand heads, he didn't ACTUALLY want 10 thousands head! He's also kinda of a glory whore, haha! But he's a BIG workaholic and really does all he can to help people, his house was open to ANYBODY who wanted to go see him - but you had to go through Simonne first - hence why Corday had so much trouble - not because Simonne was jealous or something of Corday - but she had a bad feeling about her. Keep in mind, Marat was generally VERY well liked by people, the ones who had trouble with him are the people who couldn't deal with how high-strung he was - but overall, if you need anything more, let me know! I'm easy to approach, send me a message, comment in my journal, I'll gladly get back to you ASAP! But generally, he was a more or less calm person unless iritated :)