an extreme vulnerability not, so far as I know, attested historically.
I think the fact they managed to live to their mid thirties is reasonable historical proof they weren't as vulnerable as Mantel suggests.
Take what is probably the most significant political event in the novel (though certainly not in the Revolution), the arrest, trial, and execution of the Dantonistes. Politics is completely sucked out of it. It's all about the personal relationships.
You're right, and I think the novel looses a lot of it's good story factor because of this. PoGS offended the lit-crit in me first because I'm really not much of a historian. Historical novels are interesting because they show how politics inpacts of personal relationships and vice-versa. If you take the politics out, you've got no story really, and therefore to me the novel fails as a work of art.
It's like the vulnerability thing, the most interesting characters are usually a mix of strength and vulnerability. Characters who appear unable to buckle their own shoes might drum up a little fuzzy pity, but they're not the ones who make the reader think or inspire them.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-02-18 10:21 pm (UTC)I think the fact they managed to live to their mid thirties is reasonable historical proof they weren't as vulnerable as Mantel suggests.
Take what is probably the most significant political event in the novel (though certainly not in the Revolution), the arrest, trial, and execution of the Dantonistes. Politics is completely sucked out of it. It's all about the personal relationships.
You're right, and I think the novel looses a lot of it's good story factor because of this. PoGS offended the lit-crit in me first because I'm really not much of a historian. Historical novels are interesting because they show how politics inpacts of personal relationships and vice-versa. If you take the politics out, you've got no story really, and therefore to me the novel fails as a work of art.
It's like the vulnerability thing, the most interesting characters are usually a mix of strength and vulnerability. Characters who appear unable to buckle their own shoes might drum up a little fuzzy pity, but they're not the ones who make the reader think or inspire them.
I know little enough about British politics.
Lucky you ;)