Assorted Dantonist information

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone, I'm looking for first-hand accounts of the execution of the Dantonists, preferably in French, but English will work too.  And to round it out, Lucile's execution too, if there are any.

Also, I'm looking for photos of Camille's home and Bourg-la-Reine and Danton's country home.  I know I saw a photo of Danton's in a book somewhere, taken before it got destroyed in WW(II?), but for the life of me I can't remember where.

Thanks!

Comments

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Hi - I may be able to give you more details tomorrow (I'm in GB and it's late!), but offhand, there's a footnote in Thiers at the end of the Dantonists chapter giving a brief account of Lucile's execution (I can copy it if you don't have it). There may be a lot more in Claretie's book on Camille and Lucile Desmoulins, but I haven't reached the end yet! There is a great appendix in it which includes a sad inventory of all their prison posessions - he transcribed papers on the Dantonists' trial subsequently lost when the Hotel de Ville was burned. For photos of houses, you could try a vintage postcards site, because I have seen Danton's - possibly Desmoulins,too - on postcards. There's a very detailed drawing of Camille in his prison cell in Aileen Ribero's (Ribiero?) 'Fashion in the French Revolution', which is fascinating from a prison-lifestyle point of view, too! If you haven't seen it I can scan it or something.

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

If you could copy the note in Theirs, that'd be great. I can get my hands on Claretie myself. Also, I know the drawing of Camille in prison in Fashion in the French Revolution, though I have read elsewhere that it is unlikely to be Camille and probably mislabeled because the artist wasn't actually in the Luxembourg at the same time as Camille (or something similar) and it was more likely to be one of the artist's friends who was in prison with him.

[the-nero-dance.livejournal.com]

Oh my! You're such a kind person, I must say! I hate to impose but I am terribly interested in 'Fashion in the French Revolution.' If you have any time in the future, could you perhaps scan it for me? I would be very greatful.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Hi - I can probably do 2 or 3 pics - I'll put them on my livejournal page in the next few days - but I'm afraid I am probably the last person in the world who still uses a dial-up internet connection so each pic takes about half an hour to upload (my server won't support photobucket for reasons best known to itself...)! Was it the prison cell one particularly, or just fashion pics in general? I'm aiming to get broadband in a few weeks so I'll put more pics of various things up then. It's a very good book, though, so if you are very interested in the subject it's worth getting: it costs silly money secondhand on Amazon UK but I've seen it for as little as $12 on Amazon US. It doesn't have much on patterns and things, though - it's more social/political, but I've found theatrical/film costumier's advice websites online are very good on wigs and things (costume books don't seem to go into the day-to-day practicalities).

[the-nero-dance.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!! You have no idea what this means to me as I plan to write a novel about the French Revolution sometime soon and it so happens that my characters get imprisoned and guillotined. I like everything to be spick-and-span when it comes to accuracy so this means so much!

I think I have a pretty good idea about the fashion on the time but I'm still questioning the prison cell. I would greatly appreciate it if the pages regarding the prison could be scanned.

Thank you for the heads up, also! I'll be sure to try and get the book for myself when my birthday comes!

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Hi - I've posted the picture up on my livejournal page this evening: it's a photo cos I couldn't bend the book enough for a scan, but if you double click it should be detailed enough to see.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

It's in English, I'm afraid:
'The widow of Camille-Desmoulins, young, amiable, and well-informed, during the mock process which condemned her to death as an accomplice of her husband, loathing life, and anxious to follow him, displayed a firmness of mind that was seen with admiration, even by her judges. When she heard the sentence pronounced, she exclaimed, ' I shall then, in a few hours, again meet my husband!' and then, turning to her judges, she added, 'in departing from this world, in which nothing now remains to engage my affections, I am far less the object of pity than you are'. Previous to going to the scaffold she dressed herself with uncommon attention and taste. her head dress was particularly elegant; a white gauze handkerchief partly covering her beautiful black hair, added to the clearness and brilliancy of her complexion. Being come to the foot of the scaffold, she ascended the steps with resignation and even unaffected pleasure. She received the fatal blow without appearing to have regarded what the executioner was doing' - Du Broca.
Depressing stuff. I don't know who Du Broca was, but that's as close to eye-witness as I've found. Thiers - if you ignore his comments - is very detailed, with lengthy quotes: I have the English translation from the 1830's and there are lots of footnotes, some of eye witnesses which contradict Thiers' version but are included all the same, so whilst I haven't got round to reading it through it's a useful tool for reference. (Btw Korngold points out that Thiers, after calling Robespierre the nearly-worst human being ever born, went on, as a politician in 1871, to preside over the shooting and summary execution of between 15,000-30,000 people...some say up to 50,000 - but they were lefties so no-one remembers them! )
Somewhere, I've got a big lurid kids' book on revolutions from the 70's that had a brief eye witness account of Danton and Desmoulins in the first of three red-painted carts, but I don't think there's much and I don't think the witness is named: it was the bit about the paint that I remember. I'll look for it, though, because there might be an index reference. There's a book called 'The Way of the Tumbrils' which was written in the 50's which is basically a man going round the various surviving buildings of the period (only to find - arrgh - they've knocked 'em down since the 1930's!). It has drawings, but no photos, which is really annoying! I think that's where I saw the reference to Danton's house being demolished in the 40's.
Hope that helps!