Robespierre to Camille

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall reading about a letter that Robespierre sent to Camille that was along the lines of, "I'm glad you're happily married, Camille, but you've been neglecting your work."  Am I just making this up or is there such a letter?  Does anyone have a copy of the text?  French is preferred, but English is good too.

Comments

[just-marzipan.livejournal.com]

Sadly I don't know if said letter exists, but please share it if you find it. It sounds fantastic :D

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

All this intriguingly missing correspondence between those two! I really wish we had the text of the letter that Camille said he was going to write to Robespierre from prison.

[just-marzipan.livejournal.com]

I know! It is even more frustrating than war poets, and that is saying something.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Hi, yes, it exists - I think I came across it in Jules Claretie's book (it may even have been published by Camille in 'Revolutions de France'), so if no-one else can come up with it in French (my Claretie is an English translation) I'll try and find it in English.

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

Oh good! I looked through Claretie's book and I couldn't find it, though maybe I missed it. If you can find it I would be really really grateful.

Funny you should mention Révolutions de France. I've been on a quest to find a complete edition of that too, with no luck.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

I was thinking it may be in the chapter on the wedding - but I might be wrong. I'll have a root in a mo. Maybe it's in Ruth Scurr?

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

...I am a bad Montagnarde who has not read Ruth Scurr. *blush*

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're not missing much! My copy is covered in angry notes. I think she even gets Camille's age wrong, besides giving us her often bizarre opinions on every incident - then again, a lot of people read it as a 'holiday read' and came out of it saying 'so he's not as bad as i thought he was', which is a start, I suppose.
I've just had a look through it anyway and couldn't find it (the letter) there...I'll have another go elsewhere in mo...!

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

I've just looked in Claretie (the wedding chapter) and not found it there, either (I was sure that was where I came across it!) - it was something along the lines of, 'please tear yourself away from lucile's lovely face and publish this important document in your mag', though more elegantly put.

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

I know it's not in Thompson's Robespierre bio cause I just read that and it's not there. I'll keep looking. If you find anything please please let me know.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

There's a scene in 'A Place of Greater Safety' derived from it, without quoting it. Argh! It may still be in Claretie, but out of context in a footnote or something. Mathiez?? It does exist, somewhere out there!

0_0

[pevampire.livejournal.com]

ooo i have that book. that's one of the few books available here. even that i had to make a special order. i've only read the introduction so far....i wish i could borrow some books from library except they don't have many english books...

Re: 0_0

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

It's good as an introduction, because most biographies assume you already have a detailed knowledge of the revolution and a university library to look up all references! So it is probably better as an introduction than, for example, Jordan's book, which was the last English Language biography of Robespierre to come out, back in the 1980's (and was the one I read as a teenager) - Jordan is very detailed on Robespierre's writings and speeches but covers the first 30 years of his life in about 2 pages (!), and barely mentions Danton, Desmoulins etc. , whereas Ruth Scurr spends a lot of time on the personal information and background - though she does tend to run with ideas for which there's no historical proof (like the story about the mistress).
Have you read Hilary Mantel's 'A Place of Greater Safety'? It's historical fiction but I think it's excellent (though her portrayal of the Duplays is a bit mean!) and is in print so should be easy to get hold of -it's also about as long as 'War and Peace'!