a newbie to the revolution.

[take-a-sadsong.livejournal.com]

Hi there! I'm a homeschooled geeky highschooler, and I've always been interested in the French Revolution since I was much younger. I've read only a couple of children's books about the time, but those two have been some of my favorites (I'm re-reading one of them right now), and the whole culture just seems to fascinate me. However, I have absolutely no idea why there was a Revolution other than the commoners were angry with the royals and all that bit. All my textbooks seem to sort of skim the F. Rev., and focus in much more on The American one instead (which sort of makes sense, since I use American texts. :P).

Basically, I'm a newbie who wants to really get into the whole era, but I have no idea where to start. I know there's probably been a million posts on here of the sort (I apoligize, I couldn't find one!), but I really need book recommendations. :) What is a good starting book(s) for the overall Revolution and the Reign of Terror, that isn't too textbooky and boring? Don't get me wrong, I love dates of events and stuff, but sometimes it gets mind-numbing when the emotion of the times gets cut. If there's a huge book list somewhere for the Revolution, that'd be awesome too. The more the merrier. :)

Also, I have to ask: Was Robbespierre as bad as they all say he was? ;)

thanks so much! :D

Comments

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Another one for Mark Steel here! He's a stand-up comedian and some of his history stuff is also on youtube, though the French Revolution one on youtube isn't that great, because it was recorded at a 'straight' audience event, not his usual comedy club audience, and he seems oddly nervous!

Crucially, you've got to know something about the historian, his (well, they're mostly men!) personal politics and the politics of the regime he was writing under, because the Revolution is still such a controversial event people still take sides, and take sides rabidly (just look at the various reader reviews for books on Robespierre and co. on Amazon!). Norman Hampson's "Life and Opinions of Maximilien Robespierre' is a great, though unusual, book that explores this issue - he has a historian and three characters from different parts of the political spectrum debating Robespierre's political career. A good historian, like J.M. Thompson, will give a source - and note the political bias - for every quote; I like that approach but it doesn't make for a smooth read.

A very recent, so easily available, book, is Ruth Scurr's 'Fatal Purity', which has a lot of faults but is a very readable and colourful introduction to Robespierre and the Revolution for a general reader. It's her first book, and it shows, and she really underestimates the pressure that the wars put on France, which is crucial to understanding the Terror, but it's still a good place to start. If you want the flavour of the times, there are some good books of eye-witness accounts. I can't remember the title of the one I had when I was a kid, but Cobb and Jones "The French Revolution' (a great big heavily illustrated book) is fairly recent so may be easy to get hold of. (Eye witness accounts are like the film 'Rashomon' - you can find the same event described in several contradictory ways! Estellacat has translated Charlotte Robespierre's and Élisabeth Le Bas' memoirs and posted them on this site, so if you are interested in first-hand accounts, these are excellent!).

On your last point, here are a couple of essays fom Hilary Mantel (who wrote "A Place of Greater Safety ' - a long and generally accurate novel of the Revolution) from the London Review of Books. The first is a review of a collection of essays on Robespierre published about ten years ago, the second is her review of Ruth Scurr's book. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v22/n07/mant01_.htmlhttp://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n08/mant01_.html

Anyway, I hope that's useful!
(By the way, Simon Schama's 'Citizens' is terrible! God knows why it's still in print, when so many excellent books are not!)

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Damn links don't work! I'll try again... - http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n08/mant01_.html should be the Scurr review, and http://www.lrb.co.uk/v22/n07/mant01_.html The earlier article.