A Place of Greater Safetly

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

(In Spanish, Un Lugar de la Seguridad Grande - I have no idea why that amuses me, but somehow it does)

Well, I've finally gotten around to finishing Hilary Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety this weekend. Overall, I thought it was quite wonderful, especially compared what is usually offered up in the catagory of French Revolution books - fiction and nonfiction. At least Mantel doesn't think Robespierre was green. ;)

The only thing that irked me was her unecessarily harsh (IMO) treatment of the Duplay family and Philippe Lebas. The whole Babette thing was just completely...O.o;. Saint-Just wasn't too nicely handled either, but that at least had a more understandable basis than with the poor Duplays and Lebas.

That's what irks me about what is written on the FR, honestly. No author seems content to evaluate all personages involved honestly - someone's always got to be The Source of All Evil or That Idiot Who Got in the Way of Everything.

Other than that, though, I thought it was an excellent book. Mantel has stated that she came into it loving Camille and came out of it loving Maxime. I had almost the opposite experience, oddly enough. XD; I still love Maxime, of course, but I'm definitely more interested in Camille now than I was before.

What are everyone else's opinions on the book?

P.S. - For my Speech class (not the team - I decided against doing that the moment I stepped foot in the class), we have to write a speech describing a certain setting. I've decided on revolutionary Paris. We need to hit up at least ten locations. I've already got The Jacobins, the National Convention, Place de la Revolution, Palais Royal, Tuileries, and the Bastille. Does anyone have any other suggestions of places that I should use? Please note that I'd like places that you can find pictures of as they looked at the time (or a description) or that have remained mostly unchanged. Thanks. :)

Comments

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I could rant on this book for a long time, but the short version of my opinion on it has five points:

1. "Camille-ist", which is the same thing as Dantoniste really, but it must make Saint-Just the evil corrupting influence in Robespierre's life who makes him "turn against the poor innocent Camille" *sighs*

2. Extremely well-written

3. Was it really necessary to make the Duplays, Le Bas, and Saint-Just so evil? There is absolutely NO historical evidence for this whatsoever. >__<

4. Too much credulity as far as blantantly counterrevolutionary sources that are not at all based on fact go...but then again, you tend to get that from just about any English-speaking person (particularly British) who writes about the Revolution

5. This was my favorite book for a long time and I believed a lot of what it it said....until I actually read credible historical sources (particularly the French ones), at which point I realized that a lot of what it presents in what looks like a pretty credible fashion is extremely exaggerated at best or just made up...........and sadly we're not talking minor things here, but important things like the way major events really unfolded and the overarching opinions and character of several of the most important characters

[jonahmama.livejournal.com]

See comments below - but I just wanted to reiterate that I personally would be VERY interested to read/hear more about your opinions/research on this. Particularly if you would care to elaborate on #5, I would love to learn more from your research.