Upcoming Book on Augustin Robespierre

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

For those who can read French (or Italian, since the original was written in Italian), there's a new book coming out (according to Amazon) on January 14 2010: a biography (!) on Augustin Robespierre, written by Sergio Luzzatto (who also wrote Mémoire de la Terreur: vieux montagnards et jeunes républicains au XIXe siècle, which I recommend if you can read French).


Bonbon Robespierre, la Terreur à visage humain


(Hasty) translation of the summary:

For everybody, the name of "Robespierre" is obviously associated with Maximilien Robespierre, with the French Revolution, jacobinism and the Terror. But Robespierre is also the name of his young brother Augustin, "Bonbon" for his close ones, a figure who is rarely mentioned in history books, except when it comes to the date of 28 July 1794, when the two brothers were condemned to death.

Augustin, however, played a significant role during the Revolution. Also a man of law, militant jacobin, deputy of the Montagne, Bonbon was first of all a man with practical experience, who travelled through Revolutionary France from North to South.

No doubt, by facing Terror directly, he understood that revolutionary violence needed to cease in order to preserve the achievements of the Revolution.

But, if he was convinced that the Revolution needed to come to an end to be preserved, if he dared to express some opposition to Maximilien, he showed, in the end, an exemplary courage in asking to be associated to his brother in the supplice of the scaffold.



Sorry for the bad translation: it's 1am and I should be in bed. -_-

Comments

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

It may be that the two brothers looked very similar -- exactly like how I believe Charlotte (the version of her portrait in colour that was in Arras too) looked a lot like Maximilien -- because I keep on confusing them on these portraits: I could see Augustin looking like the one above, on the cover, and I could see Maximilien looking like the one said to be of Augustin!