Gothic Thermidor

[en-franglais.livejournal.com]

Bonsoir tout le monde,

Last semester I checked out a book from my university library called Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France: Revolution and Remembrance, 1789-1799 by Joseph Clarke but accidentally returned it with a bulk of other books, not having read it. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else had given it a glance over and if so, what you thought of it. Also, if you have any other similar books to recommend, I'd appreciate it, since I'm currently very interested in this topic.

I also recently read an interesting essay called "Gothic Thermidor:  The Bals des victimes, the Fantastic, and the Production of Historical Knowledge in Post-Terror France" by Ronald Schechter. In a word, no one can ascertain that 'bals des victimes' actually took place, but they grew to such mythic proportions that mention of them can be found in many memoirs and other writings from the 1790s to WWI.

I think we should really hold our own 'bal des victimes'; only, instead of commemorating the aristos, we'd be drinking to the Revolution;)