Welcome to 1789...

Salut Citoyens et Citoyennes! New member! Well...I guess we're all new members to this comm, aren't we? I took a class on the French Revolution and Napoleon last quarter so I'm a bit of a plebe, but I think I know a decent amount (my notes for the final ending up being 13 pages!) about revolutionary matters. I've also been taking French for the past seven years, so I'll be available if anyone wants some translation work for speeches or anything.

I'm currently reading A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel which is a semi-fictional account of the period through the eyes of Robespierre, Desmoulins, and Danton from their formative years to their respective deaths. The writing style leaves a lot to be desired (very anglicized, moderning sounding dialogue and the such), but the plot line is pretty good.

I'm also a big fan of musical theatre and I highly recommened La Révolution Française, the first collaboration by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, the creators of Les Misérables (which was, in fact, not about the French Revolution like many high school history teachers think, but the student uprisings of 1832!) and Miss Saigon. It's in French and they were both pretty young and inexperianced when they wrote it, but it's still a great time. Maybe I can upload a couple songs for you guys sometime, if you want.

My current revolution-related loves are Saint-Just, Robespierre and basically the entire Committee of Public Safety, using the French Republican Calendar at every possible opportunity, what happened on the night of Varennes, and a young Napoleon Bonaparte (pre-Egyptian Campaign).

And now for some pimping: I'm the mod of little_corporal which is a Napoleon comm for all you Bonapartists, although I notice that a lot of people from over there are already here (Hi guys!). For World Cup fans out there: Allez les Bleus!!