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Title: The French Revolution: A History (Modern Library Classics)
ISBN: 0375760229
Author:
Thomas Carlyle
Publicate Date: 2002-05-14
Publish: 2002-05-14
List Price: $18.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $7.50
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $5.55
Amazon Merchant Price: $12.89
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1: The Best Book I Read in 2008
I am not sure why I picked up this book in the first place, but boy was it wonderful. Some history books are interesting, some dull, this one was beautiful. Every page gorgeous. Let me try to explain. I am not the smartest guy out there, and I know it, and some of you can tell by my writing style.
The book is a mixture of prose and poetry, action and wise musings. I have never seen history treated so poetically. In some scenes, I really felt that I was there witnessing the events as they occurred, such as when the living quarters of the royal family was besieged. It was almost as if he wrote the book having been there, certainly having read the newspapers day after day.
The book proceeds sometimes day by day, hour by hour...and the tension during the French Revolution was very intense at times.
I don't do this justice, but I will try...in the beginning Carlylse describes the funeral procession of the dead king (forgot his name), and he describes the next king and his wife Marie Antoinette, and he muses at one point how they haven't a clue how they are walking on gossamer above a precipice.
Here are the bad points: If you know nothing of the French Revolution, it may be tiresome as he alludes to events and names you may not know. If you have a hard time with hard reading, this is very hard reading, don't bother. I would suggest you read two books concurrently, a regular dull history book, then Carlisle, month by month.
I am ashamed to admit, I think I only fully grasped 1/3 of what I read. But wading through that which I did not understand was well worth the delight of finding gems that were intelligible to me.
Carlylse wrote with perspective, wisdom and poetry.
I read this book for 4 months. Really. I put this in the same class as Boethius's Consolations of Philosophy. Those who truly are literate may think him primitive and lowbrow, but Boethius was beautiful in dealing with fortune and fate.
If you are up for a challenge, and are patient and love beauty, then read it. If you just want a factual read, stay away.
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2: About the illustrated Heritage Press editon in slipcase
This review is for the Heritage Press edition of The French Revolution in the later printing with the pictorial hardback boards.
A hefty, oblong book on heavy paper. Painted illustrations by Bernard Lamotte -- over 20 full page or two page spread collotypes. Bound in pictorial linen.
629 pp with an introduction by Cecil Brown.
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3: Odd for a History, but Valuable for its Oddity
This is indeed a very strange work of history; Carlyle narrates the events of the Revolution as those of a Victorian novel. It is difficult to convey a true sense of the hyper-dramatic prose that results, so it might be better to include some excerpts from the text:
The surrender of the Bastille:
"For four hours now has the World-Bedlam roared: call it the
World-Chimaera, blowing fire! The poor Invalides have sunk under their
battlements, or rise only with reversed muskets: they have made a white
flag of napkins; go beating the chamade, or seeming to beat, for one
can hear nothing. The very Swiss at the Portcullis look weary of firing;
disheartened in the fire-deluge: a porthole at the drawbridge is opened,
as by one that would speak. See Huissier Maillard, the shifty man! On
his plank, swinging over the abyss of that stone-Ditch; plank resting
on parapet, balanced by weight of Patriots,--he hovers perilous: such
a Dove towards such an Ark! Deftly, thou shifty Usher: one man already
fell; and lies smashed, far down there, against the masonry! Usher
Maillard falls not: deftly, unerring he walks, with outspread palm. The
Swiss holds a paper through his porthole; the shifty Usher snatches
it, and returns. Terms of surrender: Pardon, immunity to all! Are they
accepted?--"Foi d'officier, On the word of an officer," answers half-pay
Hulin,--or half-pay Elie, for men do not agree on it, "they are!" Sinks
the drawbridge,--Usher Maillard bolting it when down; rushes-in the
living deluge: the Bastille is fallen! Victoire! La Bastille est prise!"
The execution of Robespierre:
"At four in the afternoon, never before were the streets of Paris seen so
crowded. From the Palais de Justice to the Place de la Revolution, for
thither again go the Tumbrils this time, it is one dense stirring mass;
all windows crammed; the very roofs and ridge-tiles budding forth human
Curiosity, in strange gladness. The Death-tumbrils, with their motley
Batch of Outlaws, some Twenty-three or so, from Maximilien to
Mayor Fleuriot and Simon the Cordwainer, roll on. All eyes are on
Robespierre's Tumbril, where he, his jaw bound in dirty linen, with
his half-dead Brother, and half-dead Henriot, lie shattered; their
'seventeen hours' of agony about to end. The Gendarmes point their
swords at him, to shew the people which is he. A woman springs on
the Tumbril; clutching the side of it with one hand; waving the other
Sibyl-like; and exclaims: "The death of thee gladdens my very heart,
m'enivre de joie;" Robespierre opened his eyes; "Scelerat, go down to
Hell, with the curses of all wives and mothers!"--At the foot of the
scaffold, they stretched him on the ground till his turn came. Lifted
aloft, his eyes again opened; caught the bloody axe. Samson wrenched
the coat off him; wrenched the dirty linen from his jaw: the jaw fell
powerless, there burst from him a cry;--hideous to hear and see. Samson,
thou canst not be too quick!"
The book succeeds in portraying such of the more dramatic events of the Revolution with a striking immediacy that makes the book worthwhile. At other points, however, Carlyle frustrates by including lengthy passages of melodramatic commentary.
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4: Lost its main point way to fast
This book falls into the classification of most French Revolution books that I have read. It loses focus in the complexity of the revolution and gets bogged down in way to much detail. Even if you know a lot about the revolution the analysis is too much and distracts from whatever his overall point is which was lost by about page 20. I had a hard time getting through it and if I had not needed to read it for class I would have stopped after the first 50 pages. Try the French Revolution and the Ancien Regime by Collins for a much better look at the French Revolution.
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5: Unique Insight
"The French Revolution: A History" is an important book to learn about the French Revolution. Thomas Carlyle describes the interesting characters, turbulent events and the chaotic period of the Revolution.
The book was first published in 1837, thus benefitting from first hand account of events in the Revolution. This has its pros and cons to the value of the book since such first hand influence could dilute the objectivity of the author. However, Thomas Carlyle managed to produce a vivid and thoughtful account of events and leading characters involved in the Revolution.
The author uses a unique prose style which some readers may find interesting and poetic whilst others may find hard to comprehend. However, if looked at from its historical context, the writing style should make sense, particularly to those already familiar with the subject.
This is an informative and insightful book that is well worth reading.
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