A Place of Greater Safety

Product Information

I wonder why I ever bothered with sex, he thought; there’s nothing in this breathing world so gratifying as an artfully placed semicolon.

I know that, in real life, there has been much speculation about Robespierre’s relationship with Eléonore Duplay and whether or not it was sexual in nature. An extraordinary and overwhelming novel…immensely detailed and yet fast-moving…she has set herself to capture the excitement and intellectual fervour of the period. Back to Lucile, though: at first, she seems like a silly, flirtatious young girl, who manipulates Desmoulins into marrying her, but she turns out to be highly intelligent, very much the equal of her husband. As I said, the book starts with each of the three main characters’ childhoods and continues through their early careers as lawyers in the early 1780s, and then through the Revolution. As these young men, key figures of the French Revolution, taste the addictive delights of power, the darker side of the period's political ideals is unleashed - and all must face the horror that follows.She is a staunch supporter of the monarchy and a devout Catholic, after Danton has become an atheist and abandoned his early belief that France should have a king. Character wise, I warmed to Max – I started off disliking him and finding him very cold but towards the end I liked his integrity, although his allegiance to Camille did annoy me. At some point during his childhood, Maximilien found out, or was told, that he had been conceived out of wedlock. A Place of Greater Safety is a stunning epic novel of the French Revolution, written by the late Hilary Mantel long before her most famous work, Wolf Hall. There are cousins all over the Laon district, all over Picardy: a bunch of nerveless crooks, always talking.

This was another buddy read with my friend Jemidar, who shares my fan girl enthusiasm for Hilary Mantel's writing. Appassionante romanzo storico che, attraverso soprattutto i personaggi di Danton, Desmoulins e Robespierre, apre a una visione come "in presa diretta" degli anni e delle passioni della rivoluzione francese. Mantel explains that, where possible, she used the historical figures' own words, from their speeches or writings.Desmoulins, though, is more heterosexual than otherwise and has many affairs with women, most of which, we are led to understand, are nothing but distractions to him and do not mean much. She was just a little china ornament, a piece of porcelain, her narrow shape distorted by the coming child. I also have to say, as much as I enjoyed reading about Danton and Robespierre, and Mantel’s characterization of them, I missed Desmoulins when he was absent from the book.

The laborer, exhausted, swayed against the wall, marking the plaster with a long rust-colored streak. Hij was zich vaag bewust van een gemiste afslag, zo’n vork in de weg die je je later herinnert, wanneer je eenmaal flink verdwaald bent. As with the Cromwell novels, and with the best of any historical fiction, we are left to reflect on a world that is maybe not that much different from our own.

Of the three protagonists, Robespierre is the only one who wins his election to the Estates General.