Louise Michel: Rebel Lives [Paperback]

Louise Michel (Author), Nic Maclellan (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Rebel Lives | Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Louise Michel was the incendiary French leader of the 1871 Paris Commune. An anarchist and an irrepressible rebel, she spent much of her life on the run from police, in jail, or in danger of being locked away in mental asylums, as was the fate of so many feisty or defiant women. Known as "The Red Virgin," Louise was a great character from one of the greatest popular rebellions in history.

Here is Michel’s own story, along with commentaries about her by Emma Goldman, Bertolt Brecht, Sheila Rowbotham, Howard Zinn, and her contemporaries Victor Hugo and Karl Marx. This is the third woman in the "Rebel Lives" series.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Louise Michel was an inspiring woman leader when the population of Paris rose up in 1871 to establish a short-lived workers' government. After the Commune was crushed, Michel, known throughout Europe as "The Red Virgin," was captured, jailed and deported to the South Pacific. She supported the French colonies' struggles for independence, and was spied on and repeatedly arrested by police forces across Europe until her death. She maintained a lifetime friendship with French writer and poet Victor Hugo, along with many other European artists. Nic Maclellan is the author of After Moruroa: France in the South Pacific. He is a world authority on French colonialism and has translated much of this book, making parts of Michel's work available in English for the first time.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Ocean Press (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1876175761
• ISBN-13: 978-1876175764
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,663,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique resource., January 2, 2005

By 

Kliatt (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Louise Michel: Rebel Lives (Paperback)

Kliatt, November 2004

MACLELLAN, Nic (ed): Louise Michel (Rebel Lives) Ocean Books.

Louise Michel. a relatively unknown figure outside of her native France, was an activist, an anarchist, and a fighter against racism who is known principally for her role in the short-lived French Commune in the spring of 1871.

A local rebellion, the Paris Commune was a reaction against the provisional government set up by the French after the defeat of Napoleon III by the Prussian armies in the Franco-Prussian War. Michel, a schoolteacher who had read widely in political theory, was fully embroiled in this brief moment of revolutionary ferment, organizing meetings, writing tracts, speaking, and even firing her gun as a fighter in the ranks.

Deported to New Caledonia at the fall of the Commune. she continued to write; and alone among her fellow deportees, championed the native Kanaks, a local tribe that attempted to rebel against French colonial rule. Back in France, she continued to live as she believed, travelling and speaking for the radical and anarchist causes she promoted.

What makes the Rebel Lives series valuable is its presentation of primary source material once the historical background has been carefully laid out in an introduction. Not only are excerpts from Michel's autobiography and letters included, but also brief pieces taken from the works of Engels and Marx writing on the Commune as well as short citations from many others, including Lenin, Emma Goldman (who calls Michel "a complete woman"), and Howard Zinn. Selected reading lists contain books and Web sites in both French and English. A unique resource.

Patricia Moore. Brookline, MA

5.0 out of 5 stars Her story is presented with her sharp-eyed criticism, October 30, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Louise Michel: Rebel Lives (Paperback)

Compiled and edited by Nic Maclellan, Louise Michel: Rebel Lives is the dramatic biography of Louise Michel, the fiery leader of the 1871 Paris Commune, a short-lived workers' government created when the city population rose up to exert its will. Also known as "The Red Virgin", Louise Michel was a rebel who spent much of her life on the run, in exile, in jail, or in danger of being locked in a mental asylum. "Louise Michel" tells the story of her life by directly collecting and editing her own words from her memoirs and the insights of her contemporaries. Her story is presented with her sharp-eyed criticism of a society and an era where the only lucrative trade for a woman was prostitution, and tributes to her life and efforts from such prominent figures as Emma Goldman, Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, and much more.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Heart That Beat for Freedom, September 29, 2004

By 

Dana Garrett - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Louise Michel: Rebel Lives (Paperback)

"Since it seems that any heart which beats for freedom has the right only to a small lump of lead, I demand my share. If you let me live, I shall never stop crying for vengeance, and I shall avenge my brothers by denouncing the[ir] murderers" (p.101).

So said Louise Michel before the court passed sentence on her for participating in the rebellion that became the Paris Commune. The court did not execute her. Instead, it sent her into exile at the prison colony in New Caledonia 20,000 miles from Paris. Even there Michel advocated for the indigenous people of the island (the Kanaks) in their struggle against the French occupiers.

Michel was dubbed the "Red Virgin": "red" because she was an anarchist and "virgin" because her sexual orientation was unclear (as if this mattered) and because she was unattractive. I don't see it. She had a great and beautiful spirit, and I have fallen in love with her.

Ocean Press is to be commended for providing a good introduction to the person of Louise Michel and the times that stirred her and she helped to shape. Through the writings of such notables as Bakunin, Kropotkin, Marx, Engles, Lenin, Emma Goldman, Howard Zinn, the editor's introduction (Nic Maclellan) and Michels herself, we learn about her mixed proletarian and bourgeoisie background, her undying devotion to her mother, her days as a school teacher, her militancy and leadership role during the Paris Commune, her exile in New Caledonia, her return to Paris and her prescient feminism. All in a mere 115 pages. It is quite a feat.