Voices of the French Revolution [Hardcover]

Richard Cobb (Author), Colin Jones (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This irresistible history of the French Revolution is much more than a colorful mosaic. By splicing a reflective narrative with graphics (engravings, satirical cartoons, photographs) and primary documentsletters, trial transcripts, memoirs, decrees, newspaper editorialsit brings vivid immediacy to tumultuous events without sacrificing objective distance. The main narrative consists of dozens of tableaux, allowing room for such topics as prison conditions, Freemasonry, feudalism, the market for luxury goods. Along with the expected profiles of Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVI, Robespierre and Marat, we meet scheming pretender Philippe of Orleans who tried to bring down the king, professional revolutionary Tom Paine imprisoned under the Terror, and unstable leftist Joseph Fouche who led a campaign of de-Christianization and later became Napoleon's police minister. The text is provocative in its discussion of the Jacobins' prototype welfare state and of the Terror as a response to foreign pressures. Cobb is the author of Paris and its Provinces ; Jones is a British professor. 25,000 first printing; BOMC selection.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (October 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881623385
• ISBN-13: 978-0881623383
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,728,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for browsing!, October 7, 2004

By 

Dave Schwinghammer "Dave Schwinghammer" (Little Falls, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voices of the French Revolution (Hardcover)

If you're a history buff who doesn't have time to read an 800-page tome with a ton of footnotes, this coffee-table style history of the French Revolution may be what you're looking for.

That's not to say VOICES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION doesn't do an admirable job covering all the bases. For instance, there's a section on the guillotine, believe or not, the result of humanitarian reform. Previously, criminals were burned alive or had their bones broken with an iron bar, then were
tied to a wheel to die.

VOICES also profiles all of the major players from Louis XVI to Lafayette. We witness Lafayette help draft the Declaration of the Rights of Man, then flee France when the Revolution turns against him, ultimately spending time in a Prussian prison.

Many primary sources are included, such as Louis XVI's valet's eye witness description of the royal family's life in prison. A transcript of Louis Capet's interrogation by the president of the Convention is also provided. Later we see Marie Antoinnette, gray at thirty-seven, on her way to the guillotine, facing death with courage and dignity.

Just browsing VOICES OF THE REVOLUTION is fascinating. Many of Jacques-Louis David's paintings bring the narrative to life and occasionally the reader stumbles across a truly fascinating account, such as the description of the dechristianization of France, during which time Sans Culottes destroyed religious shrines, stripped churches of statues and often turned them into stables for their horses and we watch as the radicals abolish Sunday and Christian feast days.