- Paperback: 896 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (1 July 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140171037
- ISBN-13: 978-0140171037
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 4.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 87,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
‘Superbly readable…an assured and strange masterpiece.’ Sunday Telegraph
'One of the best English novels of the 20th century.' Diana Athill, The Oldie
‘Hilary Mantel has soaked herself in the history of the period…and a striking picture emerges of the exhilaration, dynamic energy and stark horror of those fearful days.’ Daily Telegraph
‘I cannot think of a historical novel as good as this until one goes back to Marguerite Yourcenar’s “Memoirs of Hadrian”, published forty years ago.’ Evening Standard
‘Marvellous…It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Hilary Mantel captures it all.’ Time Out
‘Intriguing…She has grasped what made these young revolutionaries – and with them the French Revolution – tick.’ Independent
‘Crafty tensions, twists and high drama…a bravura display of her endlessly inventive, eerily observant style.’ Times Literary Supplement
‘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. She does it admirably…a tour de force.’ Scotsman
'Riveting…the book overflows with a natural storyteller's energy.' New Yorker
‘Much, much more than a historical novel, this is an addictive study of power, and the price that must be paid for it…a triumph.’ Cosmopolitan
'This is a high-class historical blockbuster.' Red Magazine
‘Hilary Mantel has pulled off the apparently impossible…an ambitious, gripping epic.’ Vogue
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.Review
'Superbly readable!an assured and strange masterpiece.' Sunday Telegraph 'One of the best English novels of the 20th century.' Diana Athill, The Oldie 'Hilary Mantel has soaked herself in the history of the period!and a striking picture emerges of the exhilaration, dynamic energy and stark horror of those fearful days.' Daily Telegraph 'I cannot think of a historical novel as good as this until one goes back to Marguerite Yourcenar's "Memoirs of Hadrian", published forty years ago.' Evening Standard 'Marvellous!It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Hilary Mantel captures it all.' Time Out 'Intriguing!She has grasped what made these young revolutionaries -- and with them the French Revolution -- tick.' Independent 'Crafty tensions, twists and high drama!a bravura display of her endlessly inventive, eerily observant style.' Times Literary Supplement '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. She does it admirably!a tour de force.' Scotsman 'Riveting!the book overflows with a natural storyteller's energy.' New Yorker 'Much, much more than a historical novel, this is an addictive study of power, and the price that must be paid for it!a triumph.' Cosmopolitan 'This is a high-class historical blockbuster.' Red Magazine 'Hilary Mantel has pulled off the apparently impossible!an ambitious, gripping epic.' Vogue
--This text refers to an alternate
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
138 of 142 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a huge and dynamic novel about three makers of the French Revolution. The two more famous men, Danton and Robespierre, are linked by their mutual friend Camille Desmoulins, whose role in history was to make the speech that inflamed the mob to storm the Bastille. The novel shows us a very complex and chaotic revolution, accelerated by many types of people and careering out of anyone's control. It is far from a simple case of the peasants rising up to guillotine the aristocrats.
The three main characters are diverse: Danton the bluff orator, the patriot who expects to make a good living out of the revolution; Robespierre the incorruptible, ruled by logic, who believes that the revolution is an essential reform more important than mere individuals, and the magnetic hell-raiser Camille - brilliant, immature, seductive, amoral, driven. Their wives, lovers, friends and enemies swarm through the book creating a riot of events and ideas.
This is wonderful writing with sparkles of genius: Camille's wife imagines the 'semi-demi-half life' of existence without him; a major character dies leaving a book marked with her place, 'And this is it' - it is twinned with her place as a character in this book, the place she got up to.
Hilary Mantel teases fiction out of history, leaving the imaginary indistinguishable from the facts. Both are compelling and thrilling, from the young Camille's subtle humiliation of his host at a dinner party, as a means of seducing his hostess, to Danton's theft of the French crown jewels for diamonds to bribe the enemy to lose a battle.
The story, written in short fragments from various personal points of view, has a form similar to another great historical novel, 'The Man on a Donkey', but this is faster and races through events with a comprehensively modern air. The complexity of the historical events make it an involved narrative with a great many characters, but for the reader who is willing to be swept along, this is a lasting experience. Have two copies - one to dip into again and again, and one to lend to lucky friends.
62 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Another gripping novel from Hilary Mantell, this book spans the final few decades of the 18th Century in France, describing the fall of the Ancien Regime and the rising tides of revolution through the eyes of three men at the centre of these tumultuous events - Danton, Desmoulins and the infamous Robespierre. Mantell has the great knack of being able to give even the most monstrous of characters a human dimension, and there are few more monstrous than Robespierre, the so-called incorruptible who was finally corrupted by the very pursuit of the vertu that was at the core of his political - and philosophical - beliefs. Mantell creates convincing portrayals of an array of characters, describing scenes of great horror with a sense of detachment that somehow magnifies the revulsion we feel. She skillfully handles an extremely complex period of history, revealing the human heart at the centre these remote events. Danton and Desmoulins are at once sympathetic and flawed, and the woman that loved them are given real voices. A wonderful book.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a huge book, both in the number of pages (nearly 900) and its subject matter (The French Revolution). Mantel shows us history through the eyes of three individuals, Danton, Robespierre and the journalist Camilles Desmoulins. Their lives intertwine as the revolution gathers apace and we are privileged to hear from their wives, lovers, co-conspirators and families along the way. All of which gives a great depth and breadth to the story.
Mantel's research must have been immense and her eye for detail and character mean that what might be seen as dry history never suffers that fate. It leaps off the page in a kind of glorious technicolour. The characters, bloodthirsty and morally ambivalent though they are, are also portrayed as fascinatingly human and at times sympathetic.
Despite the length, the complexity of the story and the huge cast of characters Mantel achieves the nigh on impossible task of making this book as easy to read as a holiday blockbuster and just as compelling. A tour de force
Mantel's research must have been immense and her eye for detail and character mean that what might be seen as dry history never suffers that fate. It leaps off the page in a kind of glorious technicolour. The characters, bloodthirsty and morally ambivalent though they are, are also portrayed as fascinatingly human and at times sympathetic.
Despite the length, the complexity of the story and the huge cast of characters Mantel achieves the nigh on impossible task of making this book as easy to read as a holiday blockbuster and just as compelling. A tour de force
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disappointing
This book takes three main characters involved in the French Revolution and follows them from boyhood through to the Revolution and the ghastly time of the Terror. Read more
Published 16 hours ago by Marjorie
Great characterisation but who is talking?
There are a lot of positives about this book. You will learn a lot about the French Revolution without having to take a course. You do get a feel for the characters. Read more
Published 9 days ago by Cole Davis
A Place of Greater Safety
Hard to follow and too many characters - a bit like Wolf Hall but in French! I enjoyed Wolf Hall however, so tried this book - but all it does is to encourage me to read a proper... Read more
Published 1 month ago by RL
Vive la revolution!
A magnificent book. Mantel writes in such a human voice. Every character comes alive and we're there, laughing and doubting and killing along with them. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Misskin
So much worth reading, I can't tell you.
I studied history at university, so people always assume you know everything about any given historical period - and the French Revolution was not one of the things I'd ever... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Esther Stephens
superb
This is one of the best novels I have ever read. Set during the French Revolution, it focuses on the lives and relationships of three of the key figures leading up to and during... Read more
Published 5 months ago by markr
"The Revolution, like Saturn, is devouring its own children..."
With some of the same features as her Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall: the length, the depth, the close attention to detail (politics - of course), and, sometimes, the flowing prose,... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Eileen Shaw
Engrossing, and increasingly dispiriting
This novel is very long (870 pages), but highly readable and I got through it in a week and a half. It is immensely interesting and dramatic though also rather depressing, as the... Read more
Published 6 months ago by John Hopper
A Place of Greater Safety
Readers expecting a full-blooded, rip-roaring saga of the French Revolution will perhaps be disappointed by this. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Rich
For lovers of Wolf Hall
I'd never heard of this title but have enjoyed most of Hilary Mantel's books and absolutely loved Wolf Hall. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mrs. S. Parry
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