![]() ![]() It is very well-constructed and, for me, worth the effort. It is long (750 pages) and took me a quite a while to read. I cared so much about one of the characters that I could hardly bear to read what happened to him even though I knew what was coming. It helped me understand the roles of these people in the French Revolution, of which I had a cursory knowledge beforehand. They are deeply drawn, and the reader gains psychological insights into what motivates them. When civil rights are suspended, nothing good is going to come out of it. It is a novel about the abuse of power – first the monarchy, then those who overthrew the monarchy, as they turn on each other in an attempt to achieve or maintain power. She follows them from their childhood friendships to their deaths. Mantel tells the story through character studies of the lives, personalities, and social interactions of three primary drivers of the Revolution: Georges-Jacques Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Maximilien Robespierre. It is a sweeping saga with no lack of dramatic events, from the optimism of the early Revolution to the horrors of the Terror. This is a novel about the French Revolution – so we know how it ends and we know it will be full of blood and references to beheadings. ![]()
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