French Revolution in Fiction
Explore captivating fiction books about the French Revolution. Discover historical novels, thrilling tales, and dramatic reimaginings of this pivotal era in world history.
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A Place of Greater Safety
by Hilary Mantel
The story of three young provincials of no great heritage who together helped to destroy a way of life and, in the process, destroyed themselves: Camille Desmoulins, bisexual and beautiful, charming, erratic, untrustworthy; Georges Jacques Danton, hugely but erotically ugly, a brilliant pragmatist who knew how to seize power and use it; and Maximilien Robespierre, "the rabid lamb," who would send his dearest friend to the guillotine. Each, none older than thirty-four, would die by the hand of the very revolution he had helped to bring into being.
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Danton's Death ; Leonce and Lena ; Woyzeck
by Georg Büchner
This collection of Büchner's three theatrical works includes Danton's Death, his great play about the French Revolution, Leonce and Lena, his "black" romantic comedy and Woyzeck, the unfinished work on which Alban Berg based his famous opera. All three works remained virtually unknown for half a century but today have found an important place in the modern repertory.
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The Danton Case ; Thermidor
by Stanisława Przybyszewska
Stanislawa Przybyszewski is recognized as a major twentieth-century playwright on the basis of her trilogy about the French Revolution, of which The Danton Case and Thermidor are the principal parts. The Danton Case depicts the battle for power between two exceptional individuals: the corrupt sentimental idealist, Danton, and the incorruptible genius of the Revolution, Robespierre. Thermidor shows the final playing out of this drama, as Robespierre, left alone with the heroic absolutist Saint-Just, foresees the ruin of himself and his cause, and in his despair predicts that hatred, war, and capitalism will steal the Revolution and corrupt nineteenth-century man.
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City of Darkness, City of Light
by Marge Piercy
Robespierre and Danton. These are the names that have come down to us as the architects of the French Revolution. Yet there is another story of that glorious, bloody movement that still lies buried: the courageous women who sparked the revolution by taking to the streets. Now, in her most splendid, thought-provoking novel yet, Marge Piercy brings to vibrant life three of the women who played prominent roles in the most tumultuous turning point in European history, and tells the intimate stories of the men whose names we know so well. Claire Lacombe escapes the grinding poverty of Pamiers by joining a traveling theatrical troupe as an actress. Defiantly independent, strikingly beautiful, she will become a symbol to many as she tests her theory: if men can make things happen, perhaps women can too. . . . Manon Philipon, a jeweler's daughter, worships Rousseau and the life of the mind. When she marries Jean Roland, a minor provincial bureaucrat, she finds she has a talent for politics--albeit as the ghostwriter of her husband's speeches, and the hostess of his salon. . . . Pauline Léon, owner of a chocolate shop in Paris, witnesses the torture and executions of common people who riot for bread. As the revolution gathers momentum, Pauline is certain of one thing: the women must apply the pressure, or their male colleagues will let them starve. And so the Revolutionary Republican Women are born. . . . And while the women make their voices heard in every district, the men sit in makeshift assemblies, willing the revolution into being through infighting and intrigue. The incorruptible Maximilien Robespierre, the earthy and opportunistic Georges Danton, and the intellectual Nicholas Condorcet all vie for power as Paris whips itself into a frenzy. History has recorded their political legacies, but in City of Darkness, City of Light Marge Piercy reveals the innermost thoughts and feelings of these three men, their insecurities and vulnerabilities, the way they loved and sometimes lost what was most precious to them. The women's march on Versailles. The haggling of the Committee for Public Safety. The overarching reach of the Terror. All the events of the revolution explode with the urgency of today's headlines, as Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Marat, Tom Paine, Camille Desmoulins, Olympe de Gouges, and many other legendary figures play their parts on the great stage of history. Marge Piercy has done nothing less than capture the entire sweep of the French Revolution, while opening to us the minds and hearts of six people who changed the world, lived their ideals--and were prepared to die for them. Filled with the philosophy, politics, and dreams of these extraordinary women and men, City of Darkenss, City of Light is Marge Piercy's masterpiece.
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The Gods Are Thirsty
by Tanith Lee
Historical novel. Set in France in the summer of 1789 through years of political and social intrigue.
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Scaramouche
by Rafael Sabatini
When his best friend is struck down by an uncaring aristocrat, French lawyer AndrT-Louis Moreau disguises himself as the clown Scaramouche to speak out against an unjust nobility, in a swashbuckling novel of romance and adventure set during the French Revolution. Reprint.
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The Scarlet Pimpernel
by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
The French revolution has entered its stage of bloody terror. Men, women and children fall under the merciless blade of the guillotine. But one foppish gentleman alias the Scarlet Pimpernel, bravely rescue aristocrats from death. In the midst of his rescue he meets and falls passionately in love.
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The Scarlet Pimpernel
by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
It is 1792 and France is in the grip of a seething, bloody revolution. Mobs roam the Paris streets hunting down royalists, barricades block any chance of escape, and every day hundreds die under the blade of Madame la Guillotine. But in the hearts of the condemned nobility there remains one last vestige of hope: rescue by the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel. Renowned for both his unparalleled bravery and his clever disguises, the Pimpernel’s identity remains as much a mystery to his sworn enemy, the ruthless French agent Chauvelin, as to his devoted admirer, the beautiful Lady Marguerite Blakeney. First published in 1905, The Scarlet Pimpernel is an irresistible novel of love, gallantry, and swashbuckling adventure.
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A Far Better Rest
by Susanne Alleyn
In Dickens' novel, A tale of two cities, the character Sydney Carton is transformed "from a youth of great promise to an embittered alcoholic and finally to a man who makes the ultimate sacrifice for love. [Alleyn's novel] ... imagines Sydney Carton's missing personal history and makes him the center of the tale as he becomes a major participant in politics, journalism and in the formation of the Republic."--Jacket.
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Anouilh Plays: 1
by Jean Anouilh
A selection of the most enduring work of one of this century's best-known French playwrights. Jean Anouilh (1910-87) along with Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, was at the forefront of the post-war generation of playwrights in Paris. In England his plays were championed by Peter Brook. Antigone is a response to the German occupation of France and established his popularity in 1944 (the Germans ironically, thought that it was a pro-Nazi in its portrayal of King Creon and thus allowed its production); Poor Bitos, Anouilh's angriest play explores the act of judicial murder and The Lark is a version of the Joan of Arc story. All three plays show his fondness for reworking myth, history and legend. Meanwhile Leocadia, about an opera singer who dies after a three day love affair with a prince and The Waltz of the Toreadors, about a general whose mistress attempts to prove his wife's infidelity, represent another talent - for ironic, modern comedy.
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The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat
by Peter Weiss
Grim drama presenting the persecution and assassination of Jean-Paul Marat during the French Revolution.
