Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France (P.S.) - Softcover

Moore, Lucy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060825278 ISBN 13: 9780060825270

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2008

Synopsis

The ideals of the French Revolution inflamed a longing for liberty and equality within courageous, freethinking women of the era--women who played vital roles in the momentous events that reshaped their nation and the world. In Liberty, Lucy Moore paints a vivid portrait of six extraordinary Frenchwomen from vastly different social and economic backgrounds who helped stoke the fervor and idealism of those years, and who risked everything to make their mark on history.

Germaine de Stael was a wealthy, passionate Parisian intellectual--as consumed by love affairs as she was by politics--who helped write the 1791 Constitution. Theroigne de Mericourt was an unhappy courtesan who fell in love with revolutionary ideals. Exuberant, decadent Theresia Tallien was a ruthless manipulator instrumental in engineering Robespierre's downfall. Their stories and others provide a fascinating new perspective on one of history's most turbulent epochs.

About this title

Review:

"Fascinating. an absorbing portrait.She successfully contextualizes each of her subjects within a cultural framework-no small feat." -- Kirkus Reviews

"A fresh history . . . riveting and revelatory. -- Booklist (starred review)

"Marvelous." -- Judith Warner, New York Times Book Review

"Fascinating... an absorbing portrait...She successfully contextualizes each of her subjects within a cultural framework-no small feat."--Kirkus Reviews

"Engrossing and highly readable . . . Moore makes this much more than a collective biography . . . fascinating."--Library Journal

"Marvelous."--Judith Warner, New York Times Book Review

"A lively new work by a talented young English historian."--Washington Times

A lively new work by a talented young English historian. --Washington Times"

Marvelous. --Judith Warner, New York Times Book Review"

A fresh history . . . riveting and revelatory.--Booklist (starred review)"

From the Back Cover:

‘Woman is born free and lives equal to man in her rights,' declared Olympe de Gouges in 1791. Throughout the French Revolution women, inspired by a longing for liberty and equality, played a vital role in stoking the fervour and idealism of those years. In her compelling history of the Revolution, Lucy Moore paints a vivid portrait of six extraordinary women who risked everything for the chance to exercise their ambition and make their mark on history...

At the heart of Paris's intellectual movement, Germaine de Staël was a figure like no other. Passionate, fiercely intelligent and as consumed by love affairs and politics, she helped to write the 1791 Constitution at the salon in which she entertained the great thinkers of the age. At the other end of the social scale, her working-class counterparts patrolled the streets of Paris with pistols in their belts. Théroigne de Méricourt was an unhappy courtesan when she fell in love with revolutionary ideals. Denied a political role because of her sex, she nevertheless campaigned tirelessly until a mob beating left her broken in both mind and body. Later came the glittering merveilleuses, whose glamour, beauty and propensity for revealing outfits propelled them to the top of post-revolutionary society. Exuberant, decadent Thérésia Tallien reportedly helped engineer Robespierre's downfall - in so doing, she and her fellow 'sans-chemises' ushered in a new world that combined sexual license with the amorality of the new Republic.

Writing with vigour and sympathy, Lucy Moore reanimates the lives of six remarkable women from these three very different segments of French society. Through their lives, loves and failures, the wider history of the Revolution receives a compassionate retelling that illuminates not only the brief, hopeful period in which equality seemed within reach, but also the ways in which they were betrayed.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0060825278
• ISBN 13: 9780060825270
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528