The French Revolution was among the most remarkable series of events that has happened in human history. It was revolutionary in the true sense of the word. I picked up an Easton Press copy of a trilogy by Thomas Carlyle. I understand this book, written in the early 1800's, was carried around by many influential authors throughout the years. These include Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, and others. I gravitated to it in part because some of the best novels I have read were set in the French Revolution and, from a historical perspective, there is a lot to unpack during that time. I wanted to know more and this set, adorned with dozens and dozens of black-and-white illustrations met that need nicely.
I was initially a little surprised at Carlyle's almost laid back tone. I was expecting something a little more ivory tower, I suppose. It works and works really well, though. And he has moments of brilliance throughout where he can really shed light on some parts of humanity and of history that are extraordinarily complex. One quote reads: "So, however, are men made. Creatures who live in confusion; who, once thrown together, can readily fall into that confusion of confusions which quarrel is, simply because their confusions differ from one another; still more because they seem to differ! Men's words are a poor exponent of their thought; nay their thought itself is a poor exponent of the inward unnamed Mystery, wherefrom both thought and action have their birth. No man can explain himself, can get himself explained; men see not one another, but distorted phantasms which they call one another; which they hate and go to battle with: for all battle is well said to be misunderstanding."
One other one that I found touching reads as follows: "For we shall still find Hope shining, be it for fond invitation, be it for anger and menace; as a mild heavenly light it shone; as a red conflagration it shines burning sulphurous-blue, through the darkest regions of Terror it still shines; and goes not out at all, since Desperation itself is a kind of Hope." It can be difficult to cling to hope even in normal circumstances. Those that the citizens of France found themselves in throughout these years were rather extreme, but, still, there is room for hope. I love that.
Early in the book, the author likens their society to rotten meat that holds together so long as you do not handle it roughly...even for whole generations. People are patient and largely sleep walking...it takes a lot to change the inertia of a whole civilization of people. Every individual is complicated and, mixing them together, it becomes much more so.
A recurring characteristic of the times presented throughout these books was hunger. It was one of the initial agitators to ultimately bring an end to the royalty in favor of a republic and was still relevant to citizens after the Reign of Terror...a brief series of months in which many people were killed or died in prison in effectively a state-sponsored massacre. Always there was hunger. Even once the initial constitution was drafted and approved by Louis XVI, the people found that this fundamental problem couldn't be easily resolved.
An awful lot of people died during the years of the French Revolution. Many of them by hanging or guillotine, others by street violence or hunger, and, as noted above, still others died in prison. They made leather out of skins from beheaded people...even noting that men's skin was better suited for it than that of women. Parents had to watch their children get beheaded only to get beheaded themselves right afterwards. Society became unglued, to put it simply and bluntly. The church got ousted and many of its ornaments and decorations were converted to cannon ammunition, only to be replaced by a virtual church of liberty. This, too, was overturned only to be replaced by a virtual church of the republic.
There are a lot of people noted throughout these books almost in passing...at times I struggled due to not having immediate familiarity with the names as I would, perhaps, were it a more contemporary setting. It's immersive, though, and there is a lot to learn about and to read about in this tome. Some particular scenes really stood out to me for varying reasons. I'll note just one here and that is the untimely demise of Robespierre, the tyrant of the Reign of Terror. He tried to commit suicide by shooting himself, but only shot and seriously injured his jaw, his other hand still clutching the gun's sheath. He was then guillotined but they removed the bandage holding his jaw before doing so and he reportedly screamed a terrible scream. Those that executed him were really just trying to stay alive, though, but when there is that much violence and tumult snowballing, it can get out of control really fast.
I'm glad to have read this book although it took me quite awhile. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to any students of history or anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of the French Revolution.