Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France

by Lucy Moore

Book Overview

"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 fervor 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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006082526X
• ISBN13: 9780060825263
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.7" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Compelling

This is an excellent read for anyone interested in the female experience of the French Revolution. As the author and some of her subjects point out in the book the Revolution's cries for human rights and freedoms did not extend to women. I hadn't realized the Revolution was such a chauvinistic enterprise. Though women were denied the rights of citizens under the new Republic they were still made to suffer it's worst punishments, sometimes purely for their associations with personal enemies of people like Robespierre. The author looks at the evolution of France's Revolution through the lives of six women. The most famous are Germaine de Stael, doyenne of the salon, and Theresia Tallien embodiment of decadent Directory society. She begins with Germaine de Stael and a description of the fall of the ancien regime. The Revolution starts out with a liberal idealism that degenerates into the fatal Terror of 1793. The author does an excellent job of illuminating the downward slide of people's hopes, especially those of Manon Roland. Her narrative culminates with the rise of Napoleon and the Empire. This is a fascinating look at a turbulent time. I was left wondering about the Revolution--what was the point? One dictator (the King) was overthrown for another (the Jacobin Club and Robespierre), and then another (Napoleon). Women's rights were never seriously addressed by any of the supposed Republicans. In some ways women (primarily of the upper classes) were better off under the king. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in the French Revolution or women's issues.

"Liberty" the book and liberty for women

Moore's book (which could also have been called "Equality," although not "Fraternity") may not break new scholarly ground, but it is fairly even handed on the more controversial aspects of the French Revolution and above all it brings to life a number of women who participated in that event and whose hopes for a more equitable life for women were dashed but who, often, continued to believe in the revolution's principles. She tells a number of good stories movingly, with flashes of humor and historically imaginative empathy for all concerned. The women she describes, or most of them (for the women she includes had a range of political views), would have been cheered by the recent Bastille Day celebrations, to say nothing of the mere fact of a woman's candidacy for the French presidency in the recent French election. This is a moving as well as an entertaining book.