Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution PDF
Preview Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution
FATAL PURITY FATAL PURITY ROBESPIERRE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION RUTH SCURR METROPOLITAN BOOKS HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY NEW YORK mrnmem M Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company, LLC Publishers since 1866 175 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10010 www.henryholt.com Metropolitan Books® and 13 ® are registered trademarks of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Copyright © 2006 by Ruth Scurr All rights reserved. Distributed in Canada by H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd. Published simultaneously in the United Kingdom by Chatto & Windus, The Random House Group Limited Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publicatdon Data Scurr, Ruth. Fatal purity : Robespierre and the French Revolution / Ruth Scurr. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-7987-6 ISBN-10: 0-8050-7987-4 i. Robespierre, Maximilien, 1758-1794. 2. Revolutionaries—France— Biography. 3. France—History—Revolution, 1789-1799. 4. France— History—Reign of Terror, 1793-1794. I. Title DC146.R6S38 2006 944.04092—dc2 2 [B] 2005057694 Henry Holt books are available for special promotions and premiums. For details contact: Director, Special Markets. First Edition 2006 Designed by Victoria Hartman Map of Revolutionary Paris drawn by Edward Weller, 1908 Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 To John Death is the beginning of immortality Robespierre’s last speech, 26 July 1794 Contents Chronology xiii Map: Revolutionary Paris xviii Preface i Introduction 5 Parti. Before the Revolution (1758-1788) 1 Child of Arras 17 2 The Lawyer-Poet Back Home 36 Part H. The Revolution Begins (1788-1789) 3 Standing for Election in Arras 61 4 Representing the Nation at Versailles 78 Partin. Reconstituting France (1789-1791) 5 The National Assembly in Paris 111 6 The Constitution 141 Contents Xll Part IV The Constitution Fails (1791-1792) 7 War 177 8 The King’s Trial 218 PartV. The Terror (1793-1794) 9 The Pact with Violence 257 10 Robespierre’s Red Summer 0 w0 Coda 359 Notes 361 Bibliography 379 Acknowledgments 393 Index 395
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