Finally decided to jack this one and I'm light-headed and blinking like a person unaccustomed to the light and the sweet air of liberty. What a bummer when you pick a big long novel and it turns out to be the pain in the arse this one did - not so bad that I could apply the 100 page rule but not so good that I actually wanted to pick the thing up and read the words in it. This is a magnificently detailed weird-ass almost day-by-day recreation of the French Revolution seen through the ever-talkin [...]

As Hilary Mantel states in the author’s note, "[t]his is a novel about the French Revolution and almost all of the characters in it are real people". Mantel goes on to write that the novel “is closely tied to historical facts – as far as those facts are agreed – which isn’t really very far”. The narrative focuses on three men who are central to the Revolution: the hard-headed pragmatist, Georges-Jacques Danton; the passionate rabble-rouser, Camille Desmoulins and the fanatic ideologu [...]

"For historians, creative writers provide a kind of pornography. They break the rules and admit the thing that is imagined, but is not licensed to be imagined." Thus Hilary Mantel in an illuminating article on Robespierre in the London Review of Books. Her use of the p-word is a measure of the kind of disdain she feels emanating from the academic historians, who seem to think there are only two kinds of history, the 'sceptical and rational' or the 'imaginative and erratic'. But Mantel has defini [...]

Where I got the book: my local library. Spoilers but only if you never knew the French Revolution = wholesale death and that real characters who lived 200+ years ago may be a little on the deceased side by now anyway."Louise Robert says she would write a novelbut she fears that as a character in fiction Camille would not be believed. Indeed, I just had to look him up to make sure."Oh, Camille. What a character. And he's flanked by two more tours de force of the literary re-creation of history. M [...]

Having read her two Cromwell novels, I couldn't help comparing the style Mantel perfected in those to this much earlier work. For example, the depictions of the childhoods of the three main characters reminded me of the same technique she uses to first get us engaged in and sympathetic toward Cromwell in Wolf Hall. In all three novels, once blood is shed, and alliances made and remade--and even though I know what's coming--the tension is ratcheted up to an almost unbearable pitch. A lovely passa [...]

Well, thanks to the ministrations of Hilary Mantel, I now feel that I have the start of an understanding of the French Revolution and some of its key players. While A Place of Greater Safety is an acknowledged historical fiction, it is peopled with historical figures who lived the revolution, wrote its new laws and newspapers, created and were victims of its blood-lust. Mantel uses multiple styles in her creation: writing in the third and first person; inserting occasional historic quotes; recre [...]

A flawed book, but a very impressive and absorbing one.Mantel traces the story of the Revolution through the experiences of Danton, Robespierre and Desmouslins, along with an extensive cast of the men and women who knew, loved, or hated them. If I'm honest I'd have to say it could have lost a couple of hundred pages – a tighter edit is definitely in there somewhere, although there's something to be said for a lengthy story that you have to live with for a few days.Part of me wanted more detail [...]

bbc/programmes/b068sjpbDescription: Hilary Mantel's gripping account of the cataclysmic events of the French Revolution seen through the eyes of three of its most important figures, Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins and Maximilien Robespierre.French Revolution Timeline Liberty Equality FraternityExcellent dramatisation, Melissa Murray. Thanks you R4.Camille: Carl PrekoppDanton: Mark StobbartRobespierre: Sam TroughtonNarrator Lizzy WattsNarrator Paul RitterLucile Chloe PirrieGabrielle Sarah Thom [...]

I was reading this epic novel non-stop for the last seven days and, with a sigh of relief, I finally reached the end yesterday. While mulling on how to write this review, an immediate thought that came to mind was that the novel could’ve been tightened and slimmed down by a fifth to a quarter. I’m giving it a rating of 3.7 stars out of 5.On the whole, it is a rigorously researched work of historical fiction describing in minute details the emotional, sexual and political lives of the three l [...]

This novel is too long. It comes in at 872 pages in the paperback edition I read and some sections - like the description of the doomed but tedious Madame Roland - could have been cut without doing any damage to character, narrative or atmosphere.So why five stars? Simply because A Place of Greater Safety is such a magnificently imagined account of the French Revolutionary Terror that to give it fewer would be churlish and an injustice. The author takes three principle characters - all of them e [...]

If you want to begin to understand how revolution happens, how individuals get to manipulate the mob, how rioters can be triggered to bring down a government or a monarch, this well researched and beautifully written fictionalised account of the French revolution is a good place to start.

Sigh. Good, but not quite Wolf Hall (though you can see the roots of it, stylistically), and there are just so many people in it I had to put it aside to read the history of the Caucasus, for some clarity and light relief, which tells you something. Back into it now.EDIT: crawling painfully towards the finish. Every word, phrase, paragraph is inspired, but my god, in the whole, it's a drag.EDIT: Halleluja.I really struggled with this (and always develop an irrational antipathy towards books that [...]

This is highly recommended for history buffs. Hilary Mantel is a phenomenal writer. She made me believe she was there and saw. Good stuff.

This book is one of my all-time favorites, and I remain in awe of Mantel for balancing the historical and political elements with telling a darn good story. She deals with an enormous cast of characters (most of which history itself supplied, but she makes them come to life), and her portrayal of Camille and Lucile Desmoulins in particular is utterly captivating--they definitely steal the book. If you don't know much about the French Revolution, you will probably be a bit confused by the plot, b [...]

Very cool history of the French Revolution told in a fictionalized style. The insight of the author into human behavior, and the fullness she gives these vivid yet dry characters from history is amazing! Truly a great book.

This review is an absolute rave about this book. I actually had to knock a couple of other books down out of 5-star ratings because the gap between APoGS and the other books was too wide to be in the same rating group. I picked it up, not knowing (or caring) much about the French Revolution, after enjoying Mantel's Wolf Hall immensely. I now feel I understand a great deal about the revolution, and had a wonderful time getting there. The most compelling part of this book is Mantel's means of stor [...]

This historical novel by Hilary Mantel focuses on three primary figures from the French Revolution – Robespierre, Danton, and Desmoulins. The exploration of their lives, their characters, their interactions, and their historical roles necessarily draws in dozens of other personages, most actually historical, and for the reader familiar with the events of the time the result is a satisfying window into the ambiance of those difficult years.Mantel is a skillful and engaging writer. Her use of me [...]

It is fate of great and prolific authors to be judged by their better or best books. Charles Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge and Hard Times suffer by comparison with David Copperfield and Great Expectations, while Charlotte Bronte’s Villette and Shirley remain ugly literary stepsisters in the seductive company of Miss Jane Eyre. And such is likely to be the fate of Hilary Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety. True, it’s as great and entertaining a novel as has ever been written about the French Rev [...]

Mantel took on a huge challenge with this, her first book, set aside for twenty years before its eventual publication.The questions she asks are: at what moment in the political revolution in France is there no going back and, for her three main characters (Danton, Desmoulins and Robespierre) 'Is there a moment when life changes decisively, where there is absolutely no return to the person you were before, or the conditions as they were.' This leads to a further question: 'how an individual can, [...]

This massive, dense, and complex book is an extremely impressive achievement. Mantel's novel about the French Revolution is a towering yet intimate epic, which, by following three of the most iconic revolutionaries of the era, paints a fascinating portrait not only of multiple men and women living through extraordinary (and intensely dangerous) times, but also of what a revolution truly is - and of what it inevitably becomes. It is a chilly, cautionary tale. This book is unlike ordinary historic [...]

I will review more tomorrow. Just too much. Mantel is amazing. The book was too long. Not as good as her Cromwell cycle, but still, dear GOD can Mantel write and subvert history. I walked away from this book, I think, in love with three enfants terrible of the French Revolution. It really is true, I think, that to know someone is to love them.In someways telling the history of the French revolution is perfect using these three men. It is like Mantel places the ID (Danton), EGO (Desmoulins), and [...]

Propagande anglaise du XVIIIe siècle

Whew.I made it.As with Mantel's other novels, she throws out all the rules for writing a novel and comes up with an astounding result that is uniquely hers. She unapologetically assumes that her readers will already be familiar with the triple threat of the French Revolution and feels free to recreate them in her own style. Camille Desmoulins, Georges-Jacques Danton, and Maximilian Robespierre go from awkward school children to gods of their own making in this epic novel.I saw a lot of Mantel's [...]

French people are strange! Maybe it's the eating the snails. I mean honestly, okay, here in America we eat strange things too. Pickled Pig's Feet, Pickles that are pickled in Kool-Aid, and Twinkies (what is in a twinkie). But the French sure brought head loss to a whole new level. Honestly, I think it was the snails (apparently, according to the Romans, snails fed on meat are too die for).Or maybe the wine.Or maybe it was the fact that the only meat the average French person could have was bug.O [...]

The revolution that cannibalised itself!My edition had 985 pages, and I'm a slow reader, so to have come to the end of this novel in 2.5 weeks has left me feeling a bit shell-shocked. I've decided to give it 3.5★ because although I enjoyed it, I can't imagine ever wanting to re-read it, and that's one of my tests for 4★.Being a huge fan of the Wolf Hall (soon-to-be) trilogy, I was really interested to see how this earlier example of Mantel's epic, speculative, historical fiction compared. My [...]

This book took me an absurdly long time to read, but man, was it worth it. Hilary Mantel's brain is some sort of freakish treasure - every time I read her, I am simultaneously elated by the beautiful things she creates and depressed that I will never be able to write the way she does. She breaks so many rules (constantly changing POV not just between characters, but from first person to an anonymous third, to her own voice, to a script format, back to traditional dialogue, &c.), but it all w [...]

A Place Of Greater Safety is one of the earlier works by Hilary Mantel. It is what those of us from the North might term "a whopper" - all 871 pages of it. It has all of the hallmarks of Mantel's now trademark switching between the protagonists' thoughts and the narrative between them; by the time she wrote Wolf Hall 17 years later she had honed this technique to Booker-winning quality.I expect most French schoolchildren are taught the French Revolution and its aftermath in a great deal of detai [...]

Disclaimer: this novel really, really hurt my hands, it is so heavy.I thought that if I didn't take this on holiday to read before my PhD begins, I would probably wait for years to pass before reading it. I very much enjoy Mantel's work on the whole, and a holiday in France seemed rather a good place in which to read a novel of the French Revolution. Funny, that.I absolutely love the way in which the plot unfolded here, and Mantel's introductions of the different characters. The whole is so well [...]

I don't read a great deal of historical fiction; in fact, I'm struggling to think of any other historical fiction I've read off the top of my head, but that could just be the premature senility. I bought this one because I've been meaning to read some Hilary Mantel for awhile, to see what all the fuss was about, and this book was Audible's book of the day.It's certainly a well written book, exploring the French Revolution on a very human, nuts and bolts level (although there's unavoidably a sign [...]

You get a real sense of Mantel getting into her stride in this novel. It’s not quite as masterful as her Cromwell novels – the prose itself is probably less inspired - but it’s an incredibly accomplished achievement that she brings the main characters of the French Revolution so vividly to life and captures all the excitement and terror of that time. She begins by giving us the childhoods of Georges-Jacques Danton, Camille Desmoulins and Robespierre. This is a tremendously effective way of [...]