A Place of Greater Safety

Book Description

Critics

• Book Of A Lifetime: A Place of Greater Safety, By Hilary Mantel

  The biggest fight I've ever had with my mum was over this book. It was the summer I turned 17, and my family were spending a fortnight in the Dordogne. I remember very little about that holiday. I have to phone my mum to ask the name of the nearest b ... (read full critics)

  independent published on Fri, 18 Feb 2011

• Falling for Desmoulins

  When Sarah Orne Jewett sent her friend Henry James a copy of her latest work, a historical novel entitled The Tory Lover, he told her it would take a very long letter to ‘disembroil the tangle’ of how much he appreciated the gift of this ‘ingenious e ... (read full critics)

  lrb published on Mon, 6 Sep 2010

2 Reviews

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  Blood, treachery, death, and disaster!

  I was absorbed by this novel right from the first page. The episode of the Revolution is a confusing period in French history by any standard, and difficult to get to grips with, as it covers a considerable number of years. Hilary Mantel introduces the reader to the unfolding of this dramatic, blood ... (continue)

  I was absorbed by this novel right from the first page. The episode of the Revolution is a confusing period in French history by any standard, and difficult to get to grips with, as it covers a considerable number of years. Hilary Mantel introduces the reader to the unfolding of this dramatic, bloody, and seemingly senseless epoch in French history slowly and gradually. The story starts in 1763 - well before there is any hint of revolution - and we meet some of the characters who will eventually play a major part in the drama of death and destruction. French society, slowly but surely, undergoes an upheaval not experienced before. All are affected - the poor, the religious elite, the aristocrats, and the monarchy. Mantel engages our minds and hearts as she describes in wonderful detail the initial plans of the early revolutionists, and how it all goes so very wrong!

  The major problem in the French Revolution, and seems to be the case with all revolutions, turned out to be the revolutionists themselves. They were not perfect - how clearly Mantel exhibits her characters initial dreams and aspirations - and distinctly it was their imperfections that eventually ruined their cause. It is so irritating, heart-breaking, even, (one wants to shout out - to intervene) to see the total lunacy of some of the leading revolutionaries ordering the death of their erstwhile comrades. Mantel deftly sketches the picture for us as with bated breath we wait for the picture to be completed; then, when it is finished, we wish it could be scrapped and started again. The final chapter Conditional Absolution (1794) is for me the most exciting.

  A wonderful read! I found it difficult to put it down!

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  GraJon said on May 4, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  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.

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  Top of the pile said on Aug 22, 2011 | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
  (8)
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• English Books
• Paperback 768 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0312426399
• ISBN-13: 9780312426392
• Publisher: Picador
• Pub date: Nov 14, 2006
• Dimensions: 1355 mm x 903 mm x 258 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Hardcover

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