A Place of Greater Safety

This novel is a benchmark in historical fiction---comparisons others have made here to Dickens and Tolstoy are not hyperbole. This is a stunning intellectual achievement in its depth of characterization and sheer narrative verve...and, to steal from one of the reviews on the paperback's back cover, all brought off with "Mantel's customary black sparkle." There is a knowingness in this book about human nature which makes nearly everything else I've read lately taste of cardboard. Historicity aside---and it is very good history, if psychohistory of the Shakespearean stripe---the dialogue is so theatrically sharp, you wonder why no one has tried to film this. Short answer: it's probably [and thankfully] unfilmable. There are gems [often drawn from sheer dint of research] any writer would be thrilled to have composed: the schoolboy Robespierre reciting a rote speech to Louis XV's closed carriage in the rain; the midnight meeting between Desmoulins and the Duc d'Orleans; Danton's slow circling of Lucile Desmoulins; the madness of the show trials, with the tumbrils already ordered, awaiting the walking dead. Writers who look their art square in the eye know that they are called to write masterpieces: nothing else matters. This, simply, is one. It will go down as one of the great fictional accomplishments of the 20th century. And while you're at it, read Mantel's autobiography. It's terrifyingly real too: you'll understand where her eerily precise eye for human behaviour first saw practice.

This is quite likely ther greatest historical fiction ever written about the French Revolution.It follows the careers of three of the revolution's architects - Georges Danton, who wants to be rich and famous; Camille Desmoulins, who wants just once in his life to make his father proud of him; and sensitive Robespierre, Camille's school friend who believes there's something wrong with the system but isn't out for blood.Camille is center stage at the storming of the Bastille - a stage he will never quite again regain. Danton becomes involved in the political aftermath, and they drag Robespierre kicking and screaming into the bloodbath that follows.Eventually Danton is softened by the death of his long-suffering wife and Camille is horrified when friends start to go to the guillotine. Robespierre, however, has indeed become the fanatic they wanted to make him. They realize he must be stopped - but with Danton involved in government corruption and Camille seen weeping publicly for a condemned prisoner and emotionally torn between his two friends, it may be too late...The storytelling here is masterful, sympathies wavering from one of the trio to another - an amazing feat considering that the "Citizens" have to be among history's great mass murderers. The book is long, but nothing really could have been left out - the Revolution was this epic in scope. Other historical figures weave in and out of the narrative - an initially stupid and vain but ultimately moving Marie Antoinette; briefly but memorably a harried Lafayette who realizes they are at the brink of something far more horrible than the Revolution's older sister in America but can't change the tide of history by himself; and many others - above all a frightening Marat.Mantel purposely kept Marat a supporting character because he was a bit older than the main characters and thus his story is a bit different than theirs. She hopes to write his story eventually, and I can hardly wait to see the results.

The French Revolution is an obsession of mine, and I've probably read every fictional account of it still in print (and many that are not :)) I can say that beyond a doubt A Place of Greater Safety is the best novel on the subject and, along with Gore Vidal's Burr, probably one of the best historical novels I've read period. The history is accurate (which is an event in and of itself) and the characterization is absolutely brilliant. Mantel gets so close to her characters that she sympathizes with almost every one of them, although Camille will get your heart. The way she can take historical events and imbue them with humor, drama, tragedy, and an intense sympathy with all human striving is absolutely amazing. It's a long read but worth every second of it. I've recommended this book to almost everyone I know, but they often don't get to read it because I can't stay without it for more than a week or two.

I first found this gem when I was a graduate student in London on a random trip through a local bookstore chain. I had never heard of the author, and purchased the book during a spell of summer boredom and because I have degrees in both French and History. It turned out to be an amazingly lucky find.The book's most interesting facet is the view of the interior life of its characters. It does more than fill in the background of events, constructing private coversations between historical figures -- it offers insight and motive (or the lack thereof) for some of the most fascinating people in modern history.I've reread the book several times and been pleased to give it as a gift to more than one friend.

When I reread this superlative book, I am no longer able to finish it, as I am weeping. The characters are all so vivid, so young, so tragically alive. Any aspirations I could have to research and write are humbled.