Declare Books In Pursuance Of A Place of Greater Safety
| Original Title: | A Place of Greater Safety |
| ISBN: | 0312426399 (ISBN13: 9780312426392) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Marie Antoinette, Jean Paul Marat, Maximilien Robespierre, Louis XVI of France, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, Antoine Barnave, Madame Roland, Camille Desmoulins, Georges-Jaques Danton, Fabre d'Englatine, Jacques René Hébert, Anne Théroigne, Lucile Duplessis, Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans |
| Setting: | France |
| Literary Awards: | Sunday Express Book of the Year (1992) |
Hilary Mantel
Paperback | Pages: 749 pages Rating: 3.96 | 7177 Users | 928 Reviews
Narration Supposing Books A Place of Greater Safety
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-talking mouths of Danton, Desmoulins and Johnny (they call me Mr Terror) Robespierre but all these grand revolutionaries seem to be on Prozac, perpetually polite, never agitated - they're the world's most unagitated agitators - all the dialogue (and there is a real lot) is slightly oblique, brittle but never witty, like it was written by Oscar Wilde's little-known Asperger-Syndrome brother, the zillion secondary characters swarming around the three main ones are totally confusing, the main issues thrown up by the events of the revolution are rarely alluded to and really the whole complex edifice made me want to watch Terminator 2 again because with T2 you know what the issues are, you know that Arnie is a cyborg sent back in time to protect John Connor and you know the T-1000, a superior machine, has been sent back to kill him and you know these two mothers have this giant knock down drag-out for two hours and Arnie has to win otherwise the entire future of the very human race will be aswirling down the cosmic sump of time so biff bang clang and squish.... I think Hilary Mantel could have learned a few things from T2. Like action, humour and a clear understanding of what's really at stake.
Particularize Epithetical Books A Place of Greater Safety
| Title | : | A Place of Greater Safety |
| Author | : | Hilary Mantel |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 749 pages |
| Published | : | November 14th 2006 by Picador (first published 1992) |
| Categories | : | Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. Cultural. France. European History. French Revolution |
Rating Epithetical Books A Place of Greater Safety
Ratings: 3.96 From 7177 Users | 928 ReviewsRate Epithetical Books A Place of Greater Safety
"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 hasVery 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.
As Hilary Mantel states in the authors 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 isnt 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 ideologue, Maximilien
My first successful fictional audio book. The narrator Jonathsn Keeble, is I thought, fantastic. I actually listened and read this, following along with the narration. The book itself, concentrated on three prominent figures of the French Revolution, was witty, informative, if not quite historically accurate, though certain events were. Centering on the lives of three let the reader enter their thoughts, actions and personal lives. Mantel has a way with words, wringing out of them, both the
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 Brontes 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 Mantels A Place of Greater Safety. True, its as great and entertaining a novel as has ever been written about the French Revolution, not
Very!
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