Fatal Purity: Robespierre And the French Revolution

Scurr, Ruth

ISBN 10: 0805079874 / ISBN 13: 9780805079876

Edité par Metropolitan Books, New York, New York, U.S.A., 2006

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*** FREE UPGRADE to Courier/Priority Shipping Upon Request *** *** IN STOCK AND IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR SHIPMENT - FLAWLESS COPY, BRAND NEW, PRISTINE, NEVER OPENED - 432 pages. Book description: "Since his execution by guillotine in July 1794, Maximilien Robespierre has been contested terrain for historians, at once the most notorious leader of the French Revolution and the least comprehensible. Was he a bloodthirsty charlatan or the only true defender of revolutionary ideals? Was his extreme moralism - he was known as "The Incorruptible" - a heroic virtue or a ruinous flaw? Was he the first modern dictator or the earliest democrat? Against the dramatic backdrop of the French Revolution, historian Ruth Scurr follows the trajectory of Robespierre s paradoxical life, from his unprepossessing beginnings as a provincial lawyer opposed to repressive authority and the death penalty, to his meteoric rise in Paris politics as a devastatingly efficient revolutionary leader, righteous and paranoid in equal measure. She explores his reformist zeal, his role in the trial of the king and the fall of the monarchy, his passionate attempt to design a modern republic, even his extraordinary effort to found a perfect religion. And she follows him into the depths of the Terror, as he makes summary execution the order of the day, himself falling victim to the violence at the age of thirty-six. Written with epic sweep, full of nuance and insight, Fatal Purity is a fascinating portrait of a man who identified with the Revolution to the point of madness, and in so doing changed the course of history." -- with a bonus offer--.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Fatal Purity: Robespierre And the French Revolution
• Éditeur: Metropolitan Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
• Date de parution: 2006
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0805079874
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780805079876
• Reliure: Hardcover
• État de l'article: New
• Catalogues du vendeur:
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Synopsis

Book by Scurr Ruth

Revue de presse

"There is a dazzling light of intellect as much as a thunderous darkness of reality in her fine, humanising portrait" (The Times, Ten Best Books of 2006)

"Scurr has an important tale to tell, and she tells it judiciously" (Lucy Hughes-Hallett Sunday Times)

"Ruth Scurr's aim, in this well written first book, is to provide an accessible, up - to date biography that draws on all this work, and represents Robespierre as a human being rather than as a monster of legend. She succeeds impressively" (Munro Price Sunday Telegraph)

"This splendidly balanced account of an unbalanced mind proves that there are monsters of virtue as well as monsters of vice" (Graham Robb Daily Telegraph)

"It is judicious, balanced, and admirably clear at every point....It is quite the calmest and least abusive history of the Revolution you will ever read" (Hilary Mantel London Review of Books)