Product Description

An extraordinary and brilliant work of historical imagination -- this is Mantel's epic novel of the French Revolution. A spellbinding novel which recounts the events between the fall of the Ancient Regime and the peak of the Terror, as seen through the eyes of the French Revolution's three protagonists -- Georges-Jacques Danton, Maximilien Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins, men whose mix of ambition, idealism, and ego helped unleash the darker side of the Revolution's ideals and brought them eventually to their own tragic ends. Critically acclaimed upon first publication, 'A Place of Greater Safety' is one of Mantel's most celebrated works of fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #713 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 880 pages

Review
'One of the best English novels of the 20th century' Diana Athill, Oldie 'Superbly readable![a] richly idiosyncratic fictional history of the French Revolution!an assured and strange masterpiece.' Sunday Telegraph 'I cannot think of a historical novel as good as this until on goes back to Marguerite Yourcenar's "Memoirs of Hadrian", published forty years ago.' Evening Standard 'Marvellous!her great achievement is not just in making these long-dead demagogues live and breathe, but setting them in a brilliantly-realised family context, and surrounding them with vivid womenfolk who question, challenge or endure. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Hilary Mantel captures it all.' Time Out 'Crafty tensions, twists and high drama!a bravura display of her endlessly inventive, eerily observant style' Times Literary Supplement 'An extraordinary and overwhelming novel!immensely detailed and yet fast-moving!she has set herself to capture the excitement and intellectual fervour of the period. She does it admirably!a tour de force.' Scotsman 'Hilary Mantel has soaked herself in the history of the period!and a striking picture emerges of the exhilaration, dynamic energy and stark horror of those fearful days.' Daily Telegraph 'Riveting!the book overflows with a natural storyteller's energy' New Yorker 'Hilary Mantel has soaked herself in the history of the period!and a striking picture emerges of the exhilaration, dynamic energy and stark horror of those fearful days.' Daily Telegraph

About the Author
Hilary Mantel is one of our most important living writers. She is the author of eleven books, including A Place of Greater Safety, Giving Up the Ghost, and, most recently, Beyond Black, which was shortlisted for the 2006 Orange Prize.

Customer Reviews

A compelling story of real and fascinating people
This is a huge and dynamic novel about three makers of the French Revolution. The two more famous men, Danton and Robespierre, are linked by their mutual friend Camille Desmoulins, whose role in history was to make the speech that inflamed the mob to storm the Bastille. The novel shows us a very complex and chaotic revolution, accelerated by many types of people and careering out of anyone's control. It is far from a simple case of the peasants rising up to guillotine the aristocrats.

The three main characters are diverse: Danton the bluff orator, the patriot who expects to make a good living out of the revolution; Robespierre the incorruptible, ruled by logic, who believes that the revolution is an essential reform more important than mere individuals, and the magnetic hell-raiser Camille - brilliant, immature, seductive, amoral, driven. Their wives, lovers, friends and enemies swarm through the book creating a riot of events and ideas.

This is wonderful writing with sparkles of genius: Camille's wife imagines the 'semi-demi-half life' of existence without him; a major character dies leaving a book marked with her place, 'And this is it' - it is twinned with her place as a character in this book, the place she got up to.

Hilary Mantel teases fiction out of history, leaving the imaginary indistinguishable from the facts. Both are compelling and thrilling, from the young Camille's subtle humiliation of his host at a dinner party, as a means of seducing his hostess, to Danton's theft of the French crown jewels for diamonds to bribe the enemy to lose a battle.

The story, written in short fragments from various personal points of view, has a form similar to another great historical novel, 'The Man on a Donkey', but this is faster and races through events with a comprehensively modern air. The complexity of the historical events make it an involved narrative with a great many characters, but for the reader who is willing to be swept along, this is a lasting experience. Have two copies - one to dip into again and again, and one to lend to lucky friends.

A tour de force
Another gripping novel from Hilary Mantell, this book spans the final few decades of the 18th Century in France, describing the fall of the Ancien Regime and the rising tides of revolution through the eyes of three men at the centre of these tumultuous events - Danton, Desmoulins and the infamous Robespierre. Mantell has the great knack of being able to give even the most monstrous of characters a human dimension, and there are few more monstrous than Robespierre, the so-called incorruptible who was finally corrupted by the very pursuit of the vertu that was at the core of his political - and philosophical - beliefs. Mantell creates convincing portrayals of an array of characters, describing scenes of great horror with a sense of detachment that somehow magnifies the revulsion we feel. She skillfully handles an extremely complex period of history, revealing the human heart at the centre these remote events. Danton and Desmoulins are at once sympathetic and flawed, and the woman that loved them are given real voices. A wonderful book.

brilliant!
This is a gripping yet highly literate tale of the Revolution. It is unusual to find an historical novel with such flair, resonance, wit and sheer style. The characterisations of Desmoulins, Danton and Robespierre are vivid, believable and brilliantly done. Robespierre is not someone one can warm to given prior knowledge of his career, yet even he comes across as someone one can, whilst not understand and relate to, at least find some saving grace of humanity in, and that takes some skill! I have read this three times and it reads as well third time out as first. I can really recommend this as something just a little bit different, a real work of class.