The Fall of Robespierre: 24 Hours in Revolutionary Paris

by Colin Jones

Overview

The day of 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794) is universally acknowledged as a major turning-point in the history of the French Revolution. At 12.00 midnight, Maximilien Robespierre, the most prominent member of the Committee of Public Safety which had for more than a year directed the Reign of Terror, was planning to destroy one of the most dangerous plots that the Revolution had faced.

By 12.00 midnight at the close of the day, following a day of uncertainty, surprises, upsets and reverses, his world had been turned upside down. He was an outlaw, on the run, and himself wanted for conspiracy against the Republic. He felt that his whole life and his Revolutionary career were drawing to an end. As indeed they were. He shot himself shortly afterwards. Half-dead, the guillotine finished him off in grisly fashion the next day.

The Fall of Robespierre provides an hour-by-hour analysis of these 24 hours.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198715955
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2021
Pages:	592
Sales rank:	649,937
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.10(d)

About the Author

Colin Jones, Emeritus Professor of Cultural History, Queen Mary University of London

Colin Jones CBE is Emeritus Professor of Cultural History at Queen Mary University of London. He has published widely on French history, particularly on the eighteenth century, the French Revolution, and the history of medicine. His many books include The Medical World of Early Modern France (with Lawrence Brockliss, 1997), The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon (2002), Paris: Biography of a City (2004), The Smile Revolution: In Eighteenth-Century Paris (2014), and Versailles (2018). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and Past President, Royal Historical Society.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE UP CLOSEPRELUDE: AROUND MIDNIGHTPART 1: ELEMENTS OF CONSPIRACY (Midnight to 05.00 a.m.)PART 2: SETTINGS FOR A DRAMA (5.00 a.m. to Midday)PART 3: A PARLIAMENTARY COUP (Midday to 5.00 p.m.)PART 4: A PARISIAN JOURNÉE (5.00 p.m. to Midnight)PART 5: AT MIDNIGHT, AROUND MIDNIGHT, AFTER MIDNIGHTAFTERWORD: 9 THERMIDOR FROM AFARNOTESLIST OF CHARACTERSNOTE ON SOURCESBIBLIOGRAPHY AND PRINTED SOURCESINDEX

Editorial Reviews

"In this admirable account, Jones meticulously reconstructs the day on an hour-by-hour basis, criss-crossing the city as he does so to convey how revolutions messily unfold." — 'The best new paperbacks for July 2023', The Times

"The Historian Colin Jones has a gift for examining events afresh." — New Statesman

"Behind the books general reader-friendly narrative structure, academics will find historical virtuosity on display." — Katie Jarvis, The English Historical Review

"This is a remarkable, barnstorming doorstop of a book." — David Andress, French History

"Colin Jones's micro-history can be fundamental reading." — Timothy Tackett, University of California, Irvine, Journal of Modern History

From the Publisher

From the reports of government functionaries, soldiers, and spies to the diaries and letters of private citizens of all political beliefs, Jones shows how turbulence, confusion and contingency shaped each moment of that day.”

London Review of Books

”Jones brings the French Revolution to life in all its color and horror… Above all he is brilliant on the psychological twists of politics, which would cost Robespierre his life.”

The Times (London)

Vital, incisive, revelatory…It takes us to the place, to the instant, to the heartbeat of revolution in the making.”

#1 New York Times bestselling author Hilary Mantel

A single historical day gathers force and immediacy with Sasha Higgins’s passionate delivery…Higgins’s ease and command of French flavor the narrative and…her feel for the material, for the period, and its essential vocabulary and spirit is matchless.”

AudioFile

One can almost hear the ticking of the clock, minute by minute, second by second, counting down to the guillotine.”

History Today

This hour-by-hour reconstruction of a single historical day gathers force and immediacy with Sasha Higgins’s passionate delivery. On July 28, 1794, a spontaneous uprising overthrew Maximilien Robespierre, the French Revolution’s most radical leader, and the next day he followed so many of his opponents to the guillotine. Thus ended the Revolution. This momentous day becomes a prism for surveying the entire revolution, and the detail is quite impressive—but for many listeners it will be quite overwhelming. Higgins’s ease and command of French flavor the narrative and capture much of the spirit of the age. Her English is perhaps too richly British, her pace a bit too measured. But her feel for the material, for the period and its essential vocabulary and spirit, is matchless. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

This hour-by-hour reconstruction of a single historical day gathers force and immediacy with Sasha Higgins’s passionate delivery. On July 28, 1794, a spontaneous uprising overthrew Maximilien Robespierre, the French Revolution’s most radical leader, and the next day he followed so many of his opponents to the guillotine. Thus ended the Revolution. This momentous day becomes a prism for surveying the entire revolution, and the detail is quite impressive—but for many listeners it will be quite overwhelming. Higgins’s ease and command of French flavor the narrative and capture much of the spirit of the age. Her English is perhaps too richly British, her pace a bit too measured. But her feel for the material, for the period and its essential vocabulary and spirit, is matchless. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile