Words of Fire, Deeds of Blood: The Mob, the Monarchy, and the French Revolution - Historical Book on 18th Century France for Students & History Enthusiasts - Perfect for Research, Book Clubs & Academic Studies

Olivier Bernier is a master of narrative and a flawlessly thorough scholar. A Frenchman who has lived in N. America most of his life, Bernier has many superb books to his credit that deal with the Ancien Regime and the 18th Century. But in this oeuvre he has probably outdone himself. In his animated but well documented account, Bernier takes us on a very bouncy ride,indeed! His narrative plunges the reader right in the thick of the turbulence in Paris during the Summer of 1789. Leading the reader along to the point where the Royal Family attempts its botched-up escape in 1791, Bernier, than loops back to the background of Louis XVI's reign, the disasterous influence of Marie Antoinette and the growing financial crisis that led to Necker's recall and the convocation of the Etats-Generaux...Bernier then seamlessly resumes his history with the ill-fated flight and capture of the Royal Family at Varennes, their humiliating return to Paris, the Constitution of 1791, the eventual abolition of the Monarchy and the deaths of the King & Queen. What Bernier has essentially done is present his history of events in a conceptual order rather than a chronological one...Still, he has wovern the fabric of his narrative so masterfully that there is scarcely a snag! The novice and the scholar will be enriched by this book. In it, Bernier also says things that were always evident, but that made historians uncomfortable. He asserts, with good reason, that much of the extremes of the Revolution that lead to the end of the Monarchy, could have been avoided if Marie Antoinette and her circle had been noticeably more welcoming to the deputies of the National Assmbly and their wives by recieving them socially and allowing the women of the rising third estate positions at court...Bernier's authority is only matched by his talents as writer... Certainly a rare and valuable combination!