Book Fever
By Marcia Loy

Going to the French Revolution

There are three classes of readers: some enjoy without judgment; others judge without enjoyment; and some there are who judge while they enjoy, and enjoy while they judge. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The French stormed the Bastille in July, and so it seems a fitting time to take a look at some books that deal with the French Revolution.

Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund, 2006. I admit I’m not fond of historical fiction, but this book truly captivated me. Marie Antoinette was 14 years old when she went from Austria to France to marry the 16-year-old future king. The youngest of 13 children of the Empress of Austria, she was naïve, but she tried hard to learn the ways of her adopted country and win the affection of her distant, troubled husband. For a while she succeeded, but events and court intrigue undermined her efforts. Naslund is a gifted writer who obviously did extensive research, and she handles her subject well. 



Excerpt from the beginning: 

Like everyone, I am born naked.

I do not refer to my actual birth, mercifully hidden in the silk folds of memory, but to my birth as a citizen of France—citoyenne, they would say. Having shed all my clothing, I stand in a room on an island in the middle of the Rhine River—naked. My bare feet occupy for this moment a spot considered to be neutral between beloved Austria and France. The sky-blue silk of my discarded skirt wreathes my ankles and I fancy I am standing barefooted in a puddle of pretty water.

An involving, sympathetic book with illuminating details about the queen’s life, from inside her gilded Versailles boudoir to the wooden steps of the executioner’s scaffold. Naslund’s novel, crafted like a Shakespearean tragedy in five acts, gallops to a thrilling denouement despite the fact that the young queen’s fate is well known.—Louisville Courier-Journal


City of Darkness, City of Light by Marge Piercy, 1996. This is another historical novel about the French Revolution, but from a different perspective. Piercy uses six characters, three men and three women who took part in the revolution, and weaves their stories together. The men—Robespierre, Danton and Condorcet—were more famous, but the women played an important part in shaping the revolution. The story begins and ends with Claire Lacombe. The first entry is 1780, the last, 1812.


Excerpt: Claire did not want to live like her mother. She did not want to be a laundress. She did not want to kneel soaking wet in the cold and the raw weather scrubbing bloody sheets until her knuckles were red and swollen. She did not want to go hungry with too many children to fill up with bread. She did not want to give birth to five loud screaming hungry children and two who failed and a stillbirth. Nor did she crave the attentions of the men in the square who called to her as if she were a dog, or the monk pressing against her at the market, or the men who tried to pull her inside when she delivered the laundry. She was tired of the dusty streets of Pamiers where the icy wind blew down from the Pyrénées in the winter and the hot wind scorched them in the summer, where the Ariège rose out of its banks to drown them and mosquitoes swarmed and the young and the old sickened and died.


Piercy’s storytelling powers capture the turbulence and excitement of [this] liberating era.—Boston Herald

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, 1859. With its unforgettable first and last lines, this has long been considered a classic of the era. I read it in high school because I had to. I didn’t like it then. I didn’t like any books I was forced to read. But I re-read it for this column and was surprised to find it an engaging tale, full of suspense and good writing.


Opening lines: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.


Charles Dickens was a marvelous story-teller; his ability to create the high tension of drama reached its fullest expression in A Tale of Two Cities.—From the Publisher’s Preface


La Biblioteca has many books on this period of history. Here are some to consider: In the area of historical fiction, Sandra Gulland has written Mistress of the Sun, published in 2008, about the life of a mistress of Louis XIV, which covers the French court in the period just before Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI. Antonia Fraser has written a nonfiction history called Marie Antoinette: The Journey, and historian Simon Schama has an account of the revolution called Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution.


In August, Book Fever looks at Michael Malone. Happy reading!


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Rare & Collectible Book Sale
Thu, Aug 6 & 13, 10am–1pm
Biblioteca patio
Insurgentes 25
Super-Bodega sale

In August, the Bodega adds a special section of rare and collectible books, valued from 50 pesos to 5,000.

The books are from the many donations the library receives, which enhance the rare book section and boost the regular Bodega offerings. This sale also features new first editions of current popular fiction at 50 pesos. The wise book scout will be waiting outside the main door well before the 10am opening on August 6.

On Thursday, August 13, more volumes will be added to the special section on the Biblioteca patio. This sale provides additional funds for the library. The Bodega de Sorpresas has helped fund the Biblioteca’s scholarship programs for decades through weekly sales of books and other items.