Peasants and townsmen alike were vividly aware that some sort of boundary had been crossed when they burned manorial titles or took their knives to the chicken coop. They reassured themselves that they were enacting a kind of primitive moral law authorized by the National Assembly and the King and which wholly superseded the institutions by which they had been held captive. But not far from the exhilaration of release was the apprehension of punishment. What if they had been led astray?
Thus Simon Schama getting into the heads of his French Citizens as the Great Panic of 1789 descends. And he's wholly convincing, making the middle segments of his wonderful Chronicle of the French Revolution powerfully gripping as you're there with the people as they are bloodily finding themselves. At least, that's true for this reader who has to admit to crossing that line into the sheer heady excitement of violent transgression himself - as a younger man.
I'm finding the book slow reading for the best of reasons - the pleasure of soaking in the details and relishing the sense of illumination and understanding of the world so vividly evoked.
No comments:
Post a Comment