Simon Schama is holding me tightly in his narrative grip as he unfolds his Chronicle of the French Revolution. I mean, I knew from its reputation that Citizens is a superb book, (though I'm also aware that some historians disapprove of its lurid retelling of events) but I really didn't expect it to be so riveting, and this in telling a story I already know the broad outlines of. Ever since he reached the later part of 1789, his compelling understanding of what fueled the appalling violence, and his graphic outline of the grim realities of the horrors involved in the revolution, has reminded me in an odd way of the very best of Stephen King.
I'm now wading through the blood spilt in the September massacres of 1791 and rather wish I wasn't. Though, paradoxically, I can't look away. One sign of which is that I'm reading every paragraph twice just to try and take it all in.
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