Stirring Stuff

I was reading Simon Schama’s stirring account of the Citizens involved in the French Revolution fitfully back in mid-December, but broke off on arrival in Singapore to resume familiarizing myself with the horrors of Stalingrad. Truth to tell, the first 250 pages or so of Schama’s work, with their emphasis on the economic troubles of France under Louis XV and Louis XVI, are fascinating but demanding for a reader like myself with, at best, a rudimentary grasp of how economies work (or don’t, in this case.)

But I’m back on track now with the genuinely gripping parts of this Chronicle of the French Revolution. If a reader isn’t stirred by the fall of the Bastille there’s no hope for them – even if that fall is rendered in less than heroic terms.