Reviews - A Place of Greater Safety

389 reviews for:

A Place of Greater Safety

Hilary Mantel

4.08 AVERAGE

mvalat01's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

sloatsj's review against another edition

5.0

Warning: I don't add spoilers to history or historical fiction. Everyone dies! Look it up!

That the French Revolution happened seems amazing, more astounding than the American Revolution (colonies revolting against a distant king seems rather predictable). It’s no easy feat to topple a monarchy. You need well-placed folks with charisma and a savvy outreach program.

"A Place of Greater Safety" follows three key figures of the revolution from childhood to the guillotine (though one ekes out a few more months). There’s the macho Danton, the dashing bisexual Camille Desmoulins, and the idealistic ascetic Robespierre. There’s also Camille’s sympathetic wife Lucile and her mother Annette, Marat, known to me before this book only for dying in a bathtub, and the jerk with the great name, Saint-Just. There are plenty of bad guys but the consolation is that pretty much that the guillotine comes down on everyone at some point. Adieu!

There are many many other characters. It was hard to keep track of who was who, especially since I entered knowing very little about the French Revolution. The guys whose names began with H were pretty much “the guys whose names begin with H.” Luckily there’s a list of characters at the beginning, though it’s not Hugely useful. A more diligent reader would have taken notes. I resorted to secondary sources and the Revolutions podcast series. Build yourself a little scaffold of background and you’ll get through this just fine.

Two interesting things I learned: 1) I hadn’t realised the French were the Euro champions of waving heads around on pikes. Whoa. As brutal and primitive as it gets! Nothing to be proud of, that.

2) This isn’t really covered in the book, it’s just assumed you know (I didn’t), but the revolution created its own calendar with the months renamed and the weeks rejigged and it was really quite marvelous, if evocative of North Korea. It might help you forget those heads thrust onto pikes.

I admire Mantel’s writing. Of course she’s imagining most of this based on the particulars of people’s lives and the events of the revolution. But she does make it lively. She does breathe into it. Her story is very much character-based. Camille is so quick-witted. You can see clearly what each character lacks. The end scene at the guillotine is excellent. Then there’s the very last scene, recalling Robespierre’s childhood, and comparing reimagining history through fiction to tatting:

One day, a long time ago, his mother sat by window, making lace. The broad morning light streamed in on both of them. He saw it was the gaps that were important, the spaces between the threads which made the pattern, and not the threads themselves. ‘Show me how to do it,’ he said. ‘I want to learn.’
‘Boys don’t do it,’ she said. Her face was composed; her work continued. His throat closed at the exclusion.
Now, whenever he looks at a piece of lace —even though his eyes are bad— he seems to see every thread in the work.

I really enjoyed this and think it’s almost as good as Mantel’s Wolf Hall, but not quite. Maybe if she’d split this dense book in two …? Or three…? It really is quite long, and there are plenty of gaps not yet filled in.

arams2810's review against another edition

1.0

have i actually read this book? non.
do i have a desire too? non.

i have honestly heard nothing but bad reviews on this book. it infantilizes camille desmoulins, it doesn't portray lucile desmoulins, saint-just, or gabrielle danton accurately; honestly it treats all the women and sj like complete shit. not to mention the fact that it advertises lgbtq+ people as being prevalent in the book, but their lgbtq+ ness is often not mentioned. and there was a sex scene with robespierre, which, mind you, was probably asexual. why was he engaging in sex then? and camille desmoulins (and lucile desmoulins but thats up for debate) were probably bisexual, and you don't see any of this in the book. smh. if you don't like history, go ahead & read this book, as it probably won't bother you. i advise any history addicts like myself to stay clear.