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A review by angelqueen04
The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered by Laura Auricchio
3.0
As we sat together on the wooden pew [...], I posed the question that had been on my mind for three years. Would she agree, I asked, that Lafayette is not widely admired in France? Yes, she said. Only Americans visit his grave, and an American flag flies over it. I paused and asked if she had any idea why. She thought for a moment, then gestured to the names on the walls. "The French Revolution was a complicated time," she said, "and Lafayette was a complicated man. People like simple stories; simple stories get remembered. Lafayette's story isn't simple."
I think this passage sums up quite nicely the entirety of this book. While Lafayette is remembered with love and fondness in the United States (his reputation most recently having been revived thanks to the sensation that is Hamilton), his legacy in the greater part of French history is much more complex and nuanced. Laura Auriccho does attempt to, well, "reconsider" the man, seeking to examine Lafayette's actions within the political sphere, to understand the essence of his character and what drove him.
However, while she does shed light on much of Lafayette's life, I still felt that it was an incomplete picture. Little is done to explore Lafayette's relationships with others, and how they impacted and shaped him and his actions. I will say that Lafayette's relationship with George Washington is threaded through the biography, portraying how it began and evolved over the years, but others are not afforded the same treatment. His wife, Adrienne, for the most part, seems to exist within the biography merely for Lafayette to write letters to. Only during the period of the Reign of Terror does she receive much attention, from her arrest and sufferings during that time (her mother, sister, and grandmother all executed on the same day), to her miraculous release and prompt decision to march into Austria to join Lafayette in prison, setting the stage for Lafayette's allies to campaign vigorously for his release (the woman essentially stares down an Emperor). But after that, she promptly falls back to being a bit character in Lafayette's story. Even her death is only afforded a single line. It is the same with his mistresses. The incidents involving them are only afforded a few brief pages. Auricchio even comments that Madame de Simiane "remained [...] one of [Lafayette's] closest confidantes for many decades to come." We then never hear another peep about her and how she remained one of his "confidantes".
While I was pleased to gain a better understanding of Lafayette's life, particularly his involvement in the French Revolution, I still felt that there was more to tell, more threads to weave in, and in the end, I felt that we still didn't have the entire story. Still, it is a complicated story of a complicated man, and there are many other sources to puzzle out all of the other pieces of that story.
I think this passage sums up quite nicely the entirety of this book. While Lafayette is remembered with love and fondness in the United States (his reputation most recently having been revived thanks to the sensation that is Hamilton), his legacy in the greater part of French history is much more complex and nuanced. Laura Auriccho does attempt to, well, "reconsider" the man, seeking to examine Lafayette's actions within the political sphere, to understand the essence of his character and what drove him.
However, while she does shed light on much of Lafayette's life, I still felt that it was an incomplete picture. Little is done to explore Lafayette's relationships with others, and how they impacted and shaped him and his actions. I will say that Lafayette's relationship with George Washington is threaded through the biography, portraying how it began and evolved over the years, but others are not afforded the same treatment. His wife, Adrienne, for the most part, seems to exist within the biography merely for Lafayette to write letters to. Only during the period of the Reign of Terror does she receive much attention, from her arrest and sufferings during that time (her mother, sister, and grandmother all executed on the same day), to her miraculous release and prompt decision to march into Austria to join Lafayette in prison, setting the stage for Lafayette's allies to campaign vigorously for his release (the woman essentially stares down an Emperor). But after that, she promptly falls back to being a bit character in Lafayette's story. Even her death is only afforded a single line. It is the same with his mistresses. The incidents involving them are only afforded a few brief pages. Auricchio even comments that Madame de Simiane "remained [...] one of [Lafayette's] closest confidantes for many decades to come." We then never hear another peep about her and how she remained one of his "confidantes".
While I was pleased to gain a better understanding of Lafayette's life, particularly his involvement in the French Revolution, I still felt that there was more to tell, more threads to weave in, and in the end, I felt that we still didn't have the entire story. Still, it is a complicated story of a complicated man, and there are many other sources to puzzle out all of the other pieces of that story.