A Place of Greater Safety

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A Place of Greater Safety

A Place of Greater Safety

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Price: £6.495
£6.495 FREE Shipping

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While the afterlife is mundane, the real world is re-cast as anarchic purgatory, with night closing in on its “perjured ministers and burnt out paedophiles …” Alison is also haunted by apparitions far more sinister than cardigan-hunting grannies, including her lecherous spirit guide Morris. Dark hints intrude, suggestions of a childhood in which he played some despicable part: a mother who prostituted her own under-aged daughter; feral dogs with a taste for human flesh; a disembodied head floating in the bath. This feels agonisingly literal, but we sense that Mantel intends these vulgar, rampaging demons to stand in also for dislodged fragments of memory, the novel reaching for metaphor to make its point, which is of course about the everyday world, not the spiritual one. We might, it suggests, be just as likely to find hell growing up in a rundown house in Aldershot as anywhere else. I had heard that the Royal Shakespeare Company was going to dramatise Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies and so when, a few months down the line, I got a call asking if I’d like to play Thomas Cromwell I was excited and slightly daunted. That was the beginning of my journey with Cromwell, and also with Hilary Mantel, who I first met in the RSC rehearsal rooms. Having just read her books it really hit home what an incredible piece of work they are. Much, much more than a historical novel, this is an addictive study of power, and the price that must be paid for it...a triumph.’ Cosmopolitan

Jean-Marie Hérault de Séchelles: An young reformist aristocrat and legal dignitary, filthy rich and idle. Later called a "Dantonist". A gambler. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Contrary to the tendency in Anglophone media to focus on the crumbling of "l'Ancien Regime," A Place of Greater Safety is explicitly told through the eyes of the revolutionaries, opting to explore the lives of the previously-unknown men and women who gained fame and infamy in the swells of the Great Revolution. This may be how it was for Madame Guillotine, or it may be the author's detailing, but this happens over and over again.

A tour-de-force of historical imagination, this is the story of three young men at the dawn of the French Revolution. Georges-Jacques Danton: zealous, energetic, debt-ridden. Maximilien Robespierre: small, diligent, and terrified of violence. And Camille Desmoulins: a genius of rhetoric, charming, handsome, but erratic and untrustworthy. Hilary Mantel's gripping account of the cataclysmic events of the French Revolution seen through the eyes of three of its most important figures, George Danton, Camille Desmoulins and Maxime Robespierre. The most engaging moments in Mantel's intriguing new novel occur when the uneducated Irish characters who make up the loutish retinue of ""the Giant, O'Brien"" converse. Perfectly imagining the Continue reading » Mantel’s comments about the Duchess of Cambridge caused unexpected controversy. Photograph: Samir Hussein/WireImage With Carl Prekopp as Camille; Mark Stobbart as Danton; Sam Troughton as Robespierre; Chloe Pirrie as Lucile; Sarah Thom as Gabrielle; Sam Dale as Mirabeau; Alex Tregear as Adele; Jessica Turner as Annette; Stephen Crtichlow as Herault; David Hownslow as Brissot; and Chris Pavlo as Nobleman.

A Place of Greater Safety is a 1992 novel by Hilary Mantel. It concerns the events of the French Revolution, focusing on the lives of Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Maximilien Robespierre from their childhood through the execution of the Dantonists, and also featuring hundreds of other historical figures. Damian Lewis and Claire Foy as King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in BBC2’s Wolf Hall. Photograph: Ed Miller/BBC/Company Productions Ltd If you could take any character from A Place of Greater Safety out to dinner, who would it be and why?Hilary Mantel has soaked herself in the history of the period...and a striking picture emerges of the exhilaration, dynamic energy and stark horror of those fearful days.’ Daily Telegraph Gabrielle Danton: A royalist surrounded my revolutionaries. Willfully naive but principled, and subtler than others give her credit for. Lucile Desmoulins, wife of Camille Desmoulins - a clever and observant woman, much underrated initially, as Desmoulins' first love was her mother and he only married Lucile because Annette/Anne would not consider divorcing her husband. Lucile was in the midst of the group - Robespierre, Danton, Desmoulins, Marat and the many other men who drove the French Revolution with their commitment and foresight.

Crafty tensions, twists and high drama...a bravura display of her endlessly inventive, eerily observant style.’ Times Literary Supplement This is an immensely powerful book, a tour de force, which drew me so into the times that I found it difficult sometimes to relate to my day-to-day 21st century life after a session of listening. Mantel’s triumph is to make us understand – and even like, in a grudging sort of way – this historically unattractive figure. Her meticulous research is lightly worn, unlike the carefully considered fabrics and textures of the courtiers, and her depiction of the many flawed human instruments on which Cromwell plays is sadly convincing. MacFarquhar, Larissa (8 October 2012). "The Dead Are Real: Hilary Mantel's Imagination". The New Yorker . Retrieved 30 December 2020.

In this well-researched book, she draws flesh and blood portraits of the leaders of the revolution and what led them to the events of that stormy time. You feel embedded in it, experiencing what drove them from crisis to crisis and directed their actions. You see their relationships, their trials and their temptations. Although the details have to be surmised, they are based on careful analysis of the writings of the real people involved, drawing out their motivations and beliefs. Yes - the book contains so much historical detail that listening to the whole book again will bring out the bits that I missed the first time around (and just be a great pleasure). I have not studied this period of history and so I found the development of the characters and the way in which the progression of the revolution is described really fascinating. It is notable for being fairly epic in scope while maintaining an intimate tone and character-driven focus, and for averting Hollywood History. It also features vast supporting cast, all of whom are real historical figures. I found the book enthralling, and at times it was difficult to put down. Mantel's ability to infer information about the leaders is very intuitive, and this is the quality which really makes this historical novel great. The only slight downside to the book, but bear in mind this is completely down to personal taste, was that at times I felt that as a reader, one had to pay very close attention to Mantel's writing to fully understand her inferences, making it a book best read when fully awake, and not, perhaps the best choice for a relaxing evening read.

But by 1793, it is Robespierre whose vision comes to dominate. The National Assembly mutates into another legislative body, the National Convention, who begin the unavoidable process of every revolution: the search for ideological purity. In the summer of 1793, they create the Committee for Public Safety, which institutes the death penalty for anyone whose ideas do not match with those of the revolution – a process that is eventually called the Reign of Terror. The Committee is led by Robespierre, who believes that he is the best person to judge who is and isn’t worthy. In Mandel’s taut sequel to Wolf Hall, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn have been married for more than two years, but unable to produce a male heir. Boleyn’s position becomes tenuous—especially with Thomas Continue reading » When they have enough to eat and when the rich and the government stop bribing treacherous tongues and pens to deceive them; when their interests are identified with the people.People are right to be afraid of ghosts. If you get people who are bad in life – I mean, cruel people, dangerous people – why do you think they are going to be any better after they’re dead?” What does Jonathan Keeble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?



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