A Place of Greater Safety A Novel

It is 1789, and three young provincials have come to Paris to make their way. Georges-Jacques Danton, an ambitious young lawyer, is energetic, pragmatic, debt-ridden--and hugely but erotically ugly. Maximilien Robespierre, also a lawyer, is slight, diligent, and terrified of violence. His dearest friend, Camille Desmoulins, is a conspirator and pamphleteer of genius. A charming gadfly, erratic and untrustworthy, bisexual and beautiful, Camille is obsessed by one woman and engaged to marry another, her daughter. In the swells of revolution, they each taste the addictive delights of power, and the price that must be paid for it. Hilary Mantelhas written nine novels including, most recently,Beyond Blackand a highly acclaimed memoir,Giving Up the Ghost. She lives with her husband in England. It is 1789, and three young provincials have come to Paris to make their way. Georges-Jacques Danton, an ambitious young lawyer, is energetic, pragmatic, debt-riddenand hugely but erotically ugly. Maximilien Robespierre, also a lawyer, is slight, diligent, and terrified of violence. His dearest friend, Camille Desmoulins, is a conspirator and pamphleteer of genius. A charming gadfly, erratic and untrustworthy, bisexual and beautiful, Camille is obsessed by one woman and engaged to marry another, her daughter. In the swells of revolution, they each taste the addictive delights of power, and the price that must be paid for it. "Mantel's writing is so exact and brilliant that, in itself, it seems an act of survival, even redemption."Joan Acocella,The New Yorker "Brilliant, edgy historical fiction that captures the whiplash flux of the French Revolution with crisp immediacy on the page."The Seattle Times "The turmoil of the French Revolution provides the setting for Mantel's American debut, an encompassing historical novel. The principal protagonistsRobespierre, Desmoulins, and Dantonare portrayed in depth as real people, from their troubled childhoods through their downfalls. Interspersed with their stories are the lesser dramas being enacted in this turbulent era, including the loves, rivalries, successes, and despair of the many participants. The author does a commendable job of presenting the metamorphosis of the revolution from its tenuous, fledgling state to the bloodbath of the Reign of Terror, which ultimately turned on its own. . . . this novel is for serious readers of the genre."Maria A. Perez-Stable, Western Michigan University Libraries, Kalamazoo,Library Journal "An epic of extraordinary detail and depth . . . [it] moves beyond the realm of an absorbing yarn into the arena of a literary masterpiece."Booklist "British novelist Mantel weighs in with her American debut: a massively impressive, painstakingly detailed saga of the French Revolution as its leaders lived it. Citizens Danton, Desmoulins, and Robespierre are the primary figures in this historical epic, as each moves from provincial beginnings to Paris and a larger-than-life status in the heady days of revolutionary fervor and terrible excess. Lawyers all, their inclinations and positions allow them to step into roles for which they are well-suited: Danton as the manly, vainglorious hero, as committed and bold as he is self-interested; Robespierre as the tireless conscience of the Revolution, reluctant to accept the power thrust upon him but with an ascetic temperament that brooks no compromises with lesser mortals when he does; and Desmoulins, the go-between, flamboyant and inflammatory, devoted to his friends and sexually ambivalent. Each man moves to his separate but equal destiny through a rich field of characters and images, with wives and family members, sans-culot

Hilary Mantel has written nine novels including, most recently, Beyond Black and a highly acclaimed memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. She lives with her husband in England.