but nobody would be so crazy as to suggest his alleged sluttiness and need for money was him trying to compensate for his poor self-esteem due to looking like the back end of a bus May I just take a moment to applaud the hilarious awesomeness of this turn of phrase?
You're right, of course: even if Éléonore had been ugly, it might well be beside the point. At all events, as I said, I've never seen a primary source that commented on her looks, for good or ill, so what modern authors decide about them can be revealing. (There was one godawful history of the Revolution that referred to her as something along the lines of "Robespierre's fat mistress." Go figure.)
The "âme virile" quote comes from Esquiros's Histoire des Montagnards. Esquiros interviewed Élisabeth Le Bas rather extensively, but I certainly wouldn't exclude the possibility that he just made it up. However, I happen to like it, even if I wouldn't give necessarily give it out as genuine, for obvious reasons.
I had the feeling I was reading bad fanfiction when I was going on with the awful characterisation of bi!Camille and the gratuitous abuse of Éléonore is really not helping matters. Maybe PoGS would have been more entertaining if she had gone through with it. Though I have a sneaking suspicion she would have ruined that too. Bad fanfiction can ruin the best conceits, after all, and Robespierre/Camille is always a bit dubious, at best.
I really don't know who listens to him. I have this theory that people don't actually read his books; they just buy them so they can look "intelligent."
I think half the reason I dislike psychoanalytical approaches to history is that I could sit around and write crack theories on history all day - why should these guys get paid for it? There is, unfortunately, no concept of "should" in the publishing industry, that's why.
I've only read summaries of Gallo it has to be said Gallo's not a bad sort (though I could do without his Gaulliste politics), he's just really a historical novelist at heart. I think I saw him described somewhere as a latter-day Alexandre Dumas, and I believe it. His problem is that he crafts Robespierre into a character in a romantic historical novel, instead of writing a biography of him.
I think Robespierre is remarkably sane I agree. Despairing, at the end - and at points in between - yes, insane, no. In fact, one might well say that an excess of lucidity was the cause of that despair.
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regna
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Date: Friday, 9 July 2010 07:49 (UTC)May I just take a moment to applaud the hilarious awesomeness of this turn of phrase?
You're right, of course: even if Éléonore had been ugly, it might well be beside the point. At all events, as I said, I've never seen a primary source that commented on her looks, for good or ill, so what modern authors decide about them can be revealing. (There was one godawful history of the Revolution that referred to her as something along the lines of "Robespierre's fat mistress." Go figure.)
The "âme virile" quote comes from Esquiros's Histoire des Montagnards. Esquiros interviewed Élisabeth Le Bas rather extensively, but I certainly wouldn't exclude the possibility that he just made it up. However, I happen to like it, even if I wouldn't give necessarily give it out as genuine, for obvious reasons.
I had the feeling I was reading bad fanfiction when I was going on with the awful characterisation of bi!Camille and the gratuitous abuse of Éléonore is really not helping matters.
Maybe PoGS would have been more entertaining if she had gone through with it. Though I have a sneaking suspicion she would have ruined that too. Bad fanfiction can ruin the best conceits, after all, and Robespierre/Camille is always a bit dubious, at best.
I really don't know who listens to him.
I have this theory that people don't actually read his books; they just buy them so they can look "intelligent."
I think half the reason I dislike psychoanalytical approaches to history is that I could sit around and write crack theories on history all day - why should these guys get paid for it?
There is, unfortunately, no concept of "should" in the publishing industry, that's why.
I've only read summaries of Gallo it has to be said
Gallo's not a bad sort (though I could do without his Gaulliste politics), he's just really a historical novelist at heart. I think I saw him described somewhere as a latter-day Alexandre Dumas, and I believe it. His problem is that he crafts Robespierre into a character in a romantic historical novel, instead of writing a biography of him.
I think Robespierre is remarkably sane
I agree. Despairing, at the end - and at points in between - yes, insane, no. In fact, one might well say that an excess of lucidity was the cause of that despair.