Citoyenne la traductrice jacobine

It seems it's been a while since I last posted... Not too much interesting has happened since then, unfortunately: mostly I had a lot of work to do. As always, I am a terrible judge of how I will do on tests, as I thought I did fairly well in Statistics but got a 73 (teh fail) and I was sure I made a horrible mess of the Art History test, but I still scraped by with a 91. Go figure. >__<

In other, slightly more interesting news, I am entirely engrossed in Margerit's series of novels on the Revolution (which I've mentionned here before). If they weren't thousands of pages all together I would definitely translate them, because they're brilliant and it's sad that no one has translated them into English before, because they wipe the floor with anything available in this sorry mother tongue of mine. (And I say this despite the fact that, while remaining sympathetic toward Maxime, they don't really qualify as robespierriste. Which, I know, is very strange coming from me, but you'd just have to read them to see what I mean--obviously, no one should just take my word, or anyone else's, on anything.)

Also on the front of novels, a new one on the Revolution has just come out, which I have now, but which I have not yet gotten around to reading, beyond skimming a few of the parts in which Maxime features. It's called Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors. I feel like, as far as pre-reading appreciations of said novel goes, I have to make a bit of a list of pros and cons; at this point the former seem to be winning out, but I'll only be able to say for certain once I've actually read the book. For it so far, the author is originally French, the protagonist's love interest is Coffinhal, who is sympathetically portrayed, and, perhaps because of this, from what I can tell, Maxime is as well (meanwhile, Antoinette is, according to interviews anyway, portrayed decidedly negatively--though any portrayal that doesn't make her out to be a saint might tend to be viewed that way by (too!) many interviews. On the other hand, the protagonist is a ci-devant who appears to be emprisoned during the Terror, which never bodes well. The sources are a mixed bag, but the author's used royet.org and read at least some worthy historians--and as a bonus, she seems to be able to tell a reactionary when she sees one....
...But I'll tell you what I think of it when I've actually read it. >___>

In what little spare time I've had left, I managed to read a rather banal article on what the media are fond to referring to as "costume dramas" (personally, I can't stand the term). Said article commented on the new mini-series on John Adams, remarking that (I'm paraphrasing here): "it's very good, but democracy was not fashionable." My first reaction to this was, understandably, "you're looking at the wrong 'revolution'"... Then of course, I realized they had just referred to Adams as a democrat, which worried me considerably. (This is, incidentally, why I avoid the American press, generally: this is not a aberration, but a rather typical example of the level of knowledge journalists seem to have about the subjects on which they are writing.)
...I did manage to see the first two episodes of said mini-series--all right, so I had a bit more time than I admitted to, though perhaps I should have spent it studying -__-;;--and, much as I hate to admit it, for what it is, it's not bad (so far, anyway; all bets are off once it gets to the 1790s). It's major defect is, unfortunately, an inevitable one: it's told from Adam's point of view. If you do not like Adams, as I most decidedly do not, you might find it's approach irritating, to say the least. But then, you might also think the whole concept of devoting nine hours of air time to John Adams irritating in the first place. But I digress. Essentially, aside from its portraying everyone to the left (I know it's an anachronism, but deal with it) of Adams as demagogic--which, as I've said, is an inevitable result of making a series from Adams' point of view--what I've seen of it is not half bad. I just wish that someone would accord the same treatment to Maxime. *sighs*

Also, this RPG (not the subject matter so much as the portrayal, obviously) frightens me. Exceedingly. Thoughts?

...And I'm afraid the next installment of That Book About Le Bas will have to wait unitl next time (Please do note the last one I posted, by the way--if no one comments it's difficult not to assume no one read it. >__>)