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Ruth Scurr offers a substantial introduction to Carlyle and his
masterwork, followed by a series of carefully selected extracts. In
1837 Thomas Carlyle published his two-volume work "The French
Revolution: A History" and overnight became a celebrity. The work
was filled with a passionate intensity, hitherto unknown in
historical writing. In a politically charged Europe, filled with
fears and hopes of revolution, Carlyle's account of the motivations
and urges that inspired the events in France, became powerfully
relevant. Carlyle's style emphasised this, continually pointing to
the urgency of action - often using the present tense. For him,
chaotic events demanded 'heroes' to take control over the competing
forces erupting within society. In Carlyle's view only dynamic
individuals could master events and direct these energies
effectively. As soon as ideological formulas replaced heroes and
human action society became dehumanised. As Dr Scurr shows in her
masterly introduction and through the texts she has selected from
Carlyle's masterpiece of historical writing, "The French
Revolution" needs still to be read for its relevance and as one of
the finest examples of English prose writing ever. "Continuum
Histories" will attract a new generation of readers to some of the
greatest narrative history ever written. Each volume includes a
dramatic episode from a major work of history, prefaced with an
introduction by a leading modern authority.
'Glorious... Scurr is one of the most gifted non-fiction writers
alive' Simon Schama, Financial Times A revelatory portrait of
Napoleon written for our own time, exploring his love of nature and
the gardens that gave his revolutionary life its light and shade.
Napoleon's gardens range from his childhood olive groves in
Corsica, to Josephine's menageries in Paris, to the walled garden
of Hougoumont at the battle of Waterloo, and ultimately to St
Helena, where he could sit and scan the sea in his final months. In
this innovative biography, Ruth Scurr follows the dramatic
trajectory of Napoleon's life through the land he cultivated and
that offered him retreat from the manifold frustrations of war and
politics. Seen through the eyes of those who knew him in the shade
of his gardens, Napoleon emerges a giant figure made human - both
as the Emperor hunting for glory and the man in an old straw hat,
leaning on his spade. 'Immensely satisfying and captivating...
Charming and intelligent' Andrew Roberts, TLS 'Grippingly original'
The Times 'A delight to read' Daily Telegraph * A Book of the Year
in The Times, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times,
Sunday Telegraph and History Today * Winner of a Society for
Military History Distinguished Book Award 2022
"Judicious, balanced, and admirably clear at every point. This is
quite the calmest and least abusive history of the Revolution you
will ever read."
--Hilary Mantel, London Review of Books
Since his execution by guillotine in July 1794, Maximilien
Robespierre has been contested terrain for historians. Was he a
bloodthirsty charlatan or the only true defender of revolutionary
ideals? The first modern dictator or the earliest democrat? Was his
extreme moralism a heroic virtue or a ruinous flaw?
Against the dramatic backdrop of the French Revolution, historian
Ruth Scurr tracks Robespierre's evolution from provincial lawyer to
devastatingly efficient revolutionary leader, righteous and
paranoid in equal measure. She explores his reformist zeal, his
role in the fall of the monarchy, his passionate attempts to design
a modern republic, even his extraordinary effort to found a perfect
religion. And she follows him into the Terror, as the former death-
penalty opponent makes summary execution the order of the day,
himself falling victim to the violence at the age of thirty-six.
Written with epic sweep, full of nuance and insight, "Fatal Purity"
is a fascinating portrait of a man who identified with the
Revolution to the point of madness, and in so doing changed the
course of history.
'A truly remarkable writer, one of the most gifted non-fiction
authors alive' Simon Schama, Financial Times Robespierre was only
thirty-six when he died, sent to the guillotine where he had sent
thousands ahead of him. Robespierre and the Revolution were
inseparable: a single inflexible tyrant. But what turned a shy
young lawyer into the living embodiment of the Terror at its most
violent? Admirers called him 'the great incorruptible'; critics
dubbed him a 'monster', a 'bloodthirsty charlatan'. Ruth Scurr
sheds new light on this puzzle, tracing Robespierre's life from a
troubled childhood in provincial Arras to the passionate idealist,
fighting for the rights of the people, and sweeping on to the
implacable leader prepared to sign the death warrant for his
closest friends.
'A truly remarkable writer, one of the most gifted non-fiction
authors alive' Simon Schama, Financial Times SHORTLISTED FOR THE
2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD This is the autobiography that John
Aubrey never wrote. You may not know his name. Aubrey was a modest
man, a gentleman-scholar who cared far more for the preservation of
history than for his own legacy. But he was a passionate collector,
an early archaeologist and the inventor of modern biography. With
all the wit, charm and originality that characterises her subject,
Ruth Scurr has seamlessly stitched together John Aubrey's own words
to tell his life story and a captivating history of
seventeenth-century England unlike any other. 'A game-changer in
the world of biography' Mary Beard 'Ingenious' Hilary Mantel
'Irresistible' Philip Pullman
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