Biographies & Memoirs

Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution

Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution

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.

Map of Revolutionary Paris

Chronology

Preface

Introduction

Part I: Before the Revolution (1758–1788)

Chapter 1: Child of Arras

Chapter 2: The Lawyer-Poet Back Home

Part II: The Revolution Begins (1788–1789)

Chapter 3: Standing for Election in Arras

Chapter 4: Representing the Nation at Versailles

Part III: Reconstituting France (1789–1791)

Chapter 5: The National Assembly in Paris

Chapter 6: The Constitution

Part IV: The Constitution Fails (1791–1792)

Chapter 7: War

Chapter 8: The King’s Trial

Part V: The Terror (1793–1794)

Chapter 9: The Pact with Violence

Chapter 10: Robespierre’s Red Summer

Coda

Picture Section

Notes

Bibliography

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