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Danton, A Life
by David Lawday
One of the Western world's most epic uprisings, the French Revolution ended a monarchy that had ruled for almost a thousand years. George-Jacques Danton was the driving force behind it. In the first biography of Danton in over forty years, David Lawday reveals the larger-than-life figure who joined the fray at the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and was dead five years later.
To hear Danton speak, his booming voice a roll of thunder, excited bourgeois reformers and the street alike; his impassioned speeches, often hours long, drove the sans culottes to action and kept the Revolution alive. But as the newly appointed Minister of Justice, Danton struggled to steer the increasingly divided Revolutionary government. Working tirelessly to halt the bloodshed of Robespierre’s Terror, he ultimately became another of its victims. True to form, Danton did not go easily to the guillotine; at his trial, he defended himself with such vehemence that the tribunal convicted him before he could rally the crowd in his favor.
In vivid, almost novelistic prose, Lawday leads us from Danton’s humble roots to the streets of Revolutionary Paris, where this political legend acted on the stage of the revolution that altered Western civilization.
"Starred Review. This is the best biography of Danton to be written since Hilaire Belloc's over 100 years ago. Both the scholar and the general reader will find this biography an informative and lively read." - Library Journal
"A clear account of one man's failure to recognize the fanged creatures that swim in waves of passion and popularity." - Publishers Weekly
"The author ably assembles a convincing portrait of a man of giant stature, appetite, ability and ego…a clear account of one man’s failure to recognize the fanged creatures that swim in waves of passion and popularity." - Kirkus Reviews
"A gripping story, beautifully told." - The Economist
"Lawday presents an absorbing portrait of a celebrated victim…he viscerally recreates the look and smell of the fevered Paris Danton moved about, setting the mood for the climax to Danton's call for moderation: his execution in 1794. A page-turner for history readers, guaranteed." - Booklist
"David Lawday strides confidently into the fray and brings back a compelling, highly readable, and very timely account of a paradoxical champion of humanity pitted against ideological fanaticism." - David Coward, The Independent (UK)
"Lawday creates some great set pieces and striking turning points…He is able to capture the atmosphere of the early Revolution: its inflammable mix of devilment and righteousness, reckless selflessness and flagrant self-promotion. He sees that Danton was more than the sum of his crimes, the sum of his secrets; he celebrates him, 'large heart and violent impulses in irresolvable conflict'." - Hilary Mantel, The London Review of Books
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