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Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution Kindle Edition

by Ruth Scurr (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 396 ratings

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"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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The short, violent life of Maximilien Robespierre was a mass of contradictions crowned with a supreme irony: this architect of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror would in July 1794 be executed by the same guillotine to which he had consigned so many others. Cambridge University historian Scurr says she has tried to write a biography that expresses "neither partisan adulation nor exaggerated animosity," but even she must conclude that with the Terror, he "kept moving through that gory river, because he believed it necessary for saving the Revolution. He can be accused of insanity and inhumanity but certainly not of insincerity." Robespierre can also be accused of being a revolutionary fanatic who hated atheists, and "became the living embodiment of the Revolution at its most feral"; a dedicated upholder of republican virtues whose hands were smothered in blood; a fierce opponent of the death penalty who helped send thousands to their deaths; and a democratic tribune of the people who wore a sky-blue coat and embroidered waistcoats so aristocratic they wouldn't have been out of place at the court of the Sun King. Scurr's first book scores highly in unraveling not only her subject's complexities but those of his era. 2 maps. (Apr. 29)
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From Booklist

The name Maximilien Robespierreseems to embody the excesses that contributed to the deterioration of the French Revolution; his name is synonymous with the expression "Reign of Terror." Born in the provincial city of Arras, the lawyer Robespierre carved a significant place for himself in the destruction of the ancien regime, but in 1794 he fell under the machine of terror he had greatly contributed to creating and was himself guillotined. Scurr is to be applauded--and read, of course--for bringing the intricacies of the revolutionary philosophies and actions to a readily comprehensible level; as this author maintains, "To understand [Robespierre] is to begin to understand the French Revolution." Robespierre was a peculiar personality, distinctive in ways that were not all positive, and here he is as accurately assessed as hindsight permits. For the general reader, then, this is not simply a well-balanced, evenly shaded portrait of the man and his motivations, mistakes, and achievements but also a helpful explanation of an event that makes our American Revolution seem straightforward and of undeniable good sense. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Ruth Scurr does for Robespierre and the French Revolution what Quentin Bell did for Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury: she apprehends the complete personality of the man, the moment, and the movement. A work of genuine scholarship and political literature, Fatal Purity is an electrifying biography of an epoch's vaulting ambitions and wounded pride, radical vision and terrifying uncertainty, bracing heroism and decimating energies.” ―Corey Robin, author of Fear: The History of a Political Idea

About the Author

Born in 1971, Ruth Scurr studied at Oxford and Cambridge, where she currently teaches politics and history. A prominent literary critic, she has written for The New York Review of Books and The Times Literary Supplement. Fatal Purity is her first book.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface
My dear Croker,

I wish you would think seriously of the History of the Reign of Terror. I do not mean a pompous, philosophical history, but a mixture of biography, facts and gossip: a diary of what really took place with the best authenticated likenesses of the actors.

Ever yours,

Robert Peel1

Soon after he received this letter from his friend Sir Robert Peel, the once and future Tory prime minister, John Wilson Croker packed his bags for a seaside holiday. Although he was a prominent literary and political journalist and was hoping to work as he sat on the beach, Croker packed none of his collection of rare and fascinating books about the French Revolution that are now one of the glories of the British Library. He took with him only the list of those condemned to death during the Reign of Terror.2 He perused it against the rhythmic sound of waves breaking on the shore.

Twenty-two impoverished women, many of them widows, convicted of forwarding "the designs of the fanatics, aristocrats, priests and other agents of England," guillotined.

Nine private soldiers convicted of "pricking their own eyes with pins, and becoming by this cowardly artifice unable to bear arms," guillotined.

Jean Baptiste Henry, aged eighteen, journeyman tailor, convicted of sawing down a tree of liberty, guillotined.

Henrietta Frances de Marbœuf, aged fifty-five, convicted of hoping for the arrival in Paris of the Austrian and Prussian armies and of hoarding provisions for them, guillotined.

James Duchesne, aged sixty, formerly a servant, since a broker; John Sauvage, aged thirty-four, gunsmith; Frances Loizelier, aged forty-seven, milliner; Mélanie Cunosse, aged twenty-one, milliner; Mary Magdalen Virolle, aged twenty-five, hairdresser: all convicted for writing, guillotined.

Geneviève Gouvon, aged seventy-seven, seamstress, convicted of "various conspiracies since the beginning of the Revolution," guillotined.

Francis Bertrand, aged thirty-seven, convicted of producing "sour wine injurious to the health of citizens," guillotined.

Mary Angelica Plaisant, another seamstress, guillotined for exclaiming, "A fig for the nation!"

Relaxing into his holiday, Croker continued reading through the long list of dubious charges against the several thousand victims of the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris, from its institution on 10 March 1793 until the fall of Maximilien Robespierre on 27 July 1794. He compiled some grimly fascinating statistics: in the last five months of Robespierre's life, when he supposedly secured tyrannous power over France and the Revolution, 2,217 people were guillotined in Paris; but the total condemned to death in the eleven months preceding Robespierre's Reign of Terror was only 399. On the basis of these statistics, Croker concluded that the executions "grew gradually with the personal influence of Robespierre, and became enormous in proportion as he successively extinguished his rivals."3 In awed horror he recalled, "These things happened in our time--thousands are still living who saw them, yet it seems almost incredible that batches (fournées--such was the familiar phrase)--of sixty victims should be condemned in one morning by the same tribunal, and executed the same afternoon on the same scaffold."

Although Peel pressed his friend to write a popular and accessible book about the French Revolution, Croker never did so. When he got back from his holiday in 1835 he published his seaside musings in an article for the Quarterly Review. Here he acknowledged the enormity of the problem Robespierre still poses biographers: "The blood-red mist by which his last years were enveloped magnified his form, but obscured his features. Like the Genius of the Arabian tale, he emerged suddenly from a petty space into enormous power and gigantic size, and as suddenly vanished, leaving behind him no trace but terror."4

Copyright © 2006 by Ruth Scurr

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B007PRZLLO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Metropolitan Books; First edition (April 17, 2007)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 17, 2007
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1193 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 530 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #197,617 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #26 in 18th Century World History
- #67 in History of France
- #76 in Historical France Biographies

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Ruth Scurr
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Ruth Scurr is an historian, biographer and literary critic. She teaches history and politics at Cambridge University, where she is a Lecturer and Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her first book, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution won the Franco-British Society Literary Prize in 2006 and was listed among the 100 Best Books of the Decade in The Times in 2009. Her second book, John Aubrey: My Own Life, was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2015. She reviews regularly for the Times Literary Supplement, The Spectator, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. She was a Booker Judge in 2007, a Samuel Johnson Prize Judge in 2014 and is a member of the Folio Prize Academy.
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Gilligan

Outstanding Scholarship, Compelling Read

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2023

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I've become a bit obsessed with the French Revolution of late and one of the highlights of my journey is Robespierre and the French Revolution by Ruth Scurr. This is an exceptional and thorough examination of one of the most turbulent periods in history. Scurr's in-depth exploration of Maximilien Robespierre's life and role in the French Revolution offers readers a fresh and insightful perspective on an enigmatic figure.

One of the most compelling aspects of Scurr's approach is her meticulous research. She leaves no stone unturned as she delves into Robespierre's personal life, early years, political career, and his rise to power during the revolution. The book is meticulously researched, drawing from a wide range of sources including letters, diaries, and historical accounts, providing a comprehensive and well-rounded understanding of the man and his times.

Scurr's writing style is engaging and accessible, capturing the complexity of the French Revolution and the many layers of Robespierre's character. She avoids presenting a black-and-white portrait of Robespierre, instead painting him as a multifaceted individual whose ideology and actions were shaped by the tumultuous events of his time. This nuanced approach to the subject matter adds depth and richness to the narrative and keeps readers invested in Robespierre's story.

Furthermore, Scurr does an excellent job of contextualizing Robespierre within the broader historical and political landscape of the French Revolution. She offers a detailed analysis of the social and political climate leading up to the revolution and carefully examines how Robespierre's beliefs and ideologies intertwined with the larger revolutionary movement.

One of the strengths of this book is its exploration of the contradictions and complexities of Robespierre's character. Scurr explores his reputation as both the "Incorruptible" and the "Tyrant," allowing readers to understand the internal tensions and contradictions that shaped his life and decisions. This nuanced portrayal of Robespierre as a man driven by idealism and revolutionary zeal, yet plagued by paranoia and a growing thirst for power, is both thought-provoking and haunting.

If there is one minor criticism to be made about Fatal Purity, it is that at times the narrative becomes dense and bogged down by excessive detail. While the meticulous research is commendable, there are moments where the abundance of information can overwhelm readers and detract from the overall flow of the book. Nonetheless, this is a minor flaw in an otherwise outstanding piece of historical writing.

In conclusion, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution is a captivating and deeply researched account of one of history's most controversial figures. Ruth Scurr's comprehensive examination of Robespierre's life and role during the French Revolution offers valuable insights into the complex forces that shaped this pivotal moment in history. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the French Revolution, political ideology, and the complexities of human nature.

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Herve H. Blandin

studious and enjoyable, if a little lacking insight.

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2015

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Definitely enjoyable and going well thru the motions of the "Incorruptible"'s life, with copious excerpts of his writings, if a little short in insights.

Little is made, in depth, of the different relationships (human and political) that proved consequential (especially to them!) with Desmoulins, and Danton. As well as with Saint-Just. Also lacking is an analysis (or again, insight) into the thought processes that determined or changed R's political decisions between 1789 and the fateful day he was arrested. I found also that the author did not make exactly clear why Robespierre was arrested, a topic which other historians dwell more into. Was it because he threatened without naming? Because in some ways, something somehow had run its course, at the crosspoint where R's physical (and psychological?)exhaustion signaled a dead-end? Or others in the assembly were intent in changing the course of the revolution along the lines that would give primacy to the real new powers, bourgeois and nascent capitalists, away from the Commune and the Jacobin's most intransigeant "montagnards"? Well, maybe it is for the reader, not the author to propose responses. Actually, Robespierre did not say everything and was an intesely private man, and much can be left to the imagination, which this book does.

One example: away from the historical biography itself, reading this book, one often projects oneself in the future (our past), in times when totalitarian tyrants followed the blue-print of terror apparatus first laid by Robespierre , in even worse psychopathic fashion.

3 people found this helpful

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exurbanite

An astonishing drama

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2014

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As much as any other single political eruption, the French revolution dramatically altered the course of history, in France as well as all of Europe and elsewhere. Its legacy can be found today in the ancient divisions and entanglements which continue to roil French politics. I have heard much, but actually knew little, about the revolution’s intricacies and details, a shortcoming in which I expect I was not alone. Ruth Scurr’s book has done a great deal to alleviate the problem.

The revolution arose not from a single definable source or clique of individuals but from a vortex of economic anxieties, food shortages, social and cultural grievances, jealousies, disputes and resentments. All were further accentuated by generalized political unrest and ideological turmoil. It entailed a convergence of conditions not easily untangled, but Ms. Scurr has succeeded in sorting through and bringing order to the maze.

Her prose is precise, fluent, and readable, and only rarely does she seem to stray from the strand of her narrative. The method she employs is biographic. Her story is built around the life of Maximilien Robespierre, his talents, his ambition, his maneuvering, his shifting loyalties and evolving ideology. The technique provides continuity and works well in delineating the the convoluted manner in which the revolution unfolded over five stormy years. But it also has shortcomings, sometimes bypassing crucial events or minimizing the role of other crucial figures.

There is little question that Robespierre was a pivotal figure in the ongoing drama. An obscure provincial lawyer from the Northern city of Arras, he had been scarred in his youth by scandals involving his father which left him with an enduring set of ingrained grievances. But he was imbued with a high, if radical, set of ideals, which he continued to pursue, even as they eroded into savagery as the revolution progressed.

Having moved to Paris, his oratorical and political skills won him converts, and he maneuvered adeptly among the constantly reshaping set of revolutionary committees, communes, and commissions, many of which he came to dominate. But as his views turned more fanatical and his activities more manipulative and peremptory, he was involved in constant infighting. Always suspicious, he grew increasingly paranoid and distrusting. He turned against and betrayed former colleagues and associates whom he suspected of traitorous activity, effectively sending them to the guillotine. Jean Cocteau once suggested that "Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo". A similar thing could be said about Robespierre in the later stages of the revolution.

Ms. Scurr works hard at maintaining a balanced score card. She gives credit to Robespierre for his incorruptibility and is sympathetic to his sticking to what he saw as his ideals, twisted and reckless though they became. Overall, she seems more defensive of his personality and activities than appears justifiable considering where they finally led. Starting as a man of principle he descended step by step into a bloodthirsty tyranny that cost the lives of thousands, including many of his friends.

Ironically, he was finally brought down not by the political conservatives or moderates he had fought so zealously but by atheists and anti-clericals who despised a type of state religion he had invented and sought to impose. Fatal Purity ends with Robespierre’s death on the same guillotine where he had sent so many others. Although Ms. Scurr presented an account of his family history and early life she ends her work rather abruptly at this point.

But the revolutionary story was not yet over, so a reader curious about its demise and transition to the Directoire, and later to the Napoleon-dominated Consulat, must look elsewhere. In the meanwhile, I commend this book to anyone seeking a better understanding of one of history’s most astonishing dramas, as well as one of its most notorious fanatics.

19 people found this helpful

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Reader

Everyone writes books today

Reviewed in Germany on October 26, 2022

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This is one of those many books written by a Halbgebildete. Just two examples. On p.29 Mrs Scurr says that the nobility paid no taxes and the third estate carries the whole tax burden. Really Mrs Scurr? Don't you know that towards the end of the ancien régime the nobility paid quite a lot of tax? Ever heard of e.g. the vingtième?
Or take p.25. There Mrs Scurr writes that at the Louis le Grand, the school Robespierre went to, 'the curriculum still centered, as it had done for decades. on the classic literatures of Greece and Rome'. For decades? Mrs. Scurr, it had centered on the ancients not for decades, but for centuries.
These are not little mistakes. They make clear that Mrs Scurr has insufficient grounding in her topic. She should read more, and write less.

One person found this helpful

KeithS

Fascinating study of The French Revolution and Robespierre’s ideas & development.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2020

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A book for my wife, she writes:
I found this a fascinating account of the French Revolution and of Robespierre, the development of his character from someone opposed to the death penalty through to the implementation ‘The Terror’. What I found interesting was how someone with a real social conscience, concern for the people and passionate advocate of democracy and followers of the ideas of Rousseau, could turn on his friends and erstwhile supporters, Desmoulins and Danton and send them to the guillotine. The contradiction between love of and belief in ‘the people’ in the abstract and the utterly ruthless suppression of not only his enemies but close friends and co-revolutionaries was chilling and I’m my mind verging on psychopathy and yet he appears to have had genuine empathy for the poor and oppressed, empathy being an emotion lacking in psychopaths. I did not know that at the beginning of the revolution in 1789, the intention was not to overthrow the monarchy but to establish a constitutional monarchy, or thatApart from overthrowing the monarchy, or that Robespierre tried to establish a new, non-Christian religion, worshiping a Supreme Being and a new calendar and ten day week was introduced, reminding me of the Khmer Rouge’s Year Zero. The concept of thought crime and the phrase and concept of the ‘Enemy of the People’ was also born. Ruth Scurr’s book is dense with detail but very readable if you are interested in history and the history of ideas.

10 people found this helpful

patch

Robespierre

Reviewed in Canada on August 16, 2018

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A great book on the life of robespierre and the french revolution,one of the better history books.

Archie

A Wronged Revolutionary?

Reviewed in Australia on July 17, 2021

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A towering historical figure who, somehow, also evokes the image of the Wizard of Oz trying to work his magic behind the curtains. How could somebody delude himself so totally that he was the embodiment of all that could be good, in a revolutionary sense. Compared with the insensate, planned savagery of a Stalin or Franco, Robespierre comes across as almost touchingly naive.
And still, the Revolution became mired in not just gore but a mind- numbing bureaucracy that ensured only that the factions consumed each other and the system of rank exploitation endured.

Boyd Hone

Fatal Purity

Reviewed in France on January 31, 2012

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It was thanks to David Lawday's wonderful book on Talleyrand that I decided to read his DANTON (2009). This naturally led to Ruth Scurr's equally marvelous book on Robespierre, FATAL PURITY (2006). Robespierre was a pale Ichabod Crane with the asceticism of a monk; Danton, hideously ugly, had the animal needs of what Americans might call a red-blooded fullback. What strikes one is the total devotion of both men to republican ideals and their unswerving belief in the virtue of the people, upon whom all power should be conferred, sentiments which should normally have placed both men among the greatest humanists the world has known. Next I was struck by the hatred the Conventioneers had for the nobility and the clergy, one of whom quoted Diderot's words, ''The people will never be happy until the last monarch is strangled with the guts of the last priest.'' Striking too was the fact that the first constitution laid the foundation of a constitutional monarchy, giving Louis the right to veto any bill, and that this constitution was renewed even after the king had tried to flee from France. Only massacres perpetrated by the people led to Louis' eventual beheading, and even then he was condemned by a single vote, 361 out of 721. Marie Antoinette was separated from her son after being accused of incest, and on the day of her beheading the Commune offered the boy a toy guillotine. Due to the massacres perpetrated by mobs, Danton called for the Terror in hopes of restoring order by diverting the attention of the people, thereby assuaging their thirst for bloodbaths. He deeply regretted his decision when he found himself at the foot of the guillotine. Robespierre soon followed him, dying in such a manner that his death leaves one feeling sick, a tribute to Scurr's art. Two deaths out of the thousands of innocents who suffered, among them 43 orphans, children guilty of nothing, massacred during the Terror by the mob. And all for what? A few years later the same mob would be shouting Vive l'Empereur, followed by Vive le Roi, (with the advent of Louis XVIII), then came another emperor, then other kings and still another emperor. Some may shed a tear for Danton; most would applaud the extermination of Robespierre, a reaction that would have left him totally indifferent. DANTON and FATAL PURITY are incredibly powerful books about incredibly powerful times.

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