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nina_rosalinde's review against another edition
4.0
Easy to read, but sometimes a bit nauseating, as Hibbert does not tiptoe around the extreme violence of the time. The book is mostly a good overview of what happened without really speculating about why everything happened.
Thankfully, you don't have to remember every person that gets mentioned to follow the general storyline, because so many people were involved and tried to take charge in one part of the revolution or another, with some of them suddenly disappearing from the narrative, that it's pretty much impossible to commit all of them to memory in one go.
The book is very much meant as a relatively short introduction to them, not a deep dive into every individual and every detail of the revolution.
Thankfully, you don't have to remember every person that gets mentioned to follow the general storyline, because so many people were involved and tried to take charge in one part of the revolution or another, with some of them suddenly disappearing from the narrative, that it's pretty much impossible to commit all of them to memory in one go.
The book is very much meant as a relatively short introduction to them, not a deep dive into every individual and every detail of the revolution.
eclark93's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
2.0
There’s a solid timeline of the French Revolution here, but the author gets distracted by spectacle and personalities far too often.
asaatkamp's review against another edition
4.0
I found this to be a pretty good overview of the French Revolution. It is clearly written and mentions all the major players and events. While shorter than many other histories about the subject Hibbert makes the narrative flow and one comes away with a better understanding of what occurred in the last two decades of the 18th century.
dodothedev's review against another edition
4.0
A good book, which describes well without getting too bogged down in detail about the revolution and its characters.
sarahuwu's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This is an incredible account of the events of the French Revolution, from the beginning in the late 1780s through the ascension of Napoleon in the early 1800s. Hibbert writes nonfiction in an engaging and fascinating way and I had a hard time putting this book down. The pacing can feel a bit slow at times, but when there’s a wealth of information as exists in this book, that’s nigh unavoidable. Highly recommend to anyone interested in the details of this period of history.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, War, Cannibalism, and Death
kaylito6's review against another edition
3.0
I read this because I wanted some context before I read “a tale of two cities.“ But to be honest I don’t really think this was for beginners, I was pretty confused throughout most of it
firerosearien's review against another edition
4.0
Oh France...all that bloodshed and you just end up with another autocrat in charge anyway.... c'est la vie