Stanley Loomis (1922–1972)

1320. Paris in the Terror June 1793-July 1794, by Stanley Loomis (read 29 Mar 1975) This is one of the best books on the French Revolution I've ever read. It is in three parts. The first part covers in splendid detail Charlotte Corday and her murder of Jean-Paul Marat in July 1793. The second part deals with Georges-Jacques Danton and his trial and death in April 1794. The third and climactic part tells of Robespierre and the astonishing events in the Convention on July 27, 1794. The book is show more superbly if opinionatedly written and makes vivid those action-packed historic months when the French Revolution reached its climatic height of fury and death. To try to preserve a sense of the drama of this book I set out an excerpt:
"An obscure deputy named Louchot suddenly arose and spoke the historic words, ' I demand the arrest of Robespierre!' The word was spoken! The Mountain answered it with cries of 'Down with the tyrant!' The President's bell clanged without cease above the pandemonium. Robespierre, with a desperate effort, made himself heard: 'For the last time,' he cried at Thuriot 'will you let me be heard, President of the Assassins!' Like most famous phrases this one was reported in several forms. Others present thought that they heard Robespierre say, 'By what right have you made yourself the president of these assassins?' Whatever his words may have been, they gave the President a pretext to put his arrest to the vote. 'The monster has insulted the Convention!' declared Tallien indignantly.' A few pages later: "So, escorted by the cruel laughter and bitter maledictions of the People, to whom he had so ignorantly and so selfishly pandered, Robespierre went to his death. We are distant from the violent passions that informed that ignoble spectacle. .When Robespierre's turn finally came he was obliged to mount a scaffold covered with the blood of those who preceded him. A deathly hush fell over the mob as, assisted by Samson's men, he stepped towards the plank. Just before throwing him under the knife, Samson reached out and ripped away the bandage that supported his broken jaw. Robespierre's scream of pain, 'like that of a slaughtered animal,' was heard from one end of the great square to the other. An instant later...he was dead." show less

1321. DuBarry A Biography, by Stanley Loomis (read 2 Apr 1975) Because I so appreciated this author's Paris in the Terror (read 29 Mar 1975) I read this. DuBarry was born Jeanne Becu in 1743. Madame Pompadour died Apr 15, 1764. Louis XV's queen, Marie Leczinska, died June 23, 1768. Becu met Louis XV in the early summer of 1768. She married Guillaune du Barry on Sept 1, 1768--and never saw him after the ceremony. The whole story, frankly, sickens me, even though Loomis is rather favorable to show more duBarry. Her whole life, morally, was a disgrace, since after Louis XV died she took up with others. She was guillotined in Dec of 1793. The book is well-written and instructive. Some of the Revolution scenes are horrific: "Thus during the Terror it was not an unusual occurrence . . .to have some screaming madman rush forward at the instant a head had tumbled into the wicker basket and, putting a cup in front of the bleeding stump, drink from it to the wild applause of the assembled mob." show less

How to understand the events after the French Revolution without this detail. The murders and thugs imported to Paris are shocking. Was France akin to Rawanda in the last century in violence ? The detailed biographies are especially revealing. Excellent

1624 The Fatal Friendship: Marie Antoinette, Count Fersen and the Flight to Varennes, by Stanley Loomis (read 28 Mar 1981) Back in March of 1975 I read with tremendous appreciation Stanley Loomis' book Paris in the Terror. Recalling how much I enjoyed that book I noticed this book by him. One cannot fail to be caught up in the intense, incredible drama of the French Revolution. But Loomis is a popularizer--no footnotes at all! How much better a book he might have if he draped a little show more scholarly apparatus around it. This book tells the story of the friendship between Marie Antoinette and Count Fersen, a Swedish nobleman who was killed by a mob in Stockholm on June 21, 1810, 19 years to the day after the King and Queen were captured at Varennes. The detailed account of that flight in this book is fascinating and exasperating because it came so near to success. If they had escaped, how would history have been changed? One cannot know, but undoubtedly things would have gone differently. Not a profound book. but lots of fun to read and enjoy, though Loomis surely paints the Revolution more darkly than some. And yet, how can one justify the arrest of Marie Antoinette's lawyers? It is impossible to justify some of the evil that was perpetrated by the makers of that Revolution.
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