The French Revolution and What Went Wrong

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<p><b>***</b><b>An entertainingand eye-opening look at the French Revolution and what went wrong, by Stephen Clarke, author of<i>1000 Years of Annoying the French</i>and<i>A Year in the Merde ***</i></b> <b></b> <b>Legend has it that, in a few busy weeks in July 1789, a despotic king, his freeloading wife, and a horde of over-privileged aristocrats, were displaced and then humanely dispatched.</b></p><p>In the ensuing years, we are told, France was heroically transformed into an idyll of<i>Liberté, Egalité</i>and<i>Fraternité</i>.</p><p>In fact, as Stephen Clarke argues in his informative and eye-opening account of the French Revolution, almost all of this is completely untrue.</p><p>In 1789 almost no one wanted to oust King Louis XVI, let alone guillotine him.</p><p>While the Bastille was being stormed by out-of-control Parisians, the true democrats were at work in Versailles creating a British-style constitutional monarchy.</p><p>The founding of the Republic in 1792 unleashed a reign of terror that caused about 300,000 violent deaths.</p><p>And people hailed today as revolutionary heroes were dangerous opportunists, whose espousal of<i>Liberté, Egalité</i>and<i>Fraternité</i>did not stop them massacring political opponents and guillotining women for demanding equal rights.</p><p>Going back to original French sources, Stephen Clarke has uncovered the little-known and rarely told story of what was really happening in revolutionary France, as well as what went so tragically and bloodily wrong.</p>

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<p><b>Stephen Clarke</b>lives in Paris, where he divides his time between writing and not writing.</p><p>His<i>Merde</i>novels have been bestsellers all over the world, including France. His non-fiction books include<i>Talk to the Snail</i>, an insider's guide to understanding the French;<i>How the French Won Waterloo (or Think They Did)</i>, an amused look at France's continuing obsession with Napoleon;<i>Dirty Bertie: An English King Made in France</i>, a biography of Edward VII; and<i>1000 Years of Annoying the French</i>, which was a number one bestseller in Britain.</p><p>Research for<i>The French Revolution and What Went Wrong</i>took him deep into French archives in search of the actual words, thoughts and deeds of the revolutionaries and royalists of 1789. He has now re-emerged to ask modern Parisians why they have forgotten some of the true democratic heroes of the period, and opted to idolize certain maniacs.</p><p>Follow Stephen on @SClarkeWriter and www.stephenclarkewriter.com</p>

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