Reviews for Ecrits politiques

The average rating for Ecrits politiques based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-01-06 00:00:00 Armando Magana I ordered this book because I wanted to deepen my knowledge of the experience of women during the French Revolution since I teach Olympe de Gouges's *Declaration of the Rights of Woman*. Yalom's book had a super outdated cover (only slightly better than the image you see above) and there were few options in English on this subject to begin with, so I was a bit skeptical. (FYI It seems that they DID publish a new edition after the 90s, but under a different name: *Compelled to Witness*) AS IT TURNS OUT, this book is incredible--and that is thanks to these women who recorded their experiences during the French Revolution AND to the incredible research and biographical skills of Marilyn Yalom. She definitely writes this book as an academic, but she clearly knew these memoirs SO well that her account of these women is compelling, not dry or stilted. The connections between the events of this book and our current historical moment are unsettling. I plan to read as much of Yalom's work as I can get my hands on. In the meantime, I leave you with this: "The women in this book have been my companions for a very long time. I have grown accustomed to their presence in the corners of my mind where they continuously appeal for my attention, and I have come to see myself as a medium for their resurrection...But why, I ask myself, have I chosen to identify with French women who lived two centuries ago, and were predominately elitists? The simplest and truest answer lies in their strength as givers of testimony. I was drawn into their lives by the stories they left behind, eloquent and moving accounts of survival on the cusp of catastrophe."

Review # 2 was written on 2013-06-02 00:00:00 George Stein I’d first like to thank ‘Blood Sisters’ for distracting me from feeling like crap today. It is a fascinating, well-written, and thoughtful synthesis of women’s memoirs that survive from the time of the French Revolution. The women writing range from the royal children’s final governess to a peasant woman who crossdressed to fight in the Vendée civil war, via Robespierre’s sister and Germaine de Staël, the famous woman of letters. Yalom summarises and extracts from these memoirs to present the variety of women’s experience during the revolution, in their own words. This is especially useful as the eighty or so accounts include many that are obscure and/or largely forgotten. Although famous figures are included, the unknown (to me) women also provide powerful and illuminating perspectives. Yalom’s analysis includes interesting commentary on the attitudes and roles women were allowed and expected to play during the time of the revolution. Many of the memoirists display incredible courage, intelligence, resourcefulness, and strength, but are nearly always limited to the domestic sphere. Admittedly, that sphere expanded in some ways during the revolution, to include pleading for the lives of relatives, protesting against high bread prices, and supporting soldiers fighting in the civil war. Despite this, women were generally cast as protectors, carers, and peacemakers. Women were considered ‘passive citizens’, not entitled to political rights. Some, such as Olympe de Gouges and Théroigne de Méricourt, sought to break out of this and suffered severely for it (de Gouges was guillotined and de Méricourt locked in a mental institution). One of the most politically powerful women of the time, Germaine de Staël, seems to have been ambivalent about her own role. Yalom notes the popularity of Rousseau’s views on women as belonging securely in the home; de Staël greatly esteemed Rousseau yet was surely frustrated by the limitations placed on her intelligence and political acumen by lesser minds who happened to be male. That reminds me, I must look for de Staël’s Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution, in which she combines historical analysis with personal recollections. I’ve been meaning to read it for ages. 'Blood Sisters' also complements City of Darkness, City of Light, a novel of the French Revolution with particularly strong female viewpoints.