City of Darkness, City of Light
A Novel
by Marge Piercy
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Pub Date Apr 12 2016 | Archive Date Jun 21 2016
Description
For Claire Lacombe and Pauline Leon, two poor women of eighteenth-century France, the lofty ideals of the coming revolution could not seem more abstract. But when Claire sees the gaping disparity between the poverty she has known and the lavish lives of aristocrats as her theater group performs in their homes, and Pauline witnesses the execution of local bread riot leaders, both are driven to join the uprising. They, along with upper-class women like Madame Manon Roland, who ghostwrites speeches for her politician husband and runs a Parisian salon where revolutionaries gather, will play critical roles in the French people’s bloody battle for liberty and equality.
Author Marge Piercy’s thrilling and scrupulously researched fictionalized account of these real women’s lives shines with emotional depth and strikingly animated action. By interweaving their tales with the exploits of men whose names have become synonymous with the revolution, like Robespierre and Danton, Piercy reveals how the contributions of these courageous women may be lesser known, but no less important. Rich in detail and broad in scope, City of Darkness, City of Light is a riveting portrayal of an extraordinary era and the women who helped shape an important chapter in history.
Advance Praise
“Meticulously researched and gripping . . . Wonderful.” —Lisa Jardine, The Times (London)
“Piercy has written a notably broad, evenhanded, comprehensive book. . . . It may be the best popular history of the French Revolution we're likely to see.” —Los Angeles Times
“Fast-paced . . . Piercy breathes life into the actual historical figures who shaped the Revolution.” —San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
“Masterful . . . Piercy brings the blood and guts, the ideas and passions, of the revolution to life.” —Women’s Review of Books
“Piercy’s storytelling powers capture the turbulence and excitement of [this] liberating era.” —Boston Herald
Praise for Marge Piercy
“Here is somebody with the guts to go into the deepest core of herself, her time, her history, and risk more than anybody else has so far, just out of a love for the truth and a need to tell it. It’s about time.” —Thomas Pynchon on Dance the Eagle to Sleep
“One of the most important writers of our time.” —Erica Jong
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9781504033367 |
PRICE | $0.00 (USD) |
Average rating from 8 members
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General Fiction (Adult), Literary Fiction, Women's Fiction