The French Revolution, Volume 1

The Bastille

By: Thomas Carlyle

Narrated by: Robert Bethune

Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution is a landmark of literary history. Conceived not as a dry recounting of facts, but as a personal, vivid, direct and dramatic encounter with the turbulent times of revolutionary France, it is in fact an extended dramatic monologue in which we meet not only the striking personalities and events of the time, but the equally striking personality and mind of Thomas Carlyle himself.

In this, the first volume of the series, we live out the course of the French Revolution, from the death of Louis XV to the triumphal celebrations of early days of the National Assembly.

Thomas Carlyle's writing is a true challenge to the reader and the listener. He does not write in the calm, objective, matter-of-fact style of a modern historian; quite the contrary! He writes as if he were there, a witness to history, passionately involved with the events that he makes unfold before our eyes. He gives his rare mastery of the outer reaches of the English language full scope, challenging us to grasp not only his complex thoughts, but his intricate manner of expressing them. Grappling with his mind and with the events of the Revolution at the same time is a powerful challenge for any reader or listener.

©2009 Thomas Carlyle (P)2009 Robert William Bethune

Shitty Recording, interesting perspective

This is not a good overarching history of the French Revolution, rather it is a poetic and emotional depiction from the perspective of a very dramatic man across the English channel. It has a lot of great lines and a lot of pithy summations and quotations but is probably not at all clear if you don't have a familiarity with the situation already.

The Narrator is pretty good at conveying Carlyle's praise and contempt and emotion, however in the second half of the audiobook I think they must be using a rough draft of the recording because it's full of throat clearings, hesitations, and the narrator repeating lines over and over and restarting sentences.

Buyer beware

Nothing to say that hasn't already been said, but I missed it. Thought I should write a review to help drop the average. It's incomprehensible gibberish. Just listen to the sample before you make the mistake I made.

Timely, significant narrative.

A comprehensive warning to the free world against leftist extremism . . . made more powerful through Carlyle's mastery of English.

"The chief glory of every people arises from its authors." — Samuel Johnson

Samuel Smiles wrote in his book on self-reliance entitled "Self-Help":
"The accidental destruction of Sir Isaac Newton’s papers, by his little dog ‘Diamond’ upsetting a lighted taper upon his desk, by which the elaborate calculations of many years were in a moment destroyed, is a well-known anecdote, and need not be repeated: it is said that the loss caused the philosopher such profound grief that it seriously injured his health, and impaired his understanding. An accident of a somewhat similar kind happened to the MS. of Mr. Carlyle’s first volume of his ‘French Revolution.’ He had lent the MS. to a literary neighbour to peruse. By some mischance, it had been left lying on the parlour floor, and become forgotten. Weeks ran on, and the historian sent for his work, the printers being loud for “copy.” Inquiries were made, and it was found that the maid-of-all-work, finding what she conceived to be a bundle of waste paper on the floor, had used it to light the kitchen and parlour fires with! Such was the answer returned to Mr. Carlyle; and his feelings may be imagined. There was, however, no help for him but to set resolutely to work to re-write the book; and he turned to and did it. He had no draft, and was compelled to rake up from his memory facts, ideas, and expressions, which had been long since dismissed. The composition of the book in the first instance had been a work of pleasure; the re-writing of it a second time was one of pain and anguish almost beyond belief. That he persevered and finished the volume under such circumstances, affords an instance of determination of purpose which has seldom been surpassed."

Another quote from Smiles: “In literature,” said Lord Dudley, “I am fond of confining myself to the best company, which consists chiefly of my old acquaintance, with whom I am desirous of becoming more intimate; and I suspect that nine times out of ten it is more profitable, if not more agreeable, to read an old book over again, than to read a new one for the first time.”

"Edmund Stone said to the Duke of Argyle, in answer to his grace’s inquiry how he, a poor gardener’s boy, had contrived to be able to read Newton’s Principia in Latin, 'One needs only to know the twenty-four letters of the alphabet in order to learn everything else that one wishes. Application and perseverance, and the diligent improvement of opportunities, will do the rest.' "

The self-educated Fowell Buxton, who was apparently "learning-disabled" as a child, eventually persevered in mastering that arts of reading and writing who succeeded Wilberforce in the House of Commons, had this to say about reading: in general: “Never to begin a book without finishing it;” “never to consider a book finished until it is mastered;” and “to study everything with the whole mind.”

Buxton's advice is especially applicable when studying the great masters and mistresses' of pre-twentieth-century English literature, including Thomas Carlyle. Unfortunately, to fully appreciate Carlyle without a classical education (Tacitus, Herodotus, Plutarch, Cincinnatus, Thucydides, etc.), having only a typical 21st-century American public-school/college "education", is a bit like trying to learn Euclidean geometry without having mastered the multiplication table.

Carlyle's 'French Revolution' is a book that requires whole-mindedness, a significant level of commitment; as such has its place among the few masterpieces of inspired historical narrative and is an ever-revitalizing antidote to the plodding, sententiousness of Procrustean "historians" like Marx or Zinn, whose rise in popularity is inversely proportional to the depth of the down of the people.

A Great Disappointment

I gave this entire series (The French Revolution: Bastille, Constitution and Guillotine) a rating of '1', only because I couldn't rate it any lower. Admittedly, I could only sit through the first two hours of the first volume. I honestly couldn't figure out what the author was trying to say.

The problem (for me) is that the entire book seems to be written in a style of stanzas (poetic), rather than a paragraph (narrative) form. Also the language style uses a psuedo-period (1770's) English, even a Shakespearian-like English, all put together in a rather poor attempt of something like Iambic Pentameter style. At least that's the impression I got while listening. Using every allagory, metaphore, simile, and every other literary trick in the book simply confused the verbage into such a tangle, that virtually nothing could be made out of any particular point. I assume a point was trying to be made.

Please don't take my word for all of this - I advise listening very closely to the sample that Audible provides before you buy. If you like this style, and can make out what's being said, by all means go ahead and buy it. If you have a problem, I can only assure you that it won't get any better.

I have been an Audible.com customer for many years, and have purchased many history genre books. Among my selections include such authors as Suetonius, Tacitus, and Horoditus, as well as Shelby Foote, Winston Churchill, Bruce Catton, David McCullough, and many other modern authors. 'The French Revolution' has to be my greatest disappointment in any historical genre book purchased from Audible, and has earned the only '1' rating in my entire collection.

A definite NOT recommended.

Carlyle is great. This audiobook...

Let me be clear. I understand that Carlyle's literary style is not for everyone. Listening to it on audiobook is also probably more difficult than reading it. And the book certainly requires a significant amount of background info about the French Revolution in order to fully grasp Carlyle's interpretation of the event. So, if anyone criticizes this book for the content, that criticism is fair and I have no quarrel with it. But this review is not about the content of the book, but rather the performance. The first half seemed fine, the narrator did not seem to have any difficulties and the performance sounded very professional. About halfway through the book, however, the performance changed completely. The narrator began clearing his throat often, he began missing lines and rereading lines. I'm charitable enough to let a couple of mistakes slide. Even the best performances have their flaws. But this was simply unbearable. I mean seriously, this is supposed to be a professional publication and the second half of the book is utterly abysmal. I could do far better, I'm being serious, someone pay me to read this book and it would be of much higher quality. So, unless you want to struggle through hours of a poor performance, I strongly recommend against this book.

Got a match?

According to Wikipedia, the first volume of Thomas Carlyle's "The French Revolution" was accidentally burned by John Stuart Mill's maid, only to be rewritten later from scratch by the author. If I had the opportunity, I'd burn it again.

Granted, I really ought to read these Audible listings more carefully. I mistakenly assumed this book was a straight-up history, rather than a heap of ponderous, indigestible 19th Century verbiage. Far from being a history, it's more of a rambling, virulently-opinionated prose poem. Maybe that's your cup of tea, but as far as I'm concerned, puffed-up spume like this explains why the mantra of modern writers is "show, don't tell."

Carlyle's "The French Revolution" might prove useful as a natural alternative to prescription sleep aids, but otherwise it's a must-skip!

a regret

A dreadful waste of money. If you are expecting to actually learn something about French history in a meaningful way, pick something else.

A Poetic Version of the Revolution

The first reviewers of this audio-book missed the point entirely. Clearly Carlyle is not a contemporary writer and he is not writing an expository text. They should have known that if they had only bothered to consult the work ahead of time. But that's not the point of my post. The fact of the matter is I've been trying to make sense of the French Revolution, on and off, for the past twenty years and this book takes, as one of the reviewers noted, a poetic approach to the entire episode, if we may call it that. Surprisingly, I started Carlyle's book and couldn't stop reading. That's when I decided to order the audio edition primarily for help with French pronunciation of place names and persons. Once you get into the rhythm of the writing is carries itself, as poetic writing does. Yes, the diction and word order will be a challenge for today's reader, but the underlying unity of the work with it's historical sensibility is outstanding. I certainly recommend the audio edition as well, because it's a complement to the silent reader.