I just saw the musical “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” and am now reading the books.
While I know that “Pimpernel” is fiction, were there really British Aristocrats that went in to rescue and save the condemned French Aristocracy?
As an off-topic aside, wouldn’t it be funny to write a story where all the fictional characters from stories about the French Revolution meet up? You could have the Scarlet Pimpernel rescue Sidney Carton with Sidney yelling “But wait! I have to do a far better thing!”
There was a lot of international spying and rescuing going on the the French Revolution, but I don’t know offhand if “the Pimp” was based on a particular person.
Axel Ferson, a foreign diplomat, tried to save the Royal family (with, of course, no luck). Madame DuBarry had dealings with the British and managed to save some of her friends by pawning her belongings–sadly, she herself wound up on the guillotine. And Marie Antoinette’s best friend, the Princess de Lamballe, tried to do what she could from England–but she came back to France and met a particularly grisly fate.
For non-fiction on the Revolution, I highly recommend Stanley Loomis’ trilogy, Paris in the Terror, The Fatal Friendship (about Ferson and Marie) and Madame DuBarry. Great stuff!
Thanks.
Yes, it is no surprise that there is so much fiction written about the French Revolution, since it has everything you need for a good story.
Which would be?.. I seem to remember that she was killed during the September Massacres ahd her head put on a pike. Grisly though that may be, it happened to other aristocrats.
Alexandre Dumas (the author of the Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte-Cristo, etc…) wrote several of his “historical romances” with the French Revolution as a setting.
There is the series of novels “Joseph Balsamo”, “Le collier de la Reine”, “Ange Pitou” and another (stand-alone) novel whose title is, IIRC, “Le chevalier de Maison-Rouge”, where the main character tries to save the royal family.
Well, Arnie, first they tore her legs off and shot them out of cannons. Then they tore her arms off, and just as she was shouting, “zat’s me all ovair!” they ripped her heart out and ATE it. Then they put her head on a pike and rushed off to show it to Marie Antoinette, who didn’t think it nearly as funny as they’d hoped she would.
Holy Moses!
Eve, where did you read this? Are you sure? Ate the heart? This must be exaggeration. Is this from a novel or from a non-fiction book?
Perhaps you found this in one of Anne Rice’s vampire books? Those are fictional.
Nope, it was all well-covered in all histories of the Revolution, and I have an 1895 bio of her, as well. Those September Massacres weren’t a picnic, y’know . . . Well, now that I think of it, they kinda WERE . . .
"The slaughters that occurred for the next few days were recorded in great detailed accounts. More than just the priests fell victim to the angry mob. One of the most savagely treated victims was a member of the nobility named Princess Mme de Lamballe. She was stripped, raped, her breasts were cut off, and the rest of her body was mutilated. After she was dead one of the assassins ripped out her heart and ate it while another stuck her head on a pike and paraded it beneath the Queen’s window. They terrorized in other ways too. Another young woman was forced to drink the blood of a victim in order to save her father’s life (Hibbert; 175)." --from http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/WestEurope/SeptMassacres.html
It should be noted that other sources claim she was “merely” guillotined. Her (suspected) body was exhumed in 1816 and given a Christian burial, but her head was not found.
I never cease to be amazed by how savage people can be… After the French revolution, Napoleon’s soldiers swept across Europe doing pretty much the same kind of stuff. During their occupation of Spain they destroyed churches, art, etc. murdered clergy and civilians… this type of conduct was worse than anything seen until then and not until Hitler can one find anything comparable.
In any case, here’s my own anecdote. Some 18th century pirate like to do this to his prisoners just for kicks. They would cut a slit in the side of his belly and pull a bit of gut out which they would nail to the mast. Then chase the guy with a torch on fire and see how all his guts came out as he tried to get away from the fire. It makes me shiver just to think about it… but it is revealing of human cruelty…
In “The Elusive Pimpernel”, Orczy writes that the worst part of Marie Antoinette’s imprisonment was the fact that she was never left alone, that being watched for 24 hours a day would offend her delicate sensibilities.
It seems to me that that would be the least of her problems!