一个更安全的地方 (1992)

《一个更安全的地方》（英语：A Place of Greater Safety）是希拉里·曼特尔的一本历史小说，写于1992年。这是一部关于法国大革命的小说，描写了乔治·雅克·丹敦、卡米尔·德穆兰和马克西米连·罗伯斯庇尔从童年到被处决的一生，以及其他数百名历史人物。

背景

曼特尔解释说，她尽可能使用历史人物自己所说的话，取自于他们的演讲或著作。

评价

《一个更安全的地方》荣获周日快报年度书籍奖。

《纽约时报》称赞曼特尔，但不是这本书：“更多的小说，和更少的历史，可能更适合这位作者的天赋。” Another reviewer praised the book saying "the dialogue is unfailingly witty, increasingly desperate, and never predictable."

A Place of Greater Safety is a 1992 novel by Hilary Mantel. It concerns the events of the French Revolution, focusing on the lives of Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Maximilien Robespierre from their childhood through the execution of the Dantonists. The narrative features not only the perspectives of leading personalities of the French Revolution but also those of their wives, lovers, parents, and friends, supplemented by descriptions of ceremonies, conspiracies, street fights, trials, and debates in the National Convention and the Jacobin Club.

Plot

High tax burdens, poor harvests, and the newly won independence of the United States fueled calls in France for the abolition of the feudal system. In the spring of 1789, the Estates-General met for the first time within the framework of the National Assembly in Versailles to discuss the redistribution of power between the nobility, clergy, and the third estate. Maximilien Robespierre, a delegate of the third estate for the city of Arras, found allies in fellow lawyers Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins. In the fight for their common cause, the three took on leading roles in the course of the French Revolution.

Desmoulins, in a passionate speech in a café, called on the already agitated and violence-ready crowd to arm themselves – two days later, the people stormed the Bastille. The tactically brilliant and morally flexible pragmatist Danton soon proved to be an important pillar for the First French Republic, which now had to defend itself against attacks from the remaining European monarchies. In the summer of 1792, Danton achieved a decisive victory in the First Coalition War against Austria and Prussia over the allied army, in part by bribing the Duke of Brunswick with the crown jewels. A year later, in the summer of 1793, Robespierre's great moment finally arrived: He took over the chairmanship of the Committee of Public Safety, which now functioned as the executive body of the National Convention, passed death sentences on opposition members, and sanctioned terror measures to suppress counter-revolutionary activities.

The first victims of the guillotine were the former king and queen, then various factions within the revolutionary party. Desmoulins had to watch with increasing horror as his pamphlets were quoted to condemn his friends and companions. He turned against the Reign of Terror in new pamphlets and thus became a target himself, as did Danton, around whom corruption allegations were gathering.

For a while, Robespierre managed to protect Danton and Desmoulins from the hostility of their political opponents, although he risked his own reputation in doing so. But Robespierre's own position eventually became increasingly precarious, while forces obsessed with ideological purity around him, such as Antoine de Saint-Just, gained influence. A rumor about another sexual misconduct by Danton finally gave Robespierre the reason to definitively break with his former friends and approve their execution.