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Guillotine: Its Legend and Lore
- GenresNonfictionFranceHistory
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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June 11, 2024A hefty gaggle of facts, a fat wiki page stuffed with yummy pictures. Not much analysis to be found, and some facts are more interesting than others - the first half of the book deals more in the guillotine's historical realities, whereas the second summarizes the artistic depictions that followed. Art is meant to be experienced, not described (imo), so half of this book is unsatisfying by default - nonetheless it's a lovely curation of info on a tantalizingly gruesome historical niche.
The monsters of our time invade our collective unconscious - it's fascinating to see the ways in which the guillotine inspired generations of floating heads and headless bodies, red-lined necks, and simulated executions in paintings and plays. The guillotine is intersection of human cruelty, desire, communion, performance, rebellion, despotism - it is death, thus it is life and all the possibilities it entails.
The monsters of our time invade our collective unconscious - it's fascinating to see the ways in which the guillotine inspired generations of floating heads and headless bodies, red-lined necks, and simulated executions in paintings and plays. The guillotine is intersection of human cruelty, desire, communion, performance, rebellion, despotism - it is death, thus it is life and all the possibilities it entails.
September 20, 2012
Long before people had access to horror movies, violent video games, or intense sporting events, they got their jollies watching executions, and in France those executions were conducted via the guillotine. While the decapitating machine’s revised version—which was constructed during the French Revolution and based on Enlightenment values—was intended to produce a quick, painless death and distribute the same punishment to everyone regardless of rank, it quickly led to more deaths and became a symbol of corrupted revolutionary ideals.
Daniel Gerould attempts not to outline a history of the deadly instrument but “to examine its representation in the arts both high and low.” Gerould succeeds in collecting and summarizing a substantial amount of novels, movies, plays, magic shows, and various simulations where the guillotine has made an appearance. However, his work is more disappointing in terms of the examinations of these works. While he does provide some insightful analyses of how the guillotine was viewed throughout its two hundred year history, they exist only as brief after thoughts to the interminable summaries.
Starting during the French Revolution and carrying on well throughout the nineteenth century, those executed by the guillotine were viewed as lively performers. They defiantly traveled to the scaffold, made witty last remarks, and viewed their deaths as necessary steps toward an advancement of the revolution. Journalists would even write reviews of the executions, noting the condemned person’s temperament and the efficiency of the killing. Anarchists of the nineteenth century carried on this tradition of defiance. Most notably, perhaps, was Pierre-Francois Lacenaire, who was, in large part, treated as a celebrity and wrote poetry and his memoirs while he waited in jail for his death.
It was not until after the two world wars that many French citizens began looking unfavorably upon the guillotine. And, while the wars helped drain the country’s bloodlust, there was another, much less humanitarian reason for the guillotine’s dwindling appeal: the old wooden contraption could hardly compete with more modern inventions such as cars and planes. People were not so much becoming disgusted with grisly deaths as they were fascinated with technological advancement.
Of course, there was a long line of guillotine detractors. From around the 1830s, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Dumas, Ivan Turgenev, and Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote polemical works and spoke out against beheadings as public entertainment. The existentialists in the mid-twentieth century continued to harshly criticize capital punishment and often portrayed fictional victims as being despondent and frantic in their last moments; this was at great odds with the vivacious anti-heroes of the previous century.
Gerould thoroughly recounts numerous cultural artifacts that involve the guillotine. Many of these stories, films, and events actually sound quite fascinating, too. But, about halfway through the book, the long list of guillotine-related paraphernalia grows tedious. Readers can only peruse synopses of stories for so long before they either want to read the full length versions or move beyond the list.
Daniel Gerould attempts not to outline a history of the deadly instrument but “to examine its representation in the arts both high and low.” Gerould succeeds in collecting and summarizing a substantial amount of novels, movies, plays, magic shows, and various simulations where the guillotine has made an appearance. However, his work is more disappointing in terms of the examinations of these works. While he does provide some insightful analyses of how the guillotine was viewed throughout its two hundred year history, they exist only as brief after thoughts to the interminable summaries.
Starting during the French Revolution and carrying on well throughout the nineteenth century, those executed by the guillotine were viewed as lively performers. They defiantly traveled to the scaffold, made witty last remarks, and viewed their deaths as necessary steps toward an advancement of the revolution. Journalists would even write reviews of the executions, noting the condemned person’s temperament and the efficiency of the killing. Anarchists of the nineteenth century carried on this tradition of defiance. Most notably, perhaps, was Pierre-Francois Lacenaire, who was, in large part, treated as a celebrity and wrote poetry and his memoirs while he waited in jail for his death.
It was not until after the two world wars that many French citizens began looking unfavorably upon the guillotine. And, while the wars helped drain the country’s bloodlust, there was another, much less humanitarian reason for the guillotine’s dwindling appeal: the old wooden contraption could hardly compete with more modern inventions such as cars and planes. People were not so much becoming disgusted with grisly deaths as they were fascinated with technological advancement.
Of course, there was a long line of guillotine detractors. From around the 1830s, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Dumas, Ivan Turgenev, and Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote polemical works and spoke out against beheadings as public entertainment. The existentialists in the mid-twentieth century continued to harshly criticize capital punishment and often portrayed fictional victims as being despondent and frantic in their last moments; this was at great odds with the vivacious anti-heroes of the previous century.
Gerould thoroughly recounts numerous cultural artifacts that involve the guillotine. Many of these stories, films, and events actually sound quite fascinating, too. But, about halfway through the book, the long list of guillotine-related paraphernalia grows tedious. Readers can only peruse synopses of stories for so long before they either want to read the full length versions or move beyond the list.
November 2, 2013
Of the four books I have recently read regarding the use of the Guillotine during the French Revolution and thereafter up until 1981, this book is the most comprehensive and scholarly. The author is a Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center of CUNY and is also a longtime collector of guillotine artifacts and memorabilia. I hadn't realized before that the Nazi regime, during the period 1933 through 1945, used the guillotine to execute over 16,000 Germans. In 1944 alone, one Nazi executioner decapitated 1,399 victims, an average of nearly four a day.
Also included in the book are the written observations and commentaries of several well known personalities on their view of the Guillotine and Capital Punishment, including: Voltaire, Oscar Wilde, William Wordsworth, Dickens, Cardinal Richelieu, Lord Bryon, Alexander Dumas pire, Victor Hugo, Fydor Dostoevsky among others.
A very interesting and educational read.
Also included in the book are the written observations and commentaries of several well known personalities on their view of the Guillotine and Capital Punishment, including: Voltaire, Oscar Wilde, William Wordsworth, Dickens, Cardinal Richelieu, Lord Bryon, Alexander Dumas pire, Victor Hugo, Fydor Dostoevsky among others.
A very interesting and educational read.
July 4, 2012
The figures are staggering. As recorded by the Nazis themselves, between 1933 and 1945, there were 16,500 executions by guillotine in Germany.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews