Status Updates From Die Französische Revolution...

“Is not Sentimentalism twin- sister to Cant, if not one and the same with it ? is not Cant the materia pritna of the Devil ; from which all falsehoods, imbecilities, abominations body themselves; from which no true thing can come? For Cant is itself properly a double-distilled Lie ; the second-power of a Lie.” The Biblical echo runs all through this wor.

A jacquerie is a violent, spontaneous uprising of peasants against the nobility, originating from the 1358 French revolt during the Hundred Years' War. Synonyms include peasant uprising, rural revolt, insurrection, or riot. It was named after "Jacques Bonhomme," a mocking term for peasants. I recall this term coming up in Tale of Two Cities, but had no idea it dated so far back.

The American revlution pleases the French society. The ideas of the enlightenment sound good in the salons though no one seems to connect them to their own state.

So, however, in this world of ours, which has both an indestructible hope in the Future, and an indestructible tendency to persevere as in the Past, must Innovation and Conservation wage their perpetual conflict, as they may and can.

Nachdem ihm der Mob Ostern in St. Cloud verwehrt hat, aus Angst,er könne von dort aus fliehen oder von Royalisten entführt werden, denkt Louis seize erstmal ernsthaft an Flucht.

Meanwhile it is singular how long the rotten will hold together, provided you do not handle it roughly.

This sounds a lot like Dickens, “OR is this same Age of Hope itself but a simulacrum asHopetoooftenis? Cloud-vapourwithrainbows painted on it, beautiful to see, to sail towards,—which hovers over Niagara Falls ? In that case, victorious. Analysis will have enough to do.”

Carlyle describes the masses: Dreary, languid do these struggle in their obscure re- moteness ; their hearth cheerless, their diet thin. For them, in this world, rises no Era of hope ; hardly now in the other,—if it be not hope in the gloomy rest of Death, for their faith too is failing. Untaught, uncomforted, unfed ! A dumb generation ; their voice only an inar- ticulate cry :

“The oak grows silently, in the forest, a thousand years ; only in the thousandth year, when the woodman arrives with his axe, is there heard an echoing through the solitudes ; and the oak announces itself when, with far-sounding crash, it falls. How silent too was the planting of the acorn ; scattered from the lap of some wandering wind !” The unpleasant perception that a great tree like a great stat can fall.

Mirabeaus Tod ändert alles, danach bricht sich der Tugendterror Bahn, das erst einmal den König und später Marie Antoinette und viele andere den Kopf kosten wird.

Allzu offensichtliche und unentschlossen betriebene Fluchtpläne der Königsfamilie, schon die unbedeutenden Schwestern von Louis Seize haben, trotz amtlichen Geleitbriefen des Parlaments große Schwierigkeiten, da immer wieder ein profilierungssüchtiger Bürgermeister die Kutschen mit den ältlichen Prinzessinnen aufhält.

“The new Louis with his Court is rolHng towards Choisy, through the summer afternoon : the royal tears still flow ; but a word mispronounced by Monseigneur d'Artois sets them all laughing, and they weepnomore. Lightmortals,howyewalkyourlight life-minuet, over bottomless abysses, divided from you by a film !” Classic Carlyle!

John Holland Rose wrote in his introduction “Carlyle's work is the outpouring of a vehement nature, the protest of a mind flaming up in revolt against the evils of his time. It is that of one crying in the wilderness ; and the sons of wisdom will not expect from this John the Baptist of modern thought the elegances of those who wear soft raiment and aspire to dwell in kings' houses.”

Die Royalisten versuchen die Linken um Robespierre durch Duellforderungen zu eliminieren, zudem macht das Gerücht die Runde, dass 12 angeheuerte Mörder aus der Schweiz die Minimierung der Jakobiner beschleunigen soll. Als Reaktion darauf besetzen Volksmassen den Besitz des letzten erfolgreichen Duellanten de Castris, werfen das gesamte Inventar auf den Hof, bei strikter Vermeidung von Plünderung. Castries emigriert.

Carlyle presents in the second part of the first chapter powerful images of the sickness of the king and of the very idea of kingship. The American revolution is brought up as new ideas for a new age filled with rot and decay

Bin immer wieder verblüfft über die Überfülle von Rhetorik und Metaphorik im Vergleich zu den paar Fakten pro Kapitel. Carlyle ist Prediger und Analyst, aber die grundlegenden Fakten muss man sich fast aus dem Dickicht heraussuchen.

The reason I picked up Chesterton’s biography is because in spite of my reading, I k ow so little about Thomas Carlyle.

I was exposed to this work back in my Masters when I took a class on Literature and the French Revolution. Back then I was struck by the almost mythic setting of historical events.

Strukturen beim Militär, nach denen nur Adelige mit mindestens vier Generationen Nobilität Offiziere sein können und damit auch Zahlungshoheit haben, führt zu lokalen Meutereien wegen massiver Soldrückstände, die man in den Taschen der militärischen Führung vermutet, Versuche, die Ordnung wiederherzustellen gelingen nur durch persönliche Heldentaten wie durch Bouille in Metz und Nancy, trotz wackeligen Loyalitäten.

Absolutely mammoth text: Carlyle’s prose is well-nigh incomprehensible, so much so that I often have to reread sentences multiples times, sometimes without ever grasping their meaning, but at the same time, there’s something appealing in this overly stylised tome… we’ll see if I stick with it.

I'm going to have to soft dnf. Can't get into it.

Mit einer ironischen Süffisanz beschreibt Carlyle Räusche des Patriotismus, bei denen keine Ahnung des Terrors spürbar wird, alle verbrüdern sich mit allen, die königliche Familie Teil der Vorstellung. Aber die Forderung nach Brot bleibt bis zuletzt der finstere Grundbass der Entwicklung in sämtlichen Stadien der Revolution.

Mit grimmigen Humor und einem Feuerwerk an Pointen und Anspielungen beschreibt C den Aufschwung des Presse- und Clubwesens und gibt Einblicke auf die abenteuerlichen Hintergründe der Emporkömmlinge, deren Aufstieg auch mal auf der Höhe des Galgens endet.

Hmm this is really feeling like a textbook written in the 1830s for audiences like the genius and prolific writer Charles Dickens.... I mean what did I expect??