A Place of Greater Safety

By: Hilary Mantel

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 33 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

A tour-de-force of historical imagination, this is the story of three young men at the dawn of the French Revolution. Georges-Jacques Danton: zealous, energetic, debt-ridden. Maximilien Robespierre: small, diligent, and terrified of violence. And Camille Desmoulins: a genius of rhetoric, charming, handsome, but erratic and untrustworthy.

As these key figures of the French Revolution taste the addictive delights of power, they must also come to face the horror that follows.

©1992 Hilary Mantel (P)2013 W F Howes Ltd

No cast of characters available

I'm sure I will love this book when I can get hold of the cast of characters - it is in the print edition and the kindle edition and is vital to keeping track of the story with hundreds of minor characters. Unfortunately the Kindle sample has the list at the end (so it's not in the free sample and you would have to buy the book to get it). The only failing of the audiobook format.
For Hilary Mantel's other books (Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies) a friend sent me a photo of the first few pages of her hard copy and I referred to them frequently as I was listening.
Some solution to this problem from Audible would be much appreciated!!

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Living breathing flesh on history's bare bones

If you've learned about the French Revolution at school, you've probably assembled a jumble of facts about the dramatic actions of the revolutionaries and the mob and the outcome of it all. Hilary Mantel dives beneath that to breathe life into the characters who populated the events.
In this well-researched book, she draws flesh and blood portraits of the leaders of the revolution and what led them to the events of that stormy time. You feel embedded in it, experiencing what drove them from crisis to crisis and directed their actions. You see their relationships, their trials and their temptations. Although the details have to be surmised, they are based on careful analysis of the writings of the real people involved, drawing out their motivations and beliefs.
This is an immensely powerful book, a tour de force, which drew me so into the times that I found it difficult sometimes to relate to my day-to-day 21st century life after a session of listening.
Jonathon Keeble's brilliant performance, complete with consistent and identifiable voices for the characters, enhanced it further, making it an experience I won't readily forget. I felt I lived the times. I look forward to further offerings from this author and this narrator.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose -

If you could sum up A Place of Greater Safety in three words, what would they be?

Detailed, very detailed

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Place of Greater Safety?

One, and I stress only one, of the most memorable descriptions is that of the execution of Marie Antoinette. Little snippets, like having had her hair dressed up and off her neck because she anticipated that it would be necessary, the executioner hacks it off to the required length anyway - and burns it, so that it will never become a relic.

This may be how it was for Madame Guillotine, or it may be the author's detailing, but this happens over and over again.

What does Jonathan Keeble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I don't think I could read the book. It is, like Hilary Mantel's two and soon to be three historical books on the Tudors, a meandering tale that moves from past to present tense; in and out of dialogue; with many characters, each of whom Jonathan Keeble brings to life using a different voice/ accent.It is the narration that gives life and colour to this edition; and helps to sort out the very many characters along the way.

If you could take any character from A Place of Greater Safety out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Lucile Desmoulins, wife of Camille Desmoulins - a clever and observant woman, much underrated initially, as Desmoulins' first love was her mother and he only married Lucile because Annette/Anne would not consider divorcing her husband. Lucile was in the midst of the group - Robespierre, Danton, Desmoulins, Marat and the many other men who drove the French Revolution with their commitment and foresight.

If she was not available - and she was executed before him - I would invite Maximilien Robespierre. Mind you, I doubt if he would accept - he wasn't quite a recluse, but he was not a social adept. Kept his energies focussed on the task in hand, which for him, was to improve the wellbeing and lives of the poor people of France. I liked his gentility and kindness.

Any additional comments?

4 sections and almost 34 hours - the book takes some commitment to read/listen to. And that is one of its remarkable virtues - imagine having written it! It is very detailed and the point of view changes a lot, making it a challenge to keep up with the characters and scene, never mind picking up the thread if you have to stop listening for any length of time.

The writing is so very good. Very Hilary Mantel. It is worth bearing in mind that this was her first - that's right - first novel and was written when she was 22 years old! In the interview that she does at the end of the Kindle version, she tells the interviewer that it nearly killed her; that she put it onto a shelf for decades before it was resurrected by new circumstances in her writing career.

In a word of warning, if you know nothing about the French Revolution, this is not the best book from which to increase your knowledge. It helped that I had some idea of dates and times and events and, to a lesser degree, persons from that cataclysmic time in the history of France. Get out your encyclopaedias, your Baroness Orczy and Jean Plaidy, and there is always good old Google.

Then come to Hilary Mantel, for an entirely new, and surprisingly intimate, perspective on The French Revolution.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Highly recommended

I like Hilary Mantel and I had tried reading this in book form and not got very far. The reader was excellent with voices for all the characters and made sense of the beginning of the book where all the characters are introduced and it can get a bit confusing. You don't need to know anything about the French Revolution to be able to follow this book which focusses on 3 of the main protagonists. Like her later 'political' books, Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies (also highly recommended - the reader of Wolf Hall is particularly good) this mixes the political and the personal with great insight into the development of political extremism and its consequences. The portrayal of Robespierre is particularly astute. You can see how the author honed her writing skills to go from this to Wolf Hall - this has the same tautness and, despite its length, conciseness of expression and vividness of imagery. Highly recommended.

17 of 17 people found this review helpful

Loved it!

Hillary Mantell is surely the queen of historical fiction. This book is every bit as good as her two Cromwell novels and it is fascinating to see in this earlier book how she develops the techniques which make those books so gripping. Only she could invest characters who bored the pants off me in my history A level with such life. The Frech Revolution comes alive vividly in all it's passion and horror. It is a long book but is totally gripping from beginning to end. Can't wait for the next one!

16 of 16 people found this review helpful

Fascinating

This is a big book, and tells the stories of three leading figures from the French Revolution - Robespierre, Danton and Camille Desmoulins. They are different in character, but united, initially, by political ideal and by friendship.

This is not an easy listen - you have to pay attention, think and try to understand. There is blood, politics, machinations abounded.

I found it fascinating, and was drawn into an understanding of the terrible events, as well as wondering, overall, how much difference it made.

Highly recommended

14 of 14 people found this review helpful

A fascinating, cold and brutal slice of history

99.9% of people picking up this book will be people who've finished with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies and want more coldly calculated beheadings from Mantel. The history is fascinating, as are the three main characters. Her prose isn't yet what it would become in her later novels, it's almost entirely just clean and functional, and the moments of embellishment come across as a little purple by contrast. The pronoun references can be hard to follow in the audiobook, with so many characters performing similar roles and the narrative's habit of jumping between scenes and perspective without warning. With so many players all involved in the backstabbing, show trials and sexual misadventures, you start wishing for the narrator to put on more hammy but distinct accents, like the narrator of Wolf Hall or Roy Dotrice who does The Song of Ice and Fire books. That said, Desmoulin's stutter perfectly captures his fey charisma

17 of 18 people found this review helpful

Why did Revolution turn into"The Terror"?

Would you listen to A Place of Greater Safety again? Why?

Yes, because y ou can learn so much about how it feels to be living through a revolution and how that revolution can become a bloodbath

Who was your favorite character and why?

Camille Desmoulins' wife, a complex, brave and intelligent woman, no cardboard heroine,who wanted herself and her husband to survive, understood his and his friends' ideals and their danger, stood up to a lot of slander, and was suspicious of Robespierre's uncompromising"virtue"

What does Jonathan Keeble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He varies his voice according to the character whose story he is narrating so that you get a more vivid picture of those characters

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I felt the inexorable horror of the revolution's descent into bloodshed.

Any additional comments?

I would have liked a little more about the downfall of Robespierre, though perhaps the point about him was that his refusal to compromise meant downfall was inevitable.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

A human study of good intent, power and corruption

A gripping tale based on historical events, extremely well read, each character having his own voice.
A great study of human behaviour, illustrates well the tensions between the educated and uneducated, those able to understand widely and those with narrow views. It also shows how ready we are to sacrifice 'others' for the 'good of society' as if we really understand what that is. A 'must listen to again'.
The following quote from Robespierre's private notebooks really resonated with me - sadly!

What is our name?
The constitution for the benefit of the people.
Who are likely to oppose us?
The rich and corrupt.
What methods will they employ?
Slander and hypocrisy.
What factors will encourage the use of such means?
The ignorance of ordinary people.
When will the people be educated?
When they have enough to eat and when the rich and the government stop bribing treacherous tongues and pens to deceive them; when their interests are identified with the people.
When will this be?
Never.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Brilliant

Would you listen to A Place of Greater Safety again? Why?

Yes - the book contains so much historical detail that listening to the whole book again will bring out the bits that I missed the first time around (and just be a great pleasure).

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Place of Greater Safety?

I love the way that Hilary Mantel uses language; I am constantly surprised and delighted by her ability to capture the essence of a character or scene in just a few perfectly chosen words.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

I have not studied this period of history and so I found the development of the characters and the way in which the progression of the revolution is described really fascinating.

Any additional comments?

I loved the narrator - I found his voice incredibly soothing and the range and diversity of his characterisations was unbelievable.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Long and satisfying.

This was an excellent experience overall, with wholly believable characterisations (particularly Camille). I wish those 2 reviewers who gave the superb Jonathan Keeble only 1 star for performance would explain. It just doesn't make sense!

17 of 19 people found this review helpful

Wide screen historical fiction

I loved Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies. Well written genre fiction is such a treat; good dialogue, believable characters and a great story brought together by someone who really knows what they're about. I read Iain M. Banks or Elmore Leonard and I want all science fiction or crime novels to be that good and unfortunately they're not. But Hilary Mantel writes so wonderfully that I was surprised that the reviews of this novel were a bit lukewarm and it put me off buying it for a while. In the end though a combination of "How bad can it be?" and a primitive sense that 34 hours was really good value prompted me to buy it and I'm very glad I did.

The "Cromwell" books achieve a standard for me that this couldn't quite reach; hence the possibly unfair 4 stars; but by any standard it's great writing. She has a lot of characters to pull together and the twists and turns of the French Revolution are incredibly complicated but she marshals a huge cast of characters in service of a great story. I found myself gripped by their fates and fascinated by the big picture stuff at the same time. One example of this is a touching moment where Marie Antoinette is about to get into the cart that will take her to her execution and she has a moment of dread about what's waiting for her at the other end of the journey. She needs to urinate and has to squat in the street. This story is apparently true and for a moment it made me genuinely pity her as a real person, which isn't all that easy when dealing with such strong historical archetypes.

In summary, this is a great listen. It doesn't benefit from the kind of sympathetic central character that the "Cromwell" books have but in fairness it's trying to tell the story of a much more chaotic period featuring many more historical characters who left behind a mountain of documentary evidence. Pretty much everyone comes off as callous or vindictively murderous at some point. So Mantel has a different, difficult job to do and she does it characteristically well.

14 of 16 people found this review helpful

a bit too much

What did you like about this audiobook?

The second half was more engaging than the first.

What did you find wrong about the narrator's performance?

Overall quite good narration.

Do you have any additional comments?

Hillary Mantel has obviously developed her own style and I loved her other books. To my mind she overdoes it a little bit especially in the beginning of this work. Changes of perspectives, developing too many strands and also adding a fair share of unnecessary linguistic acrobatics I nearly decided to stop listening about 8 hours into the book. I made it to the end and overall I am glad I did but if ever Hillary Mantel decided to take my advice it would be : Sometimes less is more

13 of 15 people found this review helpful