Citizens

A Chronicle of the French Revolution

De: Simon Schama

Narrado por: Frederick Davidson

From one of the truly preeminent historians of our time, this is a landmark book chronicling the French Revolution. Simon Schama deftly refutes the contemporary notion that the French Revolution represented an uprising of the oppressed poor against a decadent aristocracy and corrupt court. He argues instead that the revolution was born of a rift among the elite over the speed of progress toward modernity and science, social and economic change. Schama’s approach, weaving in and out of private and public lives in the fashion of a novel, brings us closer than we have ever been to the harrowing and seductive French Revolution.

©1989 Simon Schama (P)1990 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Good overview of the period

Great narration, beautiful prose, wonderful story telling, but a little lacking in analysis and conclusion

Worst recorded performance ever

This voice artist seems more interested in pronouncing his French words with flourish than he does actually speaking the text into the microphone. Dr. Schama’s brilliant text tends to disappear at times as the performer dips his voice away. And mind you THIS IS THE IMPROVED VERSION!!

Citizens: a great book poorly read

The breadth and depth of Schama's scholarship is extraordinary. His prose, while more than occasionally discursive (showing his vast knowledge), is engaging.

But the reader's pronounced British accent was a hindrance at times and required re-listening to some passages. Too bad Hugh Bonneville couldn't have been engaged as a reader, his diction is far more clear.

Lastly, the quality of the recording is poor. I have the printed book, and I found words dropped quite frequently.

I would NOT recommend this version.

Flowery Writing Over Historical Enlightenment

This is, at best, an outdated book on The French Revolution; far better is Popkin’s “A New World Begins.” At seemingly every other page Schama seeks to generally discredit, downplay, even simply make fun of this momentous historical moment. The spirit of this telling of history does not seem to me to be one of imparting wisdom as to the excesses of human behavior, but more of an arrogance in favor Schama’s own opinions. Lastly, and frustratingly, Schama brings historical characters of minor and moderate importance into the narrative, gives you three to six pages of minutiae about them and then they disappear. The writing style is verbose.