THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIX WOMEN IN REVOLUTIONARY FRANCE

Lucy Moore (Harper Press, £20)

by Merryn Williams

Why has so much been written about Marie Antoinette when there were many far more interesting women around during the French Revolution? This enthralling book names six, of whom the most interesting were the brilliant intellectual Germaine de Stael and the Republican heroine Manon Roland, who died on the guillotine.

But there were thousands of other women too, citoyennes of Paris, who demonstrated in huge angry crowds and demanded to be heard in the few thrilling years when all ideas were up for discussion.

There was Pauline, the chocolate-maker who led a far-left group; there was Theroigne, the one-time courtesan who wore a riding-habit because she wanted men to treat her as an equal, and who ended up mad. Their public and private lives were tempestuous.

Before the Revolution, a few women exerted influence over kings in the traditional way and a few enlightened thinkers, like Condorcet, argued for equality. But the Republic never granted women votes; the mainstream view was that they should stay at home and bring up virtuous citizens.

Robespierre, although he had a large female following, detested women and was determined to allow them no power. It seems he was actually overthrown by a deputy who feared that his mistress (Theresia de Fontenay, who used her privileged position to save many lives) was in danger.

The tragedy is well known. Girondins like Madame Roland, who wanted neither the ancient regime nor the Terror, were destroyed and there was soon a great gap between the poor and the new ruling class, where the future Empress Josephine was a star.

Napoleon did not believe that women deserved rights and gave them even fewer than they had had before 1789. The contrast between useful and ornamental women never went away.