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Revolution and Romanticism
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A facsimile reprint in the Revolution & Romanticism series chosen and introduced by Jonathan Wordsworth ISBN 1 85477 054 3 200 x 127 mm 364 pages |
JEANNE MARIE ROLAND DE LA PLATlERE Appeal to Impartial Posterity 1795 At the outbreak of the Revolution Mme Roland, the modern, rigorously educated wife of a provincial official and an ardent disciple of Rousseau, came to Paris and established a salon. She knew personally the central figures of the Revolution and became powerful during the ascendancy of Brissot and the Girondins. In May 1793 she was arrested with other Girondin leaders, and in November she went to the guillotine. Her Appeal, written in prison, is a vivid and historically important account of her part in national events; a section is added by her editor to describe her execution. £35 $55 The day when she was condemned, she was neatly dressed in white; and her long black hair flowed loosely to her waist. She would have moved the most savage heart, but those monsters had no heart at all. Her dress, however, was not meant to excite pity; but was chosen as a symbol of the purity of her mind. After her condemnation, she passed through the wicket with a quick step, bespeaking something like joy; and indicated, by an expressive gesture, that she was condemned to die. She had, for the companion of her misfortune, a man whose fortitude was not equal to her own, but whom she found means to inspire with gaiety, so cheering and so real, that it several times brought a smile upon his face. At the place of execution, she bowed down before the statue of Liberty, and pronounced these memorable words: O Liberty, how many crimes are committed in thy name! |
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