Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution (51 page)
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Authors: Ruth Scurr
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Born in 1971, Ruth Scurr studied at Oxford and Cambridge, where she currently teaches politics and history. A prominent literary critic, she has written for
The New York Review of Books
and
The Times Literary Supplement. Fatal Purity
is her first book.
Parts of
Fatal Purity
were researched and written alongside my work as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Politics Department of Cambridge University. I acknowledge the valuable support of the academy, my colleagues, and my students.
An earlier version was generously read and improved by two eminent historians of the French Revolution: Professor Norman Hampson (whose own book on Robespierre is a lasting bequest to scholarship in the field), and Dr. Michael Sonenscher (teacher, colleague, and friend of a decade in King’s College, Cambridge). I am beholden to both. All remaining inaccuracies and infelicities are certainly my own.
I am extremely grateful to Sara Bershtel at Metropolitan Books for her highly intelligent and tirelessly generous editorial work, as well as to Riva Hocherman for her valuable suggestions, Roslyn Schloss for her excellent copyediting, and Kate Levin for her organizational acumen. At Chatto and Windus, my thanks to Jenny Uglow, with whom it is a privilege to work, and to Alison Samuel and Poppy Hampson. I’m grateful also to Lindsay Duguid, Nick Laird, and Erica Wagner, who all took the time to read and comment at length.
My agent, Peter Straus, has helped in countless ways, and I am grateful also to Rowan Routh at Rogers, Coleridge and White and to Melanie Jackson in the United States.
I have always been courteously assisted by staff at the Cambridge University Library, the British Library, the London Library, the Archives nationales, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
For professional advice of different kinds, thank you: Alex Butterworth, Rebecca Carter, Heather Glen, Istvan Hont, Sunil Khilnani, Robert MacFarlane, Brian McDonnell, Angus McKinnon, Andrew Wilson, Bee Wilson (who first encouraged me to begin this book), and Brian Young.
I apologize to Charles, Polly, and Rosalind Dunn for encroachments on their weekends and childhood holidays.
And I thank, above all, John Dunn, for our fierce conversations and everything else he has given me.
Preface
1.
Croker (1967), p. 277.
2.
Croker (1835), pp. 565–66.
3.
Croker (1857), p. 384.
4.
Ibid., p. 299.
Introduction
1.
Forsyth (1989), p. 133; Rœderer (1853–59), vol. 3, pp. 270–71. Rœderer’s depiction of Robespierre was based on personal acquaintance and first published, under the name Merlin de Thionville, in 1794.
2.
Pierre Choudieu quoted in Thompson (1989), pp. 243–44.
3.
O’Brien (1837?), pp. 6–7.
4.
Robespierre (1828), vol. 2, p. 14.
5.
Furet (1978), p. 64.
6.
M. Bloch quoted in Haydon and Doyle (1999), p. 212.
7.
When the Maison Robespierre was purchased by the city of Arras in 1990, the town council decided to entrust its refurbishment to the Compagnons de France, who would receive in payment for their work the right to use part or all of the house. Les Amis de Robespierre pour le Bicentenaire de la Révolution (ARBR), a society established in Arras to ensure that Robespierre’s contribution to the Revolution is not overlooked, campaigned hard to retain space for a small museum devoted to him. The ARBR continues working today to raise Robespierre’s profile in Arras and beyond. See
http://www.amisrobespierre.org/
.
8.
Forsyth (1989), p. 128; Rœderer (1853–59), vol. 3, p. 267.
9.
Dumont (1832), p. 250.
10.
There is dispute over whether Robespierre’s famous sky-blue coat was different from the blue coats worn by the other deputies to the National Convention as their official dress. Vilate (1825), p. 197, suggests that it was not.
11.
Thompson (1989), p. 223.
12.
Ibid., p. 224.
13.
For a summary of the dispute about the decor of Robespierre’s room at the Duplays, see M. Cumming in Haydon and Doyle (1999), pp. 180–81. Also Jordan (1985), p. 58.
1: Child of Arras
1.
On Arras, see Bougard (1988) and Héricourt and Godin (1856).
2.
On Robespierre’s ancestry, see Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 1, pp. 197–203, and Thompson (1939), pp. 1–4.
3.
Paris (1870), p. 17.
4.
Palmer (1975), p. 43.
5.
Proyart (1803), p. 220.
6.
Rousseau (1993), p. xxi.
7.
Ibid., p. 1.
8.
Ibid., p. 12.
9.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 1, pp. 211–12.
10.
Palmer (1975), pp. 70–71.
11.
Quoted in Horne (2003), p. 170.
12.
Palmer (1975), p. 84.
13.
Proyart (1803), pp. 217–20.
14.
Desmoulins (1980), vol. 1, p. 521.
15.
Little is known of the childhood acquaintance of Robespierre and Desmoulins. One source says they were neither rivals nor close friends because their age difference meant they were not in the same class; see
Le vieux Cordelier
, p. 3.
16.
Robespierre (1828), vol. 1, pp. 154–55.
2: The Lawyer-Poet Back Home
1.
Paris (1870), p. 18. This institution was founded by Marianne and Joseph Manarre in 1674. It admitted deserving girls between the ages of nine and eighteen, who were taught to read, write, sew, and make lace.
2.
Bougard (1988), p. 178.
3.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, p. 25.
4.
Ibid., p. 26.
5.
Ibid., p. 27.
6.
Ibid., vol. 1, p. 241; Laponneraye (2002), p. 106. Charlotte Robespierre implies that this was a later poem, composed during the Revolution.
7.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, p. 22.
8.
Laponneraye (2002), pp. 44–45.
9.
Ibid., pp. 47–48.
10.
Lewes (1899), p. 39.
11.
See Riskin (1999); also Huet (1989).
12.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 2, p. 357.
13.
Laponneraye (2002), p. 59.
14.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 1, p. 44.
15.
Archives parlementaires
, vol. 9, p. 393.
16.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 1, p. 24.
17.
Ibid., p. 28.
18.
Ibid., p. 42.
19.
Ibid., p. 31. The term
l’être suprême
was a well-established way of referring to God in Christian vocabulary since the seventeenth century. Later in the Revolution Robespierre imbued it with new meaning; see Deprun (1972).
20.
Thompson (1939), pp. 22–23.
21.
Rœderer (1853–59), vol. 3, p. 9.
22.
Babeuf (1961), p. 7.
23.
Wogue (1894), p. 267.
24.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 1, p. 94.
25.
Ibid., p. 89.
26.
Ibid., p. 114.
27.
Ibid., pp. 244–46; Thompson (1939), p. 32. The story of Charlotte’s disapproval was told to Sainte-Beuve by an old bookseller named Isnard, who had taught at the Collège d’Arras.
28.
Ibid., p. 223.
29.
Ibid., p. 224.
30.
Ibid., vol. 3a, pp. 30–31.
31.
Thompson (1939), p. 21.
32.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, p. 24.
33.
Ibid., p. 33.
34.
Joseph Garat remembered that during the Revolution Robespierre kept
La nouvelle Héloïse
open on his desk as a literary and oratorical model; see Proyart (1850), p. 224.
35.
Rousseau (2000), p. 418.
36.
Rousseau (1987), pp. 58–59.
37.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, pp. 33–34.
38.
Paris (1870), p. 187.
39.
See Carr (1972), ch. 8, pp. 79–96, for an argument connecting the Rosati Society and Freemasonry in Arras.
40.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 1, p. 194.
41.
Dickens (1988), p. 11.
42.
Paris (1870), p. 124.
3: Standing for Election in Arras
1.
Doyle (1990), p. 76.
2.
Palmer (1959), vol. 1, p. 454.
3.
Lamoignon (1787), p. 3.
4.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 8, p. 307.
5.
Young (1929), p. 97.
6.
Ibid., p. 97.
7.
Ibid., p. 97.
8.
Doyle (1990), p. 14.
9.
Hufton (1974), p. 12.
10.
Robespierre (1989), p. 5.
11.
Crook (1996), p. 10.
12.
The municipality of Arras traced its origins back to the eleventh century.
13.
Stage 1 was elections by parish, corporation, or
quartier
, stage 2 the town assembly, stage 3 the secondary
baillage
assembly (Artois was divided into seven
baillages
), and stage 4 the principal
baillage
assembly, from which the final delegates of the third estate would be chosen.
14.
The most notable was Gracchus Babeuf.
15.
Hampson (1974), p. 41.
16.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 6, p. 18, gives the precise composition of this assembly.
17.
Proyart (1850), pp. 42–43.
18.
Ibid., p. 40.
4: Representing the Nation at Versailles
1.
Pierre L’Enfant, who designed the 1791 street plan for Washington, D.C., had spent time in Versailles as a child.
2.
Young (1929), p. 151.
3.
Ibid., p. 13.
4.
La Morandière [1764] quoted in Corbin (1986), p. 27.
5.
See Alison Patrick’s article in Blanning (1996), pp. 236–66, for a full explanation of how and why the number of deputies fluctuated. Also Tackett (1996).
6.
Ferrières (1932), p. 34.
7.
Ibid., p. 43.
8.
Stäel (1983), p. 140.
9.
Mirabeau (1790), p. 40.
10.
Dumont (1832), p. 144.
11.
Hampson (1974), pp. 17–18.
12.
Staël (1983), pp. 313–14.
13.
Jones (2002), p. 262.
14.
Ibid., p. 310.
15.
Doyle (1990), p. 94.
16.
Rousseau (1962), vol. 1, p. 255.
17.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, p. 41.
18.
Hampson (1974), p. 47.
19.
Aulard (1889–97), vol. 1, pp. ii–xvii. The history of the Breton Club is difficult to reconstruct and it is not clear when exactly Robespierre joined it.
20.
Schama (1989), p. 331.
21.
Dumont (1832), p. 64.
22.
Mirabeau (1790), vol. 1, p. 14.
23.
Ibid., p. 15.
24.
Dumont (1832), pp. 60–61.
25.
Ibid., pp. 61–62. The deputy Reybaz, sitting next to Dumont, said this to him.
26.
Doyle (1990), p. 105.
27.
Dumont (1832), p. 93.
28.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, p. 42.
29.
Desmoulins (1980), vol. 1, p. 77.
30.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, pp. 42–50.
31.
Schama (1989), pp. 389–94.
32.
Godechot (1970), pp. 219–20.
33.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, p. 44.
34.
New Annual Register
, p. 25.
35.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, pp. 44–45.
36.
New Annual Register
, p. 28.
37.
Doyle (1990), p. 113.
38.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, p. 45.
39.
Ibid.
40.
Godechot (1970), p. 327.
41.
Thompson (1989), p. 46.
42.
Godechot (1970), p. 331.
43.
Mirabeau (1835–36), p. 204.
44.
Dumont (1832), p. 138.
45.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, p. 48.
46.
Lefebvre (1973), pp. 35–56.
47.
Lefebvre (2002), pp. 135–36.
48.
Robespierre (1910–67), vol. 3a, pp. 46–47.
49.
Dumont (1832), p. 138.
50.
See K. M. Baker in Van Kley (1994), pp. 154–99.
51.
Archives parlementaires
, vol. 9, p. 236.
52.
Dumont (1832), p. 140.
