 First edition | |
| Author | Tanith Lee |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | The Execution of Louis XVI - 1793 (Danish School) |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Publisher | The Overlook Press |
Publication date | 1996 |
| Media type | |
The Gods Are Thirsty is a 1996 historical novel by British author Tanith Lee set during the French Revolution. It follows the rise and fall of journalist Camille Desmoulins, who launches the Revolution and is eventually sent to the guillotine.
During a night out at the bar, struggling writer Camille Desmoulins hears that the popular finance minister Jacques Necker has been dismissed from office. At Georges Danton's behest, Camille stands on a table and tells the people of the Third Estate to rise against the monarch of France, King Louis XVI. The people of the Third Estate storm the Bastille and the French Revolution begins. Camille is in love with a noble 19-year-old girl, Lucile Duplessis, whose father will not allow them to be together. Camille writes pro-revolutionary newspapers and pamphlets with Comte de Mirabeau as his benefactor, but soon begins writing pamphlets criticizing Mirabeau. Drunk on wine, Camille tries to convince Lucile's father to let them wed, and after Camille is put on trial for his writings and saved by Maximilien Robespierre, Lucile's father agrees to the marriage.
Mirabeau gets sick and dies. Camille writes an article questioning Mirabeau's death and his methods. He and Danton lead the people to Champ de Mars, fighting with the National Guard. Camille learns that Lucile is pregnant and Camille runs off to live in the country. Danton sends him a letter, asking him to return and help rebuild Paris. Anarchy breaks out over a bread shortage; the people blame the King. The people break into the King's palace and capture him; learning of Louis' capture, Prussia send troops into France. Hotel de Ville becomes a battleground and the people drive the Prussians out of the country. Riots erupt as the people purge traitors and anti-revolutionists. Danton creates The Committee of General Defense to arrest and try anti-revolutionist, who are beheaded by the guillotine, a symbol for the Reign of Terror.
Robespierre denounces the acts of the revolution. He has the heads of the committee of general defense step down and becomes the head of the renamed Committee of Public Safety. Camille begins to distrusts Robespierre; his feeling is confirmed when Robespierre takes down those whom he deems a threat. Camille wants an end to the revolution. Robespierre tells Camille of his plans to become France's new king, which Camille protests. Camille writes an article asking for moderation and an end to beheadings; he is promptly arrested along with Danton and other Dantonists. All are tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal, found guilty, and sent to the guillotine; Lucile is guillotined. In the months following, Robespierre and his friends are also guillotined.
Tanith Lee began writing The Gods Are Thirsty in 1982, and finished her first draft in the beginning of 1985. This was her only book that she wrote multiple drafts on. She got inspired to write this book because Lee watched a play on the television called Danton's Death, which covered Georges Jacques Danton's trial and death. [1] She also read about a newspaperman who was intimately associated with both Danton and Maximilien Robespierre. However, people said it would be a poor decision because it was too horrible so she held off on writing it for a while. When she actually got around to writing the novel in a diary style, she put much effort into researching the French Revolution. Tanith wanted to make the characters seem like actors. [2] She focused more on Camille Desmoulins because he was the link between the two main figures of the French Revolution, Robespierre and Danton. Desmoulins had a love story to tie into it as well with Lucile Duplessis. Finally, Desmoulins is one of the unknown characters in the Revolution, so Tanith Lee wanted to bring awareness to the importance of his actions. One of Lee's difficulties was that the characters were not fictional and the ending of her book had already been written by history, contrary to her usual strategy of knowing characters first and letting plots proceed from their interactions. [3]
Critics agreed that the Gods Are Thirsty was beautifully written despite Tanith Lee's inexperience with historical fiction. [4] [5] [6] Tanith Lee is known as a science fiction writer, but The Gods Are Thirsty is an historical novel However critics were divided on other aspects of the book, citing its length and switches between first and third person narrative which made it confusing to read and difficult to understand, [7] the bloodiness of the narrative, [8] and the density of the research. [7] The Gods Are Thirsty was given a 3.3 out of 5 average customer review. [5]
Georges Jacques Danton was a French lawyer and a leading figure in the French Revolution. He became a deputy to the Paris Commune, presided in the Cordeliers district, and visited the Jacobin club. In August 1792 he became French Minister of Justice and was responsible for inciting the September Massacres. In Spring 1793 he supported the foundation of a Revolutionary Tribunal and became the first president of the Committee of Public Safety. After the Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793 he changed his mind on the use of force and lost his seat in the committee; Danton and Robespierre became rivals. In early October 1793, he left politics but was urged to return to Paris to plead, as a moderate, for an end to the Terror. Danton's continual criticism of the Committee of Public Safety provoked further counter-attacks. At the end of March 1794, Danton made a speech announcing the end of the Terror. Within a week he became embroiled in a scandal concerning the bankruptcy proceedings of the French East India Company and was guillotined by the advocates of revolutionary terror after accusations of conspiracy, venality and leniency toward the enemies of the Revolution.
The Committee of Public Safety formed the provisional government in France during the Reign of Terror (1793–1794), a phase of the French Revolution. Supplementing the Committee of General Defence created after the execution of King Louis XVI in January 1793, the Committee of Public Safety was created in April 1793 by the National Convention and restructured in July 1793. It was charged with protecting the new republic against its foreign and domestic enemies, fighting the First Coalition and the Vendée revolt. As a wartime measure, the committee was given broad supervisory and administrative powers over the armed forces, judiciary and legislature, as well as the executive bodies and ministers of the Convention.
Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoît Desmoulins was a French journalist and politician who played an important role in the French Revolution. Desmoulins was tried and executed alongside Georges Danton when the Committee of Public Safety reacted against Dantonist opposition. He was a schoolmate of Maximilien Robespierre and a close friend and political ally of Danton, who were both influential figures in the French Revolution. He is best known for criticizing the repressive measures of the Reign of Terror and pleading for clemency in Le Vieux Cordelier (1793-1794), as well as for calling the people to arms before the Palais Royal on July 12, 1789, which helped incite the storming of the Bastille.
Antoine Quentin Fouquier de Tinville was a French lawyer and public prosecutor during the French Revolution and Reign of Terror.
Dantons Tod is an opera by Gottfried von Einem to a libretto by Boris Blacher and Gottfried von Einem after Georg Büchner's 1835 play of the same name. Its first performance took place in Salzburg on 6 August 1947. It was revised in 1955.
The Hébertists, or Exaggerators were a radical revolutionary political group associated with the populist journalist Jacques Hébert, a member of the Cordeliers club. They came to power during the Reign of Terror and played a significant role in the French Revolution.
Anne-Lucile-Philippe Desmoulins, born Laridon-Duplessis was a French revolutionary, diarist, and author during the French Revolution. She was married to the revolutionary Camille Desmoulins.
Danton's Death was the first play written by Georg Büchner, set during the French Revolution.
Danton is a 1983 French language film depicting the last weeks of Georges Danton, one of the leaders of the French Revolution. It is an adaptation of the 1929 play The Danton Case by Stanisława Przybyszewska.
La Révolution française is a two-part 1989 historical film co-produced by France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Canada for the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. The full film runs at 360 minutes, but the edited-for-television version is slightly longer. It purports to tell a faithful and neutral story of the Revolution, from the calling of the Estates-General to the death of Maximilien de Robespierre. The film had a large budget and boasted an international cast. It was shot in French, German and English.
The following lists events that happened during 1794 in the French Republic.
During the French Revolution, modérantisme or the faction des modérés was the name the Montagnards gave to their relatively more moderate opponents, first the Girondins and then the Dantonists. Modérantisme was denounced before the Jacobin and the Cordeliers clubs, who then led the first attacks on it in 1794.
Le Vieux Cordelier was a journal published in France between 5 December 1793 and 3 February 1794. Its radical criticism of ultra-revolutionary fervor and repression in France during the Reign of Terror contributed significantly to the downfall and execution of the Dantonists, among whom its author, the journalist Camille Desmoulins, numbered. It comprised seven numbers, of which six appeared; the seventh remained unpublished for some forty years.
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Estates-General, the Constituent Assembly and the Jacobin Club, he campaigned for universal manhood suffrage, the right to vote for people of color, Jews, actors, domestic staff and the abolition of both clerical celibacy and French involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1791, Robespierre was elected as "public accuser" and became an outspoken advocate for male citizens without a political voice, for their unrestricted admission to the National Guard, to public offices, and to the commissioned ranks of the army, for the right to petition and the right to bear arms in self defence. Robespierre played an important part in the agitation which brought about the fall of the French monarchy on 10 August 1792 and the summoning of a National Convention. His goal was to create a one and indivisible France, equality before the law, to abolish prerogatives and to defend the principles of direct democracy. He earned the nickname "the incorruptible" for his adherence to strict moral values.
Errancis Cemetery or Cimetière des Errancis is a former cemetery in the 8th arrondissement of Paris and was one of the four cemeteries used to dispose of the corpses of guillotine victims during the French Revolution.
Danton is a 1931 German historical drama film directed by Hans Behrendt and starring Fritz Kortner, Lucie Mannheim and Gustaf Gründgens. It depicts the dramatic downfall and execution of Georges Danton in 1794 at the hands of Maximilien Robespierre.
A Place of Greater Safety is a 1992 novel by Hilary Mantel. It concerns the events of the French Revolution, focusing on the lives of Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Maximilien Robespierre from their childhood through the execution of the Dantonists, and also featuring hundreds of other historical figures.
The Gods Are Athirst is a 1912 novel by Anatole France. It is set in Paris in 1793–1794, closely tied to specific events of the French Revolution.
Danton is a 1921 German silent historical film directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki and starring Emil Jannings, Werner Krauss and Ossip Runitsch. The film was shot at the Johannisthal Studios in Berlin. It premiered at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in the city on 4 May 1921. It was based on the play Danton's Death by Georg Büchner.
The Coup d'état of 9 Thermidor or the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre refers to the series of events beginning with Maximilien Robespierre's address to the National Convention on 8 Thermidor Year II, his arrest the next day, and his execution on 10 Thermidor Year II. In the speech of 8 Thermidor, Robespierre spoke of the existence of internal enemies, conspirators, and calumniators, within the Convention and the governing Committees. He refused to name them, which alarmed the deputies who feared Robespierre was preparing another purge of the Convention.