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The Giant of the French Revolution: Danton, A Life Hardcover – January 1, 2009

by David Lawday (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 66 ratings
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One of the Western world’s most epic uprisings, the French Revolution ended a monarchy that had ruled for almost a thousand years. George-Jacques Danton was the driving force behind it. In the first biography of Danton in over forty years, David Lawday reveals the larger-than-life figure who joined the fray at the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and was dead five years later.
To hear Danton speak, his booming voice a roll of thunder, excited bourgeois reformers and the street alike; his impassioned speeches, often hours long, drove the sans culottes to action and kept the Revolution alive. But as the newly appointed Minister of Justice, Danton struggled to steer the increasingly divided Revolutionary government. Working tirelessly to halt the bloodshed of Robespierre’s Terror, he ultimately became another of its victims. True to form, Danton did not go easily to the guillotine; at his trial, he defended himself with such vehemence that the tribunal convicted him before he could rally the crowd in his favor.
In vivid, almost novelistic prose, Lawday leads us from Danton’s humble roots to the streets of Revolutionary Paris, where this political legend acted on the stage of the revolution that altered Western civilization.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    308 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Grove Press
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0802119336
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0802119339
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Attempting to reconcile what he sees as DantonÖs essentially humane nature with the Terror he helped to unleash, former Economist correspondent Lawday (NapoleonÖs Master: A Life of Prince Talleyrand) gives us not only a fine biography but a moving description of revolutionary tragedy as well. The man Lawday calls the "gentle giant of terror" was a giant physically and in his impact on European history. Danton (1759–1794) took charge of the Revolution when it faced failure and saw violence as the only way to save it and avert greater violence if Britain invaded and royalists sought vengeance. Basically, a family man longing for his country village, he was responsible for the overthrow of the monarchy and for the use of extreme violence against the RevolutionÖs enemies, yet he quietly sought moderation when possible. Riding the revolutionary wave, Danton attempted to stay afloat as his archenemy, Robespierre, manipulated events. DantonÖs loss to RobespierreÖs bloodthirstiness was inevitable and he was condemned to the guillotine. An exciting history, gracefully written and well researched, but slightly weakened by occasional attempts, in the absence of documentation, to imagine what DantonÖs thoughts and motives might have been. Illus., 1 map.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Biographer of a French Revolution survivor (Napoleon's Master: A Life of Prince Talleyrand, 2007), Lawday presents an absorbing portrait of a celebrated victim. Anchoring Georges-Jacques Danton's earthy temperament in his countryside upbringing, Lawday depicts him in action during the series of insurrections, massacres, and wars that produced increasingly extremist regimes between 1789 and 1794. To impart the febrile atmosphere of those years, Lawday writes a present-tense narrative of the heavyset, ox-faced Danton bellowing spellbinding oratory from the rostrum, conferring in private with political allies, and enjoying the uxorious comforts of home. Coming to the revolutionary fore as an organizer of the violent overthrow of the French throne in 1792, and as a minister in the revolutionary republican government, Danton found his tolerance for bloodletting abating as the Terror began to decapitate revolutionists as well as royalists. Imaginative Lawday may be, but he viscerally re-creates the look and smell of the fevered Paris Danton moved about, setting the mood for the climax to Danton's call for moderation: his execution in 1794. A page-turner for history readers, guaranteed. --Gilbert Taylor

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; First Edition (January 1, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 308 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802119336
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802119339
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 66 ratings

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David Lawday

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4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
66 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Rainybeet
5.0 out of 5 stars Great biography of one of the greatest characters, as well as the largest, of the French Revolution.
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2019
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After reading several books on the French Revolution and listening to a couple of lecture series I decided it was time to really get into depth into the individual characters such as Danton, Robespierre, Talleyrand, and Napoleon. I started with Danton because he is such a larger than life character, and this book really gives a great perspective on one of the men that truly made the French Revolution.
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Dr. Miguel A. Faria
4.0 out of 5 stars Georges Danton -- The fallen titan of the French Revolution!
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2014
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Georges Danton was the "Titan of the French Revolution," but like the Girondins before him, he was too late in recognizing the need to stop the madness, the grinding of lives by the terror, and the excesses of the Revolution they had unleashed on the hapless French people and, ultimately, the world.

Danton, the man who prepared the Insurrectionary Commune for the storming of the Tuileries in the August 10, 1792, coup d'etat; the man who inspired the Miracle of Valmy (1792), and the revolution's greatest orator and hero himself, ultimately became a victim. But Danton went to the guillotine with courage. The fact is Danton had come to his senses too late to stop the terror, the terror he himself had organized in perpetrating (or acquiescing) the atrocities committed in the September Massacres (1792). He was never forgiven for these brutalities by Madame Roland, a leader of the great Girondins, he had fatally opposed. When Danton tried to find allies to stop the terror, there was no one to forge alliances, no counter force left; it was simply too late. Danton and his friends succumbed to the revolutionary monster they had created.

The Committee of Public safety, headed by his former friend and ally, the "incorruptible" Maximilien Robespierre and his radical blood-thirsty side-kicks, Saint-Just and Couthon, were doing the grinding. By then even many Deputies of the Convention and even some of the other members of the Committee were in fear of their lives.

First it was the liberal nobility that perished, enticed by the siren song of the Philosophes; then it was the moderates, then Girondins, then the "indulgents" led by Danton and Camille Desmoulins themselves, then the ultra-radical "enrages" Hébertists, and finally Robespierre himself. Like Saturn, the Revolution devoured his children! But this is the story of Danton, the person, the relationships, the ideals, the revolutionary, the tragedy, and it's fairly well told.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out some specific quirks in this book by author David Lawday, who must be noted has fallen deeply in love with his subject Danton, which may be understandable, Danton truly being a greater than life revolutionary figure; but Lawday has also being seduced by the betrayed ideals of the French Revolution. He compares it to the American Revolution and intimates that the French bested the Americans. In fact, the American Republic was a nation of laws from the very beginning, unlike the French. He also alludes to the Roman Republic; but here again, the comparison is illusory. The Roman Republic was run by two dozen aristocratic or so, who for the most part were incredibly capable families, proud of their pedigrees extending centuries, a military aristocracy, that capably conquered and ruled most of the known Western world. Moreover the Roman aristocracy did not massacre each other, but formed useful political alliances through marriage and adoptions.

The author makes a fairly good case for absolving Danton of having connived in the Duke of Brunswick bribe affair just prior to the Battle of Valmy (1792); but does not do as well in exculpating him from involvement in the horrible September Massacres. Danton is likened to the Comte de Mirabeau, but the latter, the orator of the early Revolution, was much wiser and saw early on the travesty the Revolution had become. Mirabeau at least tried to do something in time, may have even been successful, only that he was promptly and untimely afflicted with illness and his life was cut short before he could have a chance to alter the course of the Revolution, as Talleyrand and Lafayette were to do in the Revolution of 1830.

The author also exculpates Danton for his for the incitation to violence and repeated calls for death to the "enemies of the Revolution" as flowery language. How were the people, the fickle Parisian mobs and the violent sans culottes, always thirsting for savage revenge, to know that Danton's incitations were "parliamentary theater" and only "figures of speech"? The rabble rouser Jean Paul Marat and "the Incorruptible" Maximilian Robespierre do get their just desert in this book; but the Girondins and Royalists are gently maligned as revolutionary snobs and treasonous villains. Thomas Paine comes out of the pages of this book as a wise Englishman and a political moderate, which in fact he was in France at the time -- his relative moderation in the ultra-radical politics of the French Revolution, as opposed to the perceived radicalism in the former American colonies, tell us something and eerily presages, at least in hindsight, the course of the two revolutions!

The French National Convention steered by radicals, the author calls "weird and wonderful" (p.146); the August 10 coup d' etat led by Danton, manipulating the insurrectionary commune, that overturned the fleeting Constitutional monarchy is praised as a patriotic act; of the blood-thirsty prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville, Lawday opines, "it was hard to fault him in his professional endeavors." Lawday also laments, "it was a pity" that the high intensity of conscription for the levee en masse for total war was resented by the provinces, supposedly because "it intensified the civil war"! (p.151)

The author says he cannot fathom why the Girondins, in particular their leader, Madame Roland, felt the way they did about Danton. The answer is simple: They might not have liked his formidable looks as Lawday suggested, but they certainly did not not like his rabble-rousing harangues, and they certainly blamed him for complicity, if not acquiescence, in the ghastly September Massacres in which 2500 innocent prisoners were slaughtered in cold blood and the severed head of the gentle Princess Lambelle was savagely paraded in a pike and even shown to her friend, the imprisoned Queen Marie Antoinette, in the Temple Tower prison, where she too waited her and her family's fate.

Yet, the author decries Girondin "intractability," in refusing to make peace with the ultra-radicals and violent Montagnards -- an intractability, which he ascribes to Madame Roland obsessive personal hatred of Danton. It seems that the author would have been happy if the Girondins had just rolled over and let the Jacobin Montagnard have their way at the Convention. The fact is that with their "intractability" and their refusal to abet the Terror, the Girondins died in the better side of revolutions, and certainly in the right side of history.

In the same light, Lawday writes: "Alas [Prime Minister William] Pitt remained unmoved" regarding Dantons' peace feelers to Britain, as if Danton's overtures, coming after the Revolutionary Armies were defeated in the Low Countries and General Dumoriez's defection, could have been given serious thought. At the same time, Danton was busily calling for total war, "levee en masse," turning all French male citizens into soldiers, and the Convention was becoming more and more radical and more aggressive in the pursuit of war of Liberation.

In the end, history takes its course: Danton and his friends, Fabre d'Eglantine, Camille (and his innocent wife Lucille) Desmoulins, and the other "indulgents" felt to the fiendish grinding machine of injustice and terror, that they, in particular Danton, helped create. In the case of Danton the charge is most serious: He instigated the coup of August 10, fomented radicalization of the government, manipulated the mob with his harangues, was complicit in the September Massacres, created the Revolutionary Tribunals and ushered in the Committee of Public Safety -- the last two, the instruments that Maximilien Robespierre handled with superior, ruthless efficiency, and bloody dexterity.

Despite these concerns and caveats, I recommend this novelistic book highly to all readers interested in the French Revolution -- and ultimately the course of most modern revolutions since 1789!

The reviewer, Dr. Miguel Faria, is a medical historian and the author of Cuba in Revolution -- Escape From a Lost Paradise (2002). He has written several articles on the French Revolution including, "Bastille Day and the French Revolution"(2004), "Rewriting the French Revolution"(2004), "The Economic Terror of the French Revolution"(2003), and numerous articles on political history and communism, including "the Political Spectrum -- From the Extreme Right and Anarchism to the Extreme Left and Communism" (2011). . His articles are posted at his website drmiguelfariadotcom & haciendapublishingdotcom
10 people found this helpful
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eledavf Vivian
3.0 out of 5 stars Almost Unreadable...but now I have second thoughts...
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2016
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I added these thoughts when I actually finished the book:

This book improves as it goes along. It begins with such a ridiculous style but eventually settles down into acceptable English and becomes readable. My original review follows.

***************************
This book is so poorly written that I cannot recommend it. That is unfortunate since as far as I know there are not many biographies devoted solely to Danton.

Part of the way through the Kindle version I almost stopped reading. The writing was so atrocious that I could scarcely bear it any longer.

The author refers to Danton as "the massive male with the frightening face". On and on he goes about Danton's size! His "fearsome physique"!

Nor does he let you forget that he was ugly. Over and over he stresses the size and hideousness of this famous man. He was a giant. He was incredibly repulsive. He was a beast.

Never have I encountered such an obsession with a subject's appearance. The grieving Danton digs up his wife's grave to make a mold of her features. He is "the giant statesman". Over and over. Giant. Huge. Massive head.

Some other examples of the terrible writing:

"Perishing boredom"...That is such a weird combination of words!

"...as shards from the Enlightenment explosion began to rain on Troyes and pinpricks were felt in the Champagne region.."

At one point the author describes Danton's hearty appetite as that of an ogre:
"No alarms over the sinking affairs of the nation or the rising fury of its people could cut his ogre’s appetite for food, wine and talk."

What point is there in mocking or insulting a man who ultimately turned against the cruelties of the Revolution? And besides, the contrast of "sinking" and "rising" is so artificial that it is embarrassing.

The instances of pointless insults in this book are numberless.

Then there are the constant examples of just plain terrible writing:
"Camille, buoyed by the success of his France Libre, was able, when he concentrated, to keep his tongue almost untied when addressing a crowd." What does this even mean?

It requires an effort of will to read this book.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, vivid, entertaining.
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2015
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Prior to this I have read biography of Robespierre “Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution” by Ruth Scurr and the biography of Mirabeau “Mirabeau and the French Revolution” by Charles F. Warwick. Of the three, I prefer this book for its clarity, vividness, and entertainment.
2 people found this helpful
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Jake M
5.0 out of 5 stars really liked this book
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2018
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Listened to Revolutions podcast, got me interested in reading about the French revolution, really liked this book
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Peter Beutel
4.0 out of 5 stars Danton Lives Again
Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2011
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Good read ... which brings Danton to life. It is difficult to find good books on this man, who meant so much to Revolutionary France. Because of Robespierre, he has often been dropped a level in historians' thinking, but this book does a very good job of presenting a vibrant biography of his life without getting dragged into the Danton Vs Robespierre argument.

I would have like a little more about his trial and the bitter end, but this book was more a celebration of his life and other books DO look at the end in more detail. If you are interested in this period, and I am immensely, this is a book you need to read.
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Top reviews from other countries

AlexK77
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in Canada on August 18, 2022
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Excellent book from an excellent seller! 5 stars!!!
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Maria L. Pedraza
5.0 out of 5 stars The giant of the French Revolution ‘Danton’
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2023
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I needed to have a red to the French Revolution, as my father speak a lot about it, as I remember even details and some anecdotal described in this book. I couldn’t find it in Spanish. It’s one of a must for me.
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Boyd Hone
5.0 out of 5 stars Danton
Reviewed in France on January 31, 2012
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It was thanks to David Lawday's wonderful book on Talleyrand that I decided to read his DANTON (2009). This naturally led to Ruth Scurr's equally marvelous book on Robespierre, FATAL PURITY (2006). Robespierre was a pale Ichabod Crane with the asceticism of a monk; Danton, hideously ugly, had the animal needs of what Americans might call a red-blooded fullback. What strikes one is the total devotion of both men to republican ideals and their unswerving belief in the virtue of the people, upon whom all power should be conferred, sentiments which should normally have placed both men among the greatest humanists the world has known. Next I was struck by the hatred the Conventioneers had for the nobility and the clergy, one of whom quoted Diderot's words, ''The people will never be happy until the last monarch is strangled with the guts of the last priest.'' Striking too was the fact that the first constitution laid the foundation of a constitutional monarchy, giving Louis the right to veto any bill, and that this constitution was renewed even after the king had tried to flee from France. Only massacres perpetrated by the people led to Louis' eventual beheading, and even then he was condemned by a single vote, 361 out of 721. Marie Antoinette was separated from her son after being accused of incest, and on the day of her beheading the Commune offered the boy a toy guillotine. Due to the massacres perpetrated by mobs, Danton called for the Terror in hopes of restoring order by diverting the attention of the people, thereby assuaging their thirst for bloodbaths. He deeply regretted his decision when he found himself at the foot of the guillotine. Robespierre soon followed him, dying in such a manner that his death leaves one feeling sick, a tribute to Scurr's art. Two deaths out of the thousands of innocents who suffered, among them 43 orphans, children guilty of nothing, massacred during the Terror by the mob. And all for what? A few years later the same mob would be shouting Vive l'Empereur, followed by Vive le Roi, (with the advent of Louis XVIII), then came another emperor, then other kings and still another emperor. Some may shed a tear for Danton; most would applaud the extermination of Robespierre, a reaction that would have left him totally indifferent. DANTON and FATAL PURITY are incredibly powerful books about incredibly powerful times.
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Dela
5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Interesting Book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 12, 2021
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A great book on Danton. .. He was such an amazing man and leader. ..it would have been so interesting to see how he would have led France had he not been so tragically murdered at the height of his powers.. He deserves to be remembered. - The Great Danton.
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Erica R.
4.0 out of 5 stars A very good read.
Reviewed in Canada on October 9, 2015
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Well written portrait of Danton. A very good read.
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