Summary

A powerful and frightening account - based on fresh research and eye-witness accounts - of the great Terror that swept France after the Revolution of 1789. From early 1793 to the summer of 1794, the young French Republic was subject to a reign of institutionalised terror which grew ever more bloodthirsty and paranoid in its actions. Personified by Robespierre and the 'Angel of Death', Saint-Just, the Terror convulsed and very nearly ruined France - until they too met their fate under the guillotine. That extraordinary period - in many ways the precursor of Stalin's Great Terror of the 1930s - is vividly re-created by Graeme Fife. He has used contemporary documents, eye-witness accounts, and reports from the dreaded Committee of Public Safety, to show the atmosphere of fear, suspicion and betrayal that gripped France. But amidst the horror there was also great heroism and pathos - the author includes heartbreaking letters written by those awaiting execution.