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Description edit
"This is a first-class novel, brilliantly written, and Michelle Moran has authentically evoked an era, infusing her narrative with passages of gripping and often horrifying drama, set in one of history's most brutal periods. The scope of the author's research is staggering, but you won't need... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Marie Grosholtz: Our protagonist, apprenticed to her uncle, learned the skill of creating waxed life size replicas of famous and infamous historical figures.
- Madame Grosholtz: Marie's mother.
- Rose Bertin: Marie Antoinette's milliner (dressmaker).
- Phillippe Curtius: Marie's uncle who was brought to Paris from Switzerland by the cousin of King Louis XV.
- Yachin: Salon de Cire's barker.
- Maximilien Robespierre: One of the most influential persons behind the French Revolution.
- Camille Desmoulins: Lawyer, journalist and politician who played an important part in the French Revolution.
- Henri Charles: Young scientist who lived next door to Curtius and Marie. He was frequently in the company of those behind the French Revolution.
- Jacques Charles: Scientist, mathematician, inventor and balloonist and Henri's brother. Both Henri and Jacques live next door to the Salon de Cire.
- Jean-Paul Marat: Feral-eyed physician and scientist and radical politician who contributed to the French Revolution.
- Duc d'Orléans: Cousin to the King Louis XVI who was in constant disgrace with the King. Also named Philippe Egalite.
- Lucile: Camille's fiancée.
- Madame Sainte-Amaranthe: One of the most powerful women in Paris as past mistress to the Prince de Condé and Vicomte de Pons. She approaches the Salon de Cire to sculpt a replica of her daughter.
- Emilé: Madame Sainte-Amaranthe's daughter. Requests a wax model be made of herself.
- Madame Élisabeth: King Louis XVI's sister who requests Marie's presence at Versailles to teach her how to do wax modeling.
- Edmund Grosholtz: Marie's oldest brother who is member of the Swiss Guard who guard the King.
- Johann Grosholtz: Marie's brother who is member of the Swiss Guard who guard the King.
- Wolfgang Grosholtz: Marie's brother who is member of the Swiss Guard who guard the King. Because he is closest to her age, Marie has the most affection for him.
- Marquise de Bombelles: Courtier to Madame Élisabeth
- Madame Royale: The eleven year old daughter of the King known within the king's family as Marie-Thérèse.
- Marquis de Lafayette: Served in the American Revolution under George Washington and returned to France and proposed a meeting of the Estates-General to address the fiscal crisis where some were recommending increased taxation.
- Abraham: Yachin's father
- Léonard: Marie Antoinette's hairdresser
- Abrielle: Daughter of Baron de Besenval
- François Tussaud: Marie's future husband who she met while both were imprisoned awaiting execution during the Reign of Terror. She gave birth to three children. one daughter who died in infancy and two sons.
- Rose de Beauharnais: Marie meets her again while imprisoned awaiting execution. She and her husband came to the Salon to have Marie do a portrait. Later, she was renamed Joséphine and married to Napoléon Bonaparte.
Quotes edit
-
“Why does life carry some people on the crest of the wave while others drown beneath the water?”
Marie -
“A country is only as strong as its military, and only as moral as the men who serve in its ranks.”
Lafayette -
“I die so a hundred thousand people may live.”
Charlotte Corday -
“I have come here every month for a year with the same request. But this time I am certain Rose will agree, for I am prepared to offer her something that only princes and murderers possess.”
Marie Grosholtz -
“It is one thing to have your name in the papers, but to be immortalized in wax... That is something reserved only for royals and criminals.”
Setting & Locations edit
The events of the novel occurs in France and London between the years of 1788 and 1812. It was the end of the Age of Enlightenment, a philosophical school in which reason questioned the legitimacy of authority. Are all men created equal or are some social classes more privileged than others? The American Revolution had recently occurred and the writings of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson were widely read among French's Third Estate.
- Paris: Site of Salon de Cire the birthplace of the French Revolution.
- Versailles: Palace of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. It is also where the Estates-General meets.
- Salon de Cire: Curtius' wax museum. The family including Curtius, Marie and Marie's mother live in living quarters located in rooms above the museum.
- Palais-royal: A Paris shopping arcade owned by the Duc d'Orléans known to shelter "every type of thief and anarchist."
- Montreuil: Madame Élisabeth château southeast of Versailles
- Tuileries Palace: The royal palace in Paris to which the royal family was moved to keep them under surveillance after being removed from Versailles after the French Revolution.
- Conciergerie prison: The location where Marie Antoinette was held during her trial and before her execution.
Organizations edit
- Estates-General: In 1788, it was the French government, considering of the three estates: clergy, nobility and the common people. Each estate had one vote; therefore, the common people, which was the greatest number of members, found themselves outvoted.
- Committee of Public Safety: the twelve-member group (chaired by Robespierre during the Terror) that, between 1793 and 1795, wielded executive power.
- Jacobin Club: a revolutionary group that met in a former Jacobin (Dominican) monastery on the Rue Saint-Honore. The Club became a focus of increasing radicalism, and chapters spread throughout France. Widely seen as the incubator fo the Terror, the Paris chapter was closed by the National Convention in 1794.
- Legislative Assembly: the political body that succeeded the National Assembly in 1791 and ended with the declaration of the French Republic a year later.
- National Convention: After the fall of the monarchy in 1792, this seven-hundred member body was elected to write a constitution.
- National Guard: citizens' militias that spontaneously arose to defend cities from the outbursts of street crime and mob violence during the Revolution.
First Sentence edit
When she walks through the door of my exhibition, everything disappears: the sound of the rain against the windows, the wax models, the customers, even the children.
Table of Contents edit
Time Line for the French Revolution
Map
Untitled Chapter
Characters
Author's Note
Prologue: London: 1812
Chapter 1 - Paris: December 12, 1788
Chapter 2 - December 21, 1788
Chapter 3 - January 16, 1789
Chapter 4 - Januaray 30, 1789
Chapter 5 - February 3, 1789
Chapter 6 - February 4, 1789
Chapter 7 - March 28, 1789
Chapter 8 - April 2, 1789
Chapter 9 - April 3, 1789
Chapter 10 - April 7, 1789
Chapter 11 - April 9, 1789
Chapter 12 - April 12, 1789
Chapter 13 - April 29, 1789
Chapter 14 - April 30, 1789
Chapter 15 - May 1, 1789
Chapter 16 - May 3, 1789
Chapter 17 - May 4, 1789
Chapter 18 - May 5, 1789
Chapter 19 - May 8, 1789
Chapter 20 - May 29, 1789
Chapter 21 - June 4, 1789
Chapter 22 - July 3, 1789
Chapter 23 - July 11, 1789
Chapter 24 - July 12, 1789
Chapter 25 - July 13, 1789
Chapter 26 - July 14, 1789
Chapter 27 - July 15, 1789
Chapter 28 - July 16, 1789
Chapter 29 - July 18, 1789
Chapter 30 - July 22, 1789
Chapter 31 - September 7, 1789
Chapter 32 - October 10, 1789
Chapter 33 - October 5, 1789
Chapter 34 - October 7, 1789
Chapter 35 - October 20, 1789
Chapter 36 - December 25, 1789
Chapter 37 - 1790
Chapter 38 - April-June 1791
Chapter 39 - June 21, 1791
Chapter 40 - June 22, 1791
Chapter 41 - September 14, 1791
Chapter 42 - November 29, 1791
Chapter 43 - April 20, 1792
Chapter 44 - June 19, 1792
Chapter 45 - July 6, 1792
Chapter 46 - July 25-August 14, 1792
Chapter 47 - August 28, 1792
Chapter 48 - August 29, 1792-September 2, 1792
Chapter 49 - September 2, 1792
Chapter 50 - September21, 1792-January 17, 1793
Chapter 51 - January 20-21, 1793
Chapter 52 - January 25, 1793
Chapter 53 - April 7, 1793
Chapter 54 - February 17, 1793
Chapter 55 - April 7, 1793
Chapter 56 - June 1, 1793-July 5, 1793
Chapter 57 - July 1793
Chapter 58 - August-October 1793
Chapter 59 - November 6-8, 1793
Chapter 60 - March-May 1794
Chapter 61 - May 1794
Chapter 62 - June 15, 1794-July 1794
Chapter 63 - July 28, 1794
Epilogue: England: August 11, 1802
After the Revolution
Historical Note
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Glossary edit
- Käsenspätzle: Käsespätzle is a casserole made of Spätzle (fresh German egg noodles), cheese and browned onions.
- Ancien regime: "the former regime," meaning the political system that existed for hundreds of years before the Revolution, dominated by the monarchy, clergy, and aristocracy.
- Aristocrat: a member of the Second Estate, or nobility
- Cabriolet: a horse-drawn carriage with two wheels and a single horse, often used as a vehicle for hire.
- Caissiser: a cashier
- Chemise: a woman's undergarment, often made of linen. It was designed to look like a short dress with elbow-length sleeves.
- Cockade: a colored ribbon, worn as a badgelike ornament.
- Cocotte: a whore
- Commode: a small cabinet or chest of drawers.
- Cravat: a neckband often trimmed with ruffles or lace.
- Culottes: knee breeches
- Dauphin: the heir to the thorne of France.
- Deputy: an elected or nominated member of a government or committee.
- Emigres: the tens of thousands of mostly aristocratic exiles who left France after the fall of the monarchy.
- Estates: the three orders of society: clergy, nobility, and commoners.
- Fete: a grand celebration or party
- Fichu: a kerchief worn in front of a lady's bodice.
- Heder: a Jewish children's school, often in the home of the rabbi.
- Libelles: satirical pamphlets noted for their biting political attacks
- Libellistes: writers and publishers of libelles
- Livre: a unit of currency (divided into twenty sous) originally valued at one pound of silver.
- Patrie: country, fatherland.
- Salle: a room
- Sans-culottes: the trouser-wearing commoners, who preferred this simpler dress style to the knee breeches of the upper classes.
- Sou: a coin valued at one-twentieth of a livre
- Tableau: an arranged scene
- Third Estate: the common people, as opposed to the clergy (First Estate) and the nobility (Second Estate)
- Tumbrel: a two-wheeled cart used to carry condemned prisoners to the guillotine.
- "Vive le roi!": a toast and rallying cry for royalists meaning "Long live the king"
Series & Lists edit
This book is in 2011 Published Books. (community list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Michelle Moran (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Crown
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: February 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0307588654
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Crown
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: February 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0307588654
Page Count: 464
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813.6
Subjects edit
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