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A Place of Greater Safety

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A Place of Greater Safety

By: Hilary Mantel
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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About this listen

A tour-de-force of historical imagination, this is the story of three young men at the dawn of the French Revolution. Georges-Jacques Danton: zealous, energetic, debt-ridden. Maximilien Robespierre: small, diligent, and terrified of violence. And Camille Desmoulins: a genius of rhetoric, charming, handsome, but erratic and untrustworthy.

As these key figures of the French Revolution taste the addictive delights of power, they must also come to face the horror that follows.

©1992 Hilary Mantel (P)2013 W F Howes Ltd Biographical Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Political Science Politics & Government Biography French Revolution Classics Thought-Provoking Witty
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I like Hilary Mantel and I had tried reading this in book form and not got very far. The reader was excellent with voices for all the characters and made sense of the beginning of the book where all the characters are introduced and it can get a bit confusing. You don't need to know anything about the French Revolution to be able to follow this book which focusses on 3 of the main protagonists. Like her later 'political' books, Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies (also highly recommended - the reader of Wolf Hall is particularly good) this mixes the political and the personal with great insight into the development of political extremism and its consequences. The portrayal of Robespierre is particularly astute. You can see how the author honed her writing skills to go from this to Wolf Hall - this has the same tautness and, despite its length, conciseness of expression and vividness of imagery. Highly recommended.

Highly recommended

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This is a big book, and tells the stories of three leading figures from the French Revolution - Robespierre, Danton and Camille Desmoulins. They are different in character, but united, initially, by political ideal and by friendship.

This is not an easy listen - you have to pay attention, think and try to understand. There is blood, politics, machinations abounded.

I found it fascinating, and was drawn into an understanding of the terrible events, as well as wondering, overall, how much difference it made.

Highly recommended

Fascinating

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I’m not a huge fan of Hilary Mantel but this is a work of immense power, erudition and emotion. The characters, all pretty appalling in their own small or huge ways, are real and draw you in. Knowing how it ends doesn’t stop you hoping it won’t.

Better than Wolf Hall

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Jonathan Keeble's voice acting is brilliant. He is clearly having a ball and gives life and meaning to every single word. I thought I would struggle with such a long text and so many characters in audio format, but I was gripped from the start.

Fantastic writing, brought to life with vigour

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Good News: Jonathan Keeble gives an excellent performance narrating this epic historical fiction.

Bad News: I went against the substantial number of reviews concerning the confusing writing of the characters and selective historical facts. I convinced myself that I would steer through it. How could I resist a Hilary Mantel offering of historical fiction when I had enjoyed Wolf Hall? It would not be an arduous task, I decided.
I was wrong. It is confusing. Simply the characters are not well enough delineated and become a confusing mush at times. found it difficult to know which character was leading the narrative. Convoluted with a myriad of characters that are not really in the story merely flitting in and out like a revolving door and never making themselves properly known!
I did finish the book but it's tough going in parts not least because you are bamboozled with several characters, their families, and what their role was.

Not a fraction as good as Wolf Hall trilogy

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