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  • Citizens

  • Chronicle of the French Revolution
  • By: Simon Schama
  • Narrated by: Sara Powell
  • Length: 38 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (141 ratings)
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Citizens cover art

Citizens

By: Simon Schama
Narrated by: Sara Powell
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Summary

In this New York Times best seller, award-winning author Simon Schama presents an ebullient country, vital and inventive, infatuated with novelty and technology - a strikingly fresh view of Louis XVI's France. 

One of the great landmarks of modern history publishing, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution is the most authoritative social, cultural and narrative history of the French Revolution ever produced.

©2019 Simon Schama (P)2021 Audible, Ltd
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Citizens

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Biography based approach to the revolution

Schama takes the approach of examining the revolution via the biographies of the personalities involved. While this does give the book a slightly different “selling point”, and may give viewpoints useful to those looking for academic insights…it also makes the book less interesting to a general audience.

As it is, the whole isn’t bad, but suffers in comparison to Mike Duncans treatment of the revolution in his free podcast “Revolutions”. If you’re looking for an entertaining listen I’d recommend you start there rather than here.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • A
  • 14-03-22

An oddly disjointed account

Schama is one of my favourite historians, but I found this book really hard work, and not for the right reasons. Schama states that he wanted to write a story of the Revolution rather than a history; to create a narrative about that historical period rather than break it down into its component parts. I don't think he succeeded terribly well - or, at the very least, the narrative he weaves is not suited to those who don't already have a fairly solid background in the main characters and events in questions, People, places, and events are presented in a series of vignettes without being properly presented or explained . The result is not unlike listening to your grandma tell you a convoluted story about some relatives you've never heard about, or whose names you vaguely remember but can't place. Even if you desperately want to follow the story, it's hard to do so when you lack a context. I guess this may work better in print, as one would be able to look things up. In an audiobook, it's frustrating beyond belief.

Further frustration is added by the fact that many French terms and quotes are not translated. While this might add colour, it detracts clarity. Again, it might have been less annoying in print, although I am not too sure about that. To me, it just seems like a gimmick that gets really old really fast.

The last source of frustration is the narrator. While she has an engaging and animated voice, she also has a mild lisp, It doethn't make her narration hard to underthtand, but I found it quite dithtracting. She also mispronounces the odd word.

All in all, if you already know about the French Revolution and its historical background, or if you're happy to listen to anecdotes without knowing their context, you will probably enjoy this. Otherwise, I'd steer clear.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fabulous but horrific

The author and narrator might , perhaps, be surprised to be reminded of their work so long after the event.
Wonderful research, painfully evocative descriptions, I found The Terror sickening and upsetting, analogies with the 20th century were justifiably drawn. Man's inhumanity to man keeps on repeating itself, The Holocaust too will probably be repeated and justified by the same Diabolical influences. Thank you, Simon Schama.
A word for Sara Powell, thank you, a long read and as an 'ancien prof de francais' I admired your French.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Incisive

Excellent dispelling of myths revealing true violence nature of the French Revolution. Excellent narration.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

A bit of a mess

If this was a building then it would not have foundations, walls or roof but would be a random assemblage of decorative pieces of a facade.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

obnoxious style of telling history

no one needs to know what colour the rose someone held in a play before the french revolution was. not for me

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good French, shame about the English

very worthwhile history of the French revolution but the reading and editing are abominable. the narrative regularly stops for no apparent reason and the narrator may pronounce French as it should be but she can't pronounce simple basic English words properly which makes the whole thing very irritating and hard to endure at times.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A fantastic chronicle

A great chronicle of a truly interesting event. Although it could be overly detailed, it gave a good summary of all of the key events of the revolution. The narrotor is fantastic and really captures some of the author's wit.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Terrible reader

A great book ruined by a ‘breathless’ reading style. Read the hard copy without listening

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

France revolution

The narrator didn’t vary her voice much. The story was good and covered the facts.

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