Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France

The bestselling author of "Maharanis" recreates the lives of six remarkable women who, in a time of violent revolution, leapt at the chance to exercise their considerable charm, intelligence and acumen to make their mark on history. At the heart of Paris's intellectual movement, Germaine de Stael was a figure like no other. Passionate, fiercely intelligent and equally obsessed by love affairs as she was by politics, she helped write the 1791 Constitution at the salon in which she entertained the thinkers of the age. Her fellow salonniere, Mme Roland, was a bourgeois housewife who became a fervent and influential revolutionary, until Robespierre sent her, still defiant, to the guillotine. At the other end of the social scale, her working class counterparts patrolled the streets of Paris with pistols in their belts. Theroigne de Mericourt was an ill-treated mistress when she fell in love with revolutionary ideals. Denied a political role because of her sex, she nevertheless campaigned tirelessly until a mob beating left her broken in both mind and body. The mob in question was made up of members of the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, whose founder, Pauline Leon, agitated for women's rights and sought to push the Revolution to ever greater extremes. The glamorous merveilleuses, whose glamour, beauty, and propensity for revealing outfits propelled them to the top of post-revolutionary society. Exuberant, decadent Theresia Tallien reportedly helped engineer Robespierre's downfall - in so doing, she and her fellow 'sans chemises' ushered in a new world that combined sexual licence with the amorality of the new Republic. Her only rival was Juliette Recamier, whose elegance made her salons the most sought-after in Paris. Writing with vigour and sympathy, Lucy Moore reanimates the lives of six remarkable women from these very different segments of French Society. Through their lives, loves and failures, the wider history of the Revolution receives a compassionate retelling that illuminates, not only the brief, hopeful period in which equality seemed within reach, but also the ways in which it failed.

About the Author :
Lucy Moore was born in 1970 and educated in Britain and the US before reading history at Edinburgh University. She is the author and editor of many books, including the critically acclaimed and bestselling 'Maharanis,' which was the top selling non-fiction title in WHSmith on paperback publication in 2005. Lucy is a regular book reviewer for the Observer and the Sunday Times and was voted one of the 'top twenty young writers in Britain' by the Independent on Sunday and listed in the Writers' section of The New Statesman's 'Best of Young British' issue. She lives in London.

Review :
Praise for 'Maharanis': 'Engrossing, absorbingly intelligent and thoughtful.' Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times 'Enthralling!we should be grateful to Moore for so vividly evoking their extraordinary lives.' Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph 'Erudite, poignant and compelling. With this exotic and flamboyant story Lucy Moore brings India to life in a way rarely achieved by English historians.' Simon Sebag Montefiore More praise for 'Maharanis': 'You can almost hear the rustle of silk as you leaf through this brilliant and romantic true story of four Indian princesses. As heady as an Indian Summer' Mail on Sunday 'A remarkable tale of women that is full of surprises and delights, and beautifully told.' Literary Review 'Lucy Moore has captured the richness and tragedy of the Indian princely favourites in the last days of the Raj and the new world of independence, focusing on the formidable personalities on their time. Exotic in detail yet clear in its historical treatment, this is a fascinating picture of a vanished world.' Sarah Bradford ' ...here are reminders of another age...vivid and richly detailed ! offers the surging dynastic rivalry and rebellious love of a romantic novel, but the author does not neglect the politics.' Spectator