by Marge Piercy
FRANÇOIS-LÉONARD
BUZOT Young revolutionary; Jacobin; associated with the Girondins; member of the Legislative Assembly and the Convention
PIERRE VERGNIAUD Orator; Girondin; Member of the National Convention
GENERAL DUMOURIEZ Talented general; minister; Girondin
RENÉ HÉBERT Put out the popular far left journal Pere Duchesne; associated with the Paris Commune
CHARLOTTE CORDAY Girondin woman who assassinated Marat
PAULINE
PAULINE LÉON Older of two living children
THE LÉONS Ran a chocolate shop near the Cafe Procope
MARIE-THÉRÈSE Pauline’s younger sister
MAMAN Pauline’s mother; also called Marthurine Telohau
THE FOSSE FAMILY Friends of the Léons; lived upstairs
ANATOLE FOSSE Father; water carrier
SANSON AND HIS SON King’s executioners; masters of torture
HENRI Pauline’s boyfriend; apprentice to a hatmaker
BABETTE Pauline’s friend; worked at the Dancing Badger tavern
AIMÉE Pauline’s friend; married; coffee vendor
OLYMPE DE GOUGES Butcher’s daughter; dramatist and pamphleteer; wrote Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizens
VICTOIRE Old-clothes woman; revolutionary; first divorcée
MARTIN Victoire’s husband
DE BRETEUIL King’s replacement for Necker as chief minister
MAILLARD One of the heroes of the Bastille
THÉROIGNE DE
MÉRICOURT Peasant girl who became a well-to-do courtesan; strong supporter of the Revolution; warrior feminist; associated with the Girondins
OTILE Babette’s mother; ran the Dancing Badger tavern with her husband
JEAN-BAPTISTE LOUVET Girondin; in the Convention; wrote novel The Adventures of the Chevalier de Faublas
HÈRAULT DE
SÉCHELLES Ex-aristocrat; revolutionary; Jacobin; later member of the Committee of Public Safety
GEORGES
GEORGES-JACQUES
DANTON Orator; politician; lawyer; president of the Cordeliers; member of the Legislative Assembly and the Convention
VINOT Solicitor for whom Georges worked as clerk
FRANÇOISE Widow from Champagne; friend of Georges
M. HUET DE PAISY Kept Françoise; sold office to Danton
FRANÇOIS-JÉRÔME
CHARPENTIER Proprietor of the Cafe d’Ecole; Georges’ father-in-law
MARIA Wife of Jérôme; Georges’ mother-in-law
GABRIELLE Daughter of Jérôme and Maria; Wife of Georges
MME DUPLESSIS Wife of a bureaucrat; courted by Camille Desmoulins
FABRE D’ÉGLANTINE Friend of Georges; law clerk; poet; pamphleteer; dramatist; later member of the Convention; Cordelier
JULES PARÉ Friend of Georges from school; revolutionary
LUCILE DUPLESSIS Daughter of Mme Duplessis; wife of Camille Desmoulins
DE LAUNAY Governor of the prison at the Bastille
PANIS Lawyer; friend of Georges; in the Jacobin government
SIMONNE ÉVRARD Common-law wife of Marat
FRANÇOIS AND LOUISE
ROBERT Husband and wife who ran a revolutionary paper; Cordeliers
LEGENDRE Butcher; Cordelier; friend and supporter of Georges
LAMETH BROTHERS Close to Lafayette; Feuillants
MANUEL Prosecutor at the Paris Commune
MANDAT Head of the National Guard in August 1792
ANTOINE FOUQUIER-
TINVILLE Camille Desmoulins’ cousin; the public prosecutor under the Commune during the Terror
BILLAUD-VARENNE Cordelier; radical; later member of the Committee of Public Safety
SERVAN Minister of war in Girondin government
CLAVIÈRE Finance chief in Girondin government
FRANÇOIS-GÉORGES,
ANTOINE Children of Gabrielle and Georges
THE GÉLYS Lived upstairs; friends of Gabrielle
LOUISE GÉLY Girl from upstairs who took care of Georges’ children; his second wife
LE PELETIER Education reformer; Jacobin
FREI BROTHERS Austrian-born financiers
NOBILITY
KING LOUIS XV 1710–1774, King of France
KING LOUIS XVI 1754–1793, King of France
MARIE-ANTOINETTE Queen of Louis XVI, daughter of the Austrian Hapsburg dynasty
THE DAUPHIN Eldest survivng son of Louis XVI
COMTE D’ARTOIS Youngest brother of Louis XVI; later Charles X
COMTE DE PROVENCE Brother of Louis XVI; later Louis XVIII
PRINCE DE CONDÉ King’s cousin
MME DU POMPADOUR Mistress of Louis XV
MME DU BARRY Mistress of Louis XV
DUC D’ORLEANS King’s cousin; developed the Palais Royal, Jacobin, in the Convention; later known as Phillipe Égalité
AXEL FERSEN Swedish nobleman; reputed to be the Queen’s lover
COMTESSE DE POLIGNAC One of the Queen’s favorites
PRINCESSE DE LAMBALLE One of the Queen’s favorites
ORGANIZATIONS
CORDELIERS Radical club for the common people
JACOBINS Radical club with many delegates and lawyers
SOCIAL CIRCLE Drew men and women of the educated classes
FEUILLANTS Lafayette, Lambeths. Broke away from Jacobins when that club became more radical
REVOLUTIONARY
REPUBLICAN WOMEN Organization started by Claire Lacombe and Pauline Léon; first entirely women’s political organization, started by women, with women officers, a radical feminist agenda and membership consisting only of women
ENRAGÉS OR
MAD DOGS Informal faction of the left who agitated for price controls, higher taxes for the wealthy, economic reform, more democracy and more power to the sections; Théophile Leclerc, Jacques Roux were among the characters associated with the group, as were Claire Lacombe and Pauline Léon; Hébert was sympathetic to its political goals
The Cordeliers, Jacobins, and Feuillants were named for the former monasteries in which they met.
ESTATES GENERAL Body of the Three Estates called by Louis XVI
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY What the Estates General turned itself into
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY Subsequent elected legislative body
NATIONAL
CONVENTION Successor of the Legislative Assembly; the body that ruled France under the First Republic
GIRONDINS Delegates in the Legislative Assembly and then in the Convention who were first part of the left and then the moderate faction; constituted the government from the June uprising in 1792 until brought down by another demonstration a year later; also called the Brissotins after Jacques-Pierre Brissot, considered by outsiders to be their leader
THE MOUNTAIN Delegates of the left in the Convention (Jacobins and Cordeliers), so called because they occupied the upper seats
THE PLAIN Delegates in the Convention who did not belong to either the Mountain or the Girondins; the swing votes
COMMUNE Elected body that governed Paris
COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC
SAFETY Group of twelve deputies from National Convention; wielded executive power
COMMITTEE OF
SECURITY Police committee, set up before the Committee of Public Safety; less powerful sometime rival to that Committee
MARGE PIERCY is the author of twelve previous novels, including He, She and It (winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke award in Great Britain), Summer People, Gone to Soldiers, Woman on the Edge of Time, and The Longings of Women. She has also written twelve collections of poetry including, most recently, Mars and Her Children; her thirteenth collection will be What Are Big Girls Made of? She lives on Cape Cod with her husband, the novelist Ira Wood. Her work has been translated into sixteen languages. The World Wide Web page for Marge Piercy is http://www.capecod.net/~tmpiercy.
A Fawcett Columbine Book
Published by Ballantine Books
Copyright © 1996 by Middlemar
sh, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
http://www.randomhouse.com
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 97-90667
eISBN: 978-0-307-75577-3
v3.0