Introduction

In 1815 England, an exiled Frenchwoman, Gabrielle de Monserrat, begins a memoir of her days before and during the French Revolution. Gabrielle, the youngest daughter of a family of the impoverished nobility, recalls her journey through hardships and betrayals. A widow at seventeen with a young daughter, Gabrielle is released into the world of Paris nobility. Determined and inquisitive, with little money and few prospects, she strives to find her own path to freedom while around her, the French people attempt to build a utopia based on the ideals of liberty and equality. As Gabrielle writes on, twenty years later, political events again overtake her and she realizes that her tale is more than an evocation of the past.

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Excerpt

London, this 25th of January 1815.

I read this morning in the papers that the corpses of the late King and Queen of France, by order of their brother, the restored Louis the Eighteenth, were exhumed from their grave in the former graveyard of La Madeleine, which has since become a private garden. The remains were removed with royal honours to the Basilica of Saint-Denis, the resting place of the Kings and Queens of France for twelve centuries. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1- In Mistress of the Revolution , Gabrielle often makes difficult choices (when she becomes Villiers's mistress, when she accepts the position of lady-in-waiting, when she goes to work at the Theâtre.) In her place, would you have chosen other options?

2- Gabrielle is, for all intents and purposes, abandoned at birth by her mother. How does she cope with it?

3- Do you think Gabrielle is a good mother? How does her relationship with her daughter evolve throughout the book?

4- Do you see Gabrielle's brother, the Marquis de Montserrat, as a villain, or do you feel some sympathy for him?

5- Is Gabrielle passive? Does she accept the limits imposed on women of her class and time, or does she strive to forge her own path?

6- When Gabrielle arrives in Paris as a widow at the age of seventeen, she is not reunited with her former love. Why not?

7- Is the portrait of Queen Marie-Antoinette in Mistress of the Revolution different from what you read in other books or saw in films?

8- How are the stark realities of the Terror foreshadowed in the luxurious lifestyle of the aristocracy before the Revolution?

9- How does Gabrielle's attitude towards religion in general, and her own faith, evolve throughout the novel?

10- Mistress of the Revolution begins as a memoir. How, and why does the tone and purpose of Gabrielle's narrative evolve?

11- Did Mistress of the Revolution change your image of the French Revolution? If yes, how so?

12- Did the conclusion of the novel surprise you? Is it a "happy ending"?

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