Paris, in the years before and during the French Revolution: three provincial young men—Danton, Robespierre, and Desmoulins—arrive to seek their fortunes and are swept into the upheaval they help ignite. Hilary Mantel traces their friendships, ambitions, and the intoxicating, dangerous pull of revolutionary power.
Once a movement declares that people have rights, it cannot avoid the harder question of who counts as a person who holds them. Groups left out at the start, such as women and slaves, test whether the principle is real or only a privilege for some.
People seeking freedom can come to believe that suffering is a necessary part of it, the way growing up is supposed to hurt. That belief makes harsh treatment of others, and of themselves, look like a normal cost of liberation rather than a warning sign.
A revolution started by young idealists slips out of their control once it gains momentum. It can end by destroying the very people who launched it. Gaining power and then losing hold of what that power has set loose is a pattern that repeats across later revolutions too.
The people who make history are formed long before their public moment, by their families, schooling, first jobs, and loves. Public events then batter or seduce them day by day. To understand why a movement behaves as it does, look at the private ties among the few people driving it.
Once people taste power, they want more of it. Ideals that looked pure begin to show a darker side. The thrill of acting on the public stage hides a price that every holder eventually pays.