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A Place of Greater Safety

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A Place of Greater Safety

By: Hilary Mantel
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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About this listen

A tour-de-force of historical imagination, this is the story of three young men at the dawn of the French Revolution. Georges-Jacques Danton: zealous, energetic, debt-ridden. Maximilien Robespierre: small, diligent, and terrified of violence. And Camille Desmoulins: a genius of rhetoric, charming, handsome, but erratic and untrustworthy.

As these key figures of the French Revolution taste the addictive delights of power, they must also come to face the horror that follows.

©1992 Hilary Mantel (P)2013 W F Howes Ltd Biographical Fiction Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Political Science Politics & Government French Revolution Thought-Provoking Witty

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All stars
Most relevant  
Fascinating period of French history retold in a rather gossipy longwinded text only saved by an excellent reading performance.

Liberté, égalité et verbosity

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Felt the book pace well balanced, slow start and built up speed. Would have liked a Voltairian reference thrown in for good measure.

Revolution and conspiracy

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The main chatacters of the Revolution are brought vividly alive by Hilary Mantel's story telling skill and the excellent narration. Not an easy listen - you need time and concentration - but the rewards are great, to get under the skin of this fascinating period of history.

A long but gripping listen

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What made the experience of listening to A Place of Greater Safety the most enjoyable?

The close relation to history, yet the author's ability to bring the characters to life.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Place of Greater Safety?

I haven't finished yet - though it is compulsive reading! I'd say so far, building up to 1789

What about Jonathan Keeble’s performance did you like?

Didn't really analyse, it's perfect for the book. You don't think about it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

God no! I look forward to each session, and listen again sometimes.

Any additional comments?

I will probably read the book in a short time.

Hilary mantel at her finest!

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Exquisitely written, the characters are so superbly crafted, & the period of history is just fascinating. Much dry humour, too.

Breathtakingly good

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Huge, sweeping story, brilliantly told by Jonathan Keeble, bringing every character to life.
It’s long, but I was so sad when it ended.

Epic

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Amazing scope. Hard to keep up with the names if you don’t know the history in detail but the key personalities are conjured and allowed to develop across the decades with incredible vividness - an authorial masterclass.

Great narration

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The author brings every detail to life. I’ve listened to this title many times now and still find it fascinating.

Detailed and Hugely Enjoyable

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I didn't think anything could surpass reading this breathtaking novel, but having it performed by such a skilful narrator was a revelation.

Superb narration of outstanding historical novel.

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I loved Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies. Well written genre fiction is such a treat; good dialogue, believable characters and a great story brought together by someone who really knows what they're about. I read Iain M. Banks or Elmore Leonard and I want all science fiction or crime novels to be that good and unfortunately they're not. But Hilary Mantel writes so wonderfully that I was surprised that the reviews of this novel were a bit lukewarm and it put me off buying it for a while. In the end though a combination of "How bad can it be?" and a primitive sense that 34 hours was really good value prompted me to buy it and I'm very glad I did.

The "Cromwell" books achieve a standard for me that this couldn't quite reach; hence the possibly unfair 4 stars; but by any standard it's great writing. She has a lot of characters to pull together and the twists and turns of the French Revolution are incredibly complicated but she marshals a huge cast of characters in service of a great story. I found myself gripped by their fates and fascinated by the big picture stuff at the same time. One example of this is a touching moment where Marie Antoinette is about to get into the cart that will take her to her execution and she has a moment of dread about what's waiting for her at the other end of the journey. She needs to urinate and has to squat in the street. This story is apparently true and for a moment it made me genuinely pity her as a real person, which isn't all that easy when dealing with such strong historical archetypes.

In summary, this is a great listen. It doesn't benefit from the kind of sympathetic central character that the "Cromwell" books have but in fairness it's trying to tell the story of a much more chaotic period featuring many more historical characters who left behind a mountain of documentary evidence. Pretty much everyone comes off as callous or vindictively murderous at some point. So Mantel has a different, difficult job to do and she does it characteristically well.

Wide screen historical fiction

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