Norman Hampson (1922–2011)

The title is pretty accurate. this is not a book with many brushes with death, but rather a gentle memoir of a period where our hero, deals with WWII. He shows that circumstances could vary wildly from one service, one job, one country to another. He is willing to admit that he did not contribute much to the totality of ugliness, and was treated quite well in return. His relatively pleasant experience, was more the result of luck rather than good management , but if, given the chance, a great many more memoirists of the conflict would have traded places with him willingly.
So he volunteered for the navy, got through the rigors of officer training, and had some sea experience. His superiors varied in quality, and so did his performance. But he did try to improve and did so. Eventually he found himself as a liaison (Communications) officer in a Free French ship, and ended the war in that position. They did help sink one submarine, and perhaps drove another one into the trap that finished it. They got bombed, but not hit, they were in storms but didn't get wrecked, and met all the challenges thrown at them by an indifferent fate. The war ended, and he went home, stopping on the way to meet his eventual wife. Statistics worked out for him, and he is the first to admit it. The occasional poems are often quite good. This is a book that should be read for completeness and contrast.… (plus d'informations)

A very dry biography of Georges Danton's political career, mostly, with very little insight into the man himself. I purposefully chose Hampson's study because he claims to present an unbiased interpretation based on available evidence alone, which certainly seems to be the case, but without a little subjective spin, Danton lacks a personality for the reader to engage with. The usual apocryphal statements are quoted, blandly and with footnotes - his 'l'Audace' speech, not to mention 'Don't forget to show my head to the people: it's worth seeing' - and Hampson's impartiality tends to err on the side of indulgence, but the subject is almost lost amidst the dry reporting of names and dates.

Instead, this biography merely helped to sharpen my own view of Danton's character, and confirm why he is more appealing than his contemporary and erstwhile friend, Robespierre. Danton comes across as flesh and blood, human in both his charisma and weaknesses; he is the greedy, cut-throat reality of the Revolution, and not the impractical ideal.

The portrait on the cover of Hampson's book is of a flabby, scarred, and unattractive man, and yet Danton was well liked, if not revered, throughout his career (until even Robespierre turned on him). And what made him so popular, despite being an opportunist with ambivalent political leanings who cashed in on the Revolution? (Sounds like a lot of politicians today!) It was because Danton really was a man of the people, who spoke like them - one of my favourite earthy Dantonisms is his threat that he would 'eat [an opponent's] brains and s**t in his skull'! - understood what they wanted from the Revolution, and knew how to win their support. He was involved in allowing, if not encouraging, the September massacres of 1792, to boost public morale at a time when France was threatened with invasion, but later recognised that the Revolution would demand the blood of all who tried to control it, including himself and Robespierre. Danton was sent to the guillotine on April 5, 1794, aged 34.

Lacking the Incorruptible's much vaulted 'virtue', Danton was a 'gigantic revoltionary', both in stature, personality and influence. To quote another biographer, Lemartine, Danton was 'a man, Robespierre was an idea', but the heart and spirit of that man is lacking in Hampson's complex and cutting biography.… (plus d'informations)