Publisher's Synopsis
This book was part of a graduate school project for an English literature class. The purpose of this volume is to provide a sampling of essays debating the French Revolution. By providing a selection representing different ages, economic backgrounds and sex it is possible to see how these characteristics may, or may not, have influenced the respective writer's position. The essayist chosen included the elder statesmen, Richard Price and Edmund Burke, the middle-aged Thomas Paine and Arthur Young, the younger William Godwin and William Blake, and the women Mary Wollstonecraft and Helen Maria Williams. The decision was made to opt for essays from the most well-known essayists as opposed to the more obscure writer's whose opinions may well have been just as valid. The available essays from Price, Burke, Paine, Young, Godwin and Wollstonecraft are quite lengthy. This necessitated selecting excerpts that would illustrate both the respective writer's style and political leanings. The essays were written from the beginning of the revolt and ending prior to the Reign of Terror under Robespierre. The opinions of many, though not all, of the writers shifted as the horrors of the end stages of the revolution became known.
