Mistress of the Revolution: A Novel

the underlying theme is a bittersweet love story

In the mid 1780s fifteen year old aristocrat Gabrielle de Montserrat and commoner Pierre-André Coffinhal meet and fall in love. However, her older brother rejects such a union as Pierre is beneath their lofty social status. Instead he forces his younger sister to marry the much older, wealthy, and abusive Baron de Peyre. He is cruel to his young wife; so when he dies after Gabrielle gives birth to a daughter she rejoices.

The teen widow and single mom Gabrielle arrives at the court of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette. There she becomes the mistress of Count de Villers. However, soon after her arrival, the Revolution explodes in Paris. Gabrielle is arrested and faces the wrath of the Revolutionary Tribunal where lawyer Pierre-Andre, still outraged by the Montserrat scorn several years ago sits in judgment and Lady Guillotine awaits in the open for her.

Though the underlying theme is a bittersweet love story, MISTRESS OF THE REVOLUTION is much more as the plot contains a deep look at the political intrigue and machinations with the Guillotine hovering for rumored missteps stealing the show. Catherine Delors has written a strong French Revolution Era historical as Gabrielle is a great protagonist who holds the plot together while the key men in her life provide a profound look at what society allows them to do to a woman before, during, and after the Revolution; nothing changes for the second class female. Her encounters with the major historical figures circa 1789 seems unnecessary and distractingly forced yet fans of historical tales will relish Gabrielle¿s adventures to avoid a date with Lady Guillotine.

Harriet Klausner

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Captures You

I absolutly love French and British literature of all kinds. I have always loved the likes of Phillipa Gregory, but Catherine Delors truly captured my interests like no other. Her characters were overwhelmingly believable as well as their circumstances. The details were graphic and transported you to that time. In the end I truly mourned the ones lost as well as lost love.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Mistress of the Revolution

I absolutely adored this book. Once you get passed the violence and the vivid details of the pain inflicted upon those of the aristocracy, the author does a wonderful job of establishing her characters and the connections made between those that shared in the events of the French Revolution. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I really enjoyed hearing about the Revolution from a first person point of view.

I hope you enjoy the book!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Romance during the French Revolution

I enjoyed following the book and it was great for bedtime reading. It is not hardcore historically based but I think the author captured the feeling and flavor of the times with this novel based during the French Revolution. It would recommend this book to anyone who likes a little romance mixed with history.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

From a Louisiana Reader

The book is based upon true events of the French Revolution. Many of the characters are inspired by historical figures. The story centers on Gabrielle de Montserrat, born of noble blood. Her mistake was to fall in love with a commoner, Pierre-Andrè Coffinhal. Throughout the story, I tingled with excitement as I thought I knew what was going to happen next. This was all a vain attempt on my part, as the author surprised me with each new twist. Gabrielle¿s story is a fictional memoir, told in her own voice as she recounts her life beginning when her brother and guardian, Gèraud de Monsterrat, Marquis de Castel, brought her to live with him. Later on in the story, after meeting and falling in love with Pierre-Andrè Coffinhal, her brother finds out and she is forced into a marriage with a sadistic husband. Her life has many phases, one of which will lead her to Paris where she will again meet Pierre-Andrè. During this time, France is unstable, on the brink of political and social upheaval. The decisions she made seemed the best at the time, but even towards the end, she wondered what would have happened if she had decided differently. It¿s something I am still pondering over. The author should be commended her display of realism. This book took me so far into the story that I completely forgot about my own life. Luckily, we are on spring break and I have some free time. Oh, let me warn you now, although it might be tempting to read the last few chapter to see what will happen in the end, DON'T! I am one to talk since that is what I usually do. For some reason, I didn¿t in this book. I guess I was so busy reading that I forgot. Anyway, I¿m glad I didn't as it will ruin the book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A book to remember...

I fell in love with this book. It's a long read over five hundred pages but I found that I devoured it in a short time. Gabrielle de Montserrat is such a sweet and lovable character. Her story starts out typically, a girl on the verge of womanhood looking forward to finding her way in life, husband, home and family. She falls in love with a commoner, Pierre-Andre Coffinhal, and together with his family they petition her brother and Lord the Marquis de Casel to marry. Outraged, her brother forbids the match and instead forces Gabrielle to marry another man. Her life unfolds in shocking experiences, one after the next. I was constantly wondering what in God's name could happen to this poor girl next! Some suggest her character to be weak and blow like a sailboat on the whim of the wind but I suggest that she is the most resilient of characters in that she was able to find her way through each ghastly circumstance and prevail and thrive in her own way. I will always remember this story and recommended it to my friends and family.

Romance story with historical aspects

I am an avid historical fiction novel reader. I loved this novel and ended up crying my eyes out by the end of the book. Although parts of it are gruesome, it is a story of determination and survival during the French Revolution. Enjoy!

Magical, I loved It.

This is one woman's story set against the coming of the French Revolution, Gabrielle meets her one true love at the age of 15, but is forced to marry another, a mean spiteful man that beats her. When she is older, she becomes a Mistress of a wealthy man and, meets up again, with her one true love, but it is not yet their time to be together. The French Revolution is upon her and she reaches out to her one true love, and the happiness they find together for whatever time may be left to them amid all the chaos of the French Revolution. A wonderful book of historical fiction.

a magical work

This is first and foremost an exquisite exercise in the intertwining of details, all true to the period, most arising from in the historic record, for which the author's website reveals that she relied heavily on original sources such as 18th century memoirs and actual trial transcripts, and the rest coming to life in the intersticies. The character development is so subtle, a line here or there, but soon each is alive and at once haunting. The author quotes Alain Jouffroy at the beginning: 'It is beautiful to meet someone. It can happen anywhere in the world. Anytime, But the strangest thing is that one does not only meet the living, and that meeting a dead person can change your life.' This is not, however, a novel for the feint of heart, going from wisps of detail of happy every day life to abject terror. With that caution, go forth and experience life.

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