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-   -   Madame Tussaud-Discussion *May Contain Spoilers* (https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52444)

BrattyMeg 04-01-2011 06:46 PM

Madame Tussaud-Discussion *May Contain Spoilers*
 
Feel free to start discussing the book. I am actually not reading this one quite yet but I'll be back to add my commentary once I do :)

Misty Cato 04-03-2011 01:01 AM

I'm about 1/2 way through if anyone else is reading this one and wants to discuss.

Penny Springmann 04-05-2011 05:45 PM

Misty - I'm about 1/2 way through as well. :)

Misty Cato 04-05-2011 06:01 PM

So what do you think so far Penny? I finished it up yesterday. It took me awhile to get into it, but by the end I thought it was pretty good.

Emmy 04-05-2011 07:48 PM

I love historical fiction so I will probably start this one tonight. Are you girls enjoying it so far?

KateD 04-05-2011 08:34 PM

I just finished this today. It took me a while to get into it, too, but I ended up enjoying it. I haven't read much about the French Revolution since high school, so it was interesting reading about those events. In my ongoing quest to declutter, I was going through a box of stuff that I've been holding onto for years - all the way back to the 8th grade - and I found the souvenir pamphlet that I got at Madame Tussaud's in London back in 1986. There were pictures of some of the models that were mentioned in the books.

Misty Cato 04-05-2011 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KateD (Post 801770)
In my ongoing quest to declutter, I was going through a box of stuff that I've been holding onto for years - all the way back to the 8th grade - and I found the souvenir pamphlet that I got at Madame Tussaud's in London back in 1986. There were pictures of some of the models that were mentioned in the books.

That's neat Kate. I kept trying to envision those models. I went Madame Tussaud's at about the same age but have little recollection of it.

I found her depiction of French Revolution events fascinating.

Penny Springmann 04-10-2011 09:37 PM

Well, I'm finished! Other than the fact that I found it difficult to believe a woman would have that much freedom/authority during that time period, I did enjoy it. I found the process of making the models fascinating as well as all the details of the revolution.

Misty Cato 04-10-2011 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penny Springmann (Post 804241)
Other than the fact that I found it difficult to believe a woman would have that much freedom/authority during that time period, I did enjoy it.

I thought that was interesting too.

What did you think of Curtius, Marie (and other characters like Rose)'s decisions to try to appease both the royalists and the rebels? At one point I think someone asks Curtius if he they are royalists or patriots and he says, "We are survivalists." Would you call them courageous, cowards or somewhere in between?

eranslow 04-21-2011 11:41 PM

Reading this right now - not very far but definitely enjoying it!

chastml 04-28-2011 04:43 PM

I got this from my library, so I'm reading it now. I'm hoping to have it done soon. I know I'm cutting it close. :]

chastml 05-03-2011 11:12 AM

This may just be me, but did the end feel really rushed to anyone else? I mean, there were all these details leading up to the imprisonment, but everything after that was rather hurried and skipped over. I felt that I had invested all this time into the book and then was left wanting.

I think it was a good book. It was interesting to see a fictionalized version of the French Revolution. I tend to forget how horrible humanity has been in the past, especially when freedom is at stake. I think her family was smart to see themselves as survivalists, because it allowed them to adapt to the political turmoil going on in their country.

As for her being allowed so much "freedom," I think we forget that she was a showwoman, not a lady. The lower classes gave their women more freedom than the upper classes did. Actors, merchants and lowly commoners weren't held to the same standards as nobles and those wishing they were nobles. We read a lot of books from this era that tell us what a lady can and cannot do, but it's never what her maid or her milliner can and cannot do.

Misty Cato 05-03-2011 02:26 PM

I tend to sympathize with her family but I kept thinking of of Burke's thoughts, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Unfortunately true for the French Revolution and so many other periods in history.


From what I understand Marie's life in London could fill a whole other book. I think in choosing to focus on her life in France, she had to quickly summarize the rest of her life in England.


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