The Fishwives' March
The Fishwives' March - France, Marie Antoinette.
The moment France turned against the monarchy and joined the mob during the French Revolution.
Genre: Drama.
1789. PG-13.
Just something short.
Click here to read this fic in Russian. Translation by dershternen.
( Read it behind the cut. )
The moment France turned against the monarchy and joined the mob during the French Revolution.
Genre: Drama.
1789. PG-13.
Just something short.
Click here to read this fic in Russian. Translation by dershternen.
( Read it behind the cut. )
Re: hetalia-- I love that you paralynguistically denote this as the moment Francis swtches side. It's a bit of a dilema to me were to position Francis during all of this: is he the glimmering and careless beautiful boy, who littered his bath with petals and milk, and drank champagne until the last moment? Did he help the dauphins into their golden carriage at the dead of night, and wave them off and just hope...? Or was he already a little bit in love with Robespierres, did he feel the hunger pinching his sides, and did he help write down all the doleances of a tired woman into his thousandth carnet? When did the *switch* happen?
Well, that was an incredibly longwinded way of asking how nation-tan reacts when their country is so divided and goes a bit psycho. I think you've addressed that brilliantly. Francis is simply drawn to the crowd and the horror, despite himself because it *is himself*.
And that line where he says "Do you know, I have never much liked you, Your Majesty", apart from being chilling and wonderfully cold, is perfect, because it's still ambiguous because part of me thinks, 'that's true, she always was a bit hated, even at the start' and yet the legend of Marie Antoinette that remains says that Francis is lik a moth to the glamorous flame...
Urgh! I can't shut up!
Good god, this is my favourite era in all of history. Just all the hope and heartache and the ambition! I think it was mentioned in a lower comment but this is the ultimate Icarus story... And I love the way you approach this in that yes, it was mad and frothing at the mouth, but it was vital (as in alive) and there was a beautiful logic and necessity under each of the actions. Most writers/historians seem to be caught up on the platform of the guillotine and don't appreciate all the crazy stuff, all the other complex human threads, and the thousands of years of suffering that were pressing down on them. (Ok, I crush on Robespierre and see him as a tragic hero like Othello, I admit it, i mean for chrissake his intorductory speech as a layer was *against* capital punishment, i mean wtf happened? the monster of revolution ate him that's what/shamefaced admission of fangirling what simon schama would refer to as 'the author of the terror').
It's incredible that when you write I immediately see all this incorporated seemlessly, and yet you don't loose the bit where Marie Antoinette is a scared *human being*. It's still so personal.
/I'll shut up now.
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I said that! =D And then invading Russia was...flying a bit too close to the sun, you might say. =/
Also I totally fangirl Robespierre. I mean...I wouldn't have wanted to hang out with him? But I love, just...the drama of his life, you know? That--that arc he goes through, so comprehensible and gradual and then where is he going and no no no no...Othello is a really good comparison, actually, I'd never thought of that. And Desdemona is the ideals of the French Revolution, or maybe the people of France themselves.
I'm so glad you liked the story--thank you so much for your kind comments. =D
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