This is the first modern English translation of the memoirs of an important French revolutionary figure, who wrote them in 1793 while awaiting execution by the Jacobin-controlled government. Approximately half of the pages concern the author's upbringing in a Parisian bourgeois family and her marriage to the bureaucrat Jean-Marie Roland de la Platiere; the remainder discusses the period from 1789 to 1793, when she and her husband were leaders of the Girondin party. Madame Roland was devoted to her spouse and always gave him full credit for work in which she was a full partner, including the inspection of manufacturers under the Old Regime and the post of minister of the interior during parts of 1792 and 1793. Her memoirs provide glimpses into the daily life of the period and sharp portraits of several revolutionary leaders. --Library Journal 1992