Book if travel to France

Another general overview of the French Revolution as it seems i need multiple retellings to be able to keep the events, moods and people straight (and this won't be my last general history either). This book covers the topic admirably. Straightforward, written for clarity and not to score author points, i appreciated his viewpoint and story stresses. For the whole story - soup to nuts in 400 pages- can't be beat. ( )

2265 Words of Fire, Deeds of Blood: The Mob, the Monarchy, and the French Revolution, by Olivier Bernier (read 23 Jan 1990) This book is quite 'balanced' and covers events, in quite careful detail, relying on near-original sources, up till the death of Marie Antoinette on Oct 16, 1793. The book is in three parts--the first part covers from the fall of the Bastille to just before the flight to Varennes on June 20, 1791; the second part covers the prelude to the same point; and the third part covers the flight up thru Marie Antoinette's death, with a few pages on events thereafter to the fall of Robiespierre. The book is well-done, fresh, and good reading. But it isn't as overwhelming as some books I've read on the subject. The author is tough on the Church--and claims since the objectionable aspects of religious law were removed from the Constitution the priests had no reason thereafter to be "non-juring." He tends to be tough on the king, and there can be no doubt the king and queen wanted to be saved by foreign powers and lied about contact with them. A thoughtful and well-reasoned book by a U.S.-born Frenchman who was educated in Paris, Harvard, and N.Y.U. ( )