A historical event is sometimes difficult to define. Sometimes we are not even sure of the date. However, July 14 is a moment known to all French people. What is behind this historic day?
A book for a day
Historians continue to debate July 14, a tipping point for the French monarchy. How did this happen? To answer this question, screenwriter Hervé Pauvert and illustrator and colorist Cécile Chicault offer a journey into the past. This journey begins from the cover that copies the typography and layout of the old manuscripts. The reader even enters the Bastille prison by a servant in the service of a prisoner. Hervé Pauvert chooses few expected moments apart from the attack on the Bastille and the oath of the jeu de paume and still the image of the oath is not present. We feel the anger of a people suffering from social inequality and the economic crisis.
The facts of July 14 may surprise the contemporary. Paris would be seen today as a big town. The Bastille is not a gloomy place, but a luxury prison: the Count of Solages lives in a cell worthy of a palace with his furniture where he is locked up, because his family wants to get rid of it. The book is sometimes very educational. The moment of Voltaire's death is cited to show the influence of the Enlightenment. Jeannette evokes her brothers and sisters to show the high birth rate. The governor of the Bastille took his post from his father, but he had no interest in this function. We sometimes fall into the anecdotal: Camille Desmoulins is stuttering.
The screenwriter puts forward strong opinions. Marie-Antoinette, a grieving and conservative queen, influenced a reluctant king. Violence is unleashed, because the king is a weather vane. The scenario also revisits the story according to the questions of the present: Camille quotes Olympe de Gouges, a politician who was massively unknown at the time. The storming of the Bastille is put back in its place in a continuum of the previous days and in the few prisoners present. The epilogue then shows the global shock of this news.
A choral narrative
In theeighteenth century, this day was very differently perceived by individuals. It is obvious that a nobleman did not feel the same impressions as a Parisian craftsman. However, July 14, Destinies of a Revolution makes this opposition much more complex by eight very different socially different characters. Apart from famous historical figures (Marie-Antoinette, Camille Desmoulins, the Marquis de Sade), we meet anonymous people. Jean-Baptiste Jacquet is an unemployed worker. Destitute and a father, he is hungry and angry, anger reinforced by his young son's illness. Jeannette Langlois, symbol of the rural people, arrives in the big city to serve the king… finally according to the promises of a nobleman.
Peter is a soldier from the people but loyal to the king. All these anonymous people cross paths and links between them appear. These many characters also make it possible to see the differences in perceptions. A provincial peasant woman knows almost nothing about politics or society beyond her village. However, they are more one-sided figures than complex characters. Camille Desmoulins represents the revolutionary bourgeoisie. We can think that the little expressive drawing partly explains this blandness.
With July 14 edited by Delcourt, Hervé Pauvert to Cécile Chicault takes us out of common places. If we meet important characters, the book often follows anonymous people to show how the French people entered history.
Other historical comics await you on the site such as Chez Adolf and Molly West.
