Author: Marc Estrin
Publisher: Unbridled Books
ISBN: 1932961852
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 351
Book Description
The Good Doctor Guillotin follows five characters to a common destination--the scaffold at the first guillotining of the French Revolution: Dr. Guillotin, of course, a physician and member of the National Assembly, involved in many important events, including the Tennis Court Oath. Nicolas Pelletier, the first victim--or "patient," as they were sometimes called, since the new beheading machine was seen as a humanitarian medical intervention in the state's technique of dealing death. Father Pierre, the curé who accompanies Pelletier in his last days, a man torn between his religious commitment, and an equally strong commitment to the poor and their revolution. Sanson, the famous executioner of Paris who, 9 months later would execute the king and retire from remorse. Tobias Schmidt, builder of the new machine, a German piano maker working in Paris, a freethinker predicting the Terror that will follow, but allowing himself to initiate it. The revolution, after all, had reduced the sale of pianos. Various other interesting figures briefly appear: Damiens, Mozart, Mesmer, Louis XVI, the Marquis de Sade, Marat, Robespierre, Demoulins among them. The eighteenth century narrative is divided into several sections, each introduced by an essay in the author's voice, the first on five-ness and Pentagons; a second on hope and Utopia; a third on revolutionary violence; and a fourth on capital punishment. This is no "historical novel." It is, rather, a fictive meditation on a contemporary conundrum using an eighteenth century drum.
The Good Doctor Guillotin
Author: Marc Estrin
Publisher: Unbridled Books
ISBN: 1932961852
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 351
Book Description
The Good Doctor Guillotin follows five characters to a common destination--the scaffold at the first guillotining of the French Revolution: Dr. Guillotin, of course, a physician and member of the National Assembly, involved in many important events, including the Tennis Court Oath. Nicolas Pelletier, the first victim--or "patient," as they were sometimes called, since the new beheading machine was seen as a humanitarian medical intervention in the state's technique of dealing death. Father Pierre, the curé who accompanies Pelletier in his last days, a man torn between his religious commitment, and an equally strong commitment to the poor and their revolution. Sanson, the famous executioner of Paris who, 9 months later would execute the king and retire from remorse. Tobias Schmidt, builder of the new machine, a German piano maker working in Paris, a freethinker predicting the Terror that will follow, but allowing himself to initiate it. The revolution, after all, had reduced the sale of pianos. Various other interesting figures briefly appear: Damiens, Mozart, Mesmer, Louis XVI, the Marquis de Sade, Marat, Robespierre, Demoulins among them. The eighteenth century narrative is divided into several sections, each introduced by an essay in the author's voice, the first on five-ness and Pentagons; a second on hope and Utopia; a third on revolutionary violence; and a fourth on capital punishment. This is no "historical novel." It is, rather, a fictive meditation on a contemporary conundrum using an eighteenth century drum.
Publisher: Unbridled Books
ISBN: 1932961852
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 351
Book Description
The Good Doctor Guillotin follows five characters to a common destination--the scaffold at the first guillotining of the French Revolution: Dr. Guillotin, of course, a physician and member of the National Assembly, involved in many important events, including the Tennis Court Oath. Nicolas Pelletier, the first victim--or "patient," as they were sometimes called, since the new beheading machine was seen as a humanitarian medical intervention in the state's technique of dealing death. Father Pierre, the curé who accompanies Pelletier in his last days, a man torn between his religious commitment, and an equally strong commitment to the poor and their revolution. Sanson, the famous executioner of Paris who, 9 months later would execute the king and retire from remorse. Tobias Schmidt, builder of the new machine, a German piano maker working in Paris, a freethinker predicting the Terror that will follow, but allowing himself to initiate it. The revolution, after all, had reduced the sale of pianos. Various other interesting figures briefly appear: Damiens, Mozart, Mesmer, Louis XVI, the Marquis de Sade, Marat, Robespierre, Demoulins among them. The eighteenth century narrative is divided into several sections, each introduced by an essay in the author's voice, the first on five-ness and Pentagons; a second on hope and Utopia; a third on revolutionary violence; and a fourth on capital punishment. This is no "historical novel." It is, rather, a fictive meditation on a contemporary conundrum using an eighteenth century drum.
Dr Guillotine
Author: Herbert Lom
Publisher: Trafalgar Square Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Biographical fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
The veteran film actor's first novel is a macabre, blackly comic fictional biography of the man who invented the mechanism of execution much feared during the French Revolution.
Publisher: Trafalgar Square Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Biographical fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
The veteran film actor's first novel is a macabre, blackly comic fictional biography of the man who invented the mechanism of execution much feared during the French Revolution.
Guillotine
Author: Robert Frederick Opie
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752496050
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237
Book Description
The guillotine is a most potent image of revolutionary France, the tool whereby a whole society was 'redesigned'. Tracing the development of the guillotine, this book recounts the stories of famous executions, the lives of the executioners, and the research into whether the head retained consciousness after it was separated from the body.
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752496050
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237
Book Description
The guillotine is a most potent image of revolutionary France, the tool whereby a whole society was 'redesigned'. Tracing the development of the guillotine, this book recounts the stories of famous executions, the lives of the executioners, and the research into whether the head retained consciousness after it was separated from the body.
The Kindly Dr. Guillotin and Other Essays on Science and Life
Author: Harold J. Morowitz
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
ISBN: 9781887178952
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
In this collection of forty vignettes, biologist Harold Morowitz delights in discovering scientific principles behind such everyday phenomena as doing laundry or registering a car with the DMV. The title essay reflects on the circumstances that caused the name of Joseph Ignace Guillotin to become connected to a mechanical contraption he neither invented, built, nor used. While he relies on the disciplines of science to illuminate life on earth, Morowitz celebrates -- with wonder and wit -- the world's unfathomable mysteries.
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
ISBN: 9781887178952
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
In this collection of forty vignettes, biologist Harold Morowitz delights in discovering scientific principles behind such everyday phenomena as doing laundry or registering a car with the DMV. The title essay reflects on the circumstances that caused the name of Joseph Ignace Guillotin to become connected to a mechanical contraption he neither invented, built, nor used. While he relies on the disciplines of science to illuminate life on earth, Morowitz celebrates -- with wonder and wit -- the world's unfathomable mysteries.
The Good Doctor Guillotin and His Strange Device
Author: André Soubiran
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Guillotine
Languages : en
Pages : 244
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Guillotine
Languages : en
Pages : 244
Book Description
Hiding the Guillotine
Author: Emmanuel Taïeb
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501750968
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Book Description
Hiding the Guillotine examines the question of state involvement in violence by tracing the evolution of public executions in France. Why did the state move executions from the bloody and public stage of the guillotine to behind prison doors? In a fascinating exploration of a grim subject, Emmanuel Taïeb exposes the rituals and theatrical form of the death penalty and tells us who watched, who participated in, and who criticized (and ultimately brought an end to) a spectacle that the state called "punishment." France's abolition of the death penalty in 1981 has long overshadowed its suppression of public executions over forty years earlier. Since the Revolution, executions attracted tens of thousands of curious onlookers. But, gradually, there was a shift in attitude and the public no longer saw this as a civilized pastime. Why? Combining material from legal archives, police files, an executioner's notebooks, newspaper clippings, and documents relating to 566 executions, Hiding the Guillotine answers this question. Taïeb demonstrates the ways in which the media was at the vanguard of putting an end to the publicity surrounding the death penalty. The press had ample reason to be critical: cities were increasingly being used for leisure activity and prisons for those accused of criminal activity. The agitation surrounding each execution, coupled with a growing identification with the condemned, would blur these boundaries. Ranked among the top hundred history books by the website, Café du Web Historizo, Hiding the Guillotine has much to impart to students of legal history, human rights, and criminology, as well as to American historians.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501750968
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Book Description
Hiding the Guillotine examines the question of state involvement in violence by tracing the evolution of public executions in France. Why did the state move executions from the bloody and public stage of the guillotine to behind prison doors? In a fascinating exploration of a grim subject, Emmanuel Taïeb exposes the rituals and theatrical form of the death penalty and tells us who watched, who participated in, and who criticized (and ultimately brought an end to) a spectacle that the state called "punishment." France's abolition of the death penalty in 1981 has long overshadowed its suppression of public executions over forty years earlier. Since the Revolution, executions attracted tens of thousands of curious onlookers. But, gradually, there was a shift in attitude and the public no longer saw this as a civilized pastime. Why? Combining material from legal archives, police files, an executioner's notebooks, newspaper clippings, and documents relating to 566 executions, Hiding the Guillotine answers this question. Taïeb demonstrates the ways in which the media was at the vanguard of putting an end to the publicity surrounding the death penalty. The press had ample reason to be critical: cities were increasingly being used for leisure activity and prisons for those accused of criminal activity. The agitation surrounding each execution, coupled with a growing identification with the condemned, would blur these boundaries. Ranked among the top hundred history books by the website, Café du Web Historizo, Hiding the Guillotine has much to impart to students of legal history, human rights, and criminology, as well as to American historians.
History of the Guillotine
Author: John Wilson Croker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Executions and executioners
Languages : en
Pages : 112
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Executions and executioners
Languages : en
Pages : 112
Book Description
Author:
Publisher: TheBookEdition
ISBN: 2954047011
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
Publisher: TheBookEdition
ISBN: 2954047011
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
The Reader
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 654
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 654
Book Description
Guillotin
Author: Frank J. Lutz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 24
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 24
Book Description