Glory and Terror is a vivid and often gory history of the darker side of the French Revolution, looking at, among others, the burial of the corpse of Louis XVI and the agonizingly slow death of Robespierre.

Glory and Terror is a vivid and often gory history of the darker side of the French Revolution. Through an examination of contemporary visual and literary representations of executions, funerals, processions and ceremonies it brings the often horrific events of the time to life. Honing in on seven real life cases, the author recounts and interprets: * the public autopsy performed on the corpse of Mirabeau * the exhumation and transportation of Voltaire's body to the Pantheon * the public torture, murder and subsequent mutilation of the Princesse de Lamballe * the agonizingly slow death of Robespierre. Anyone who enjoys dazzling cultural history in the vein of Robert Darnton, Carlo Ginzburg and Anthony Grafton will revel in this intelligent and original work.

"A brilliant and fascinating book. De Baecque's historical method is original and provocative. His insights into the French Revolution are startling and fresh. And when it comes to the ghoulish recesses of the revolutionary imagination, he is one of the best guides since that contemporary expert in the macabre subject, the Marquis de Sade." -- The New Republic"Rewarding strong-stomached readers with a riveting tale, Glory and Terror limns the era at a visceral level." -- The Chronicle of Higher Education