Teasie+Williams

=__//The Scarlet Pimpernel// and the French Revolution__=
 * ===About the Author-===
 * Hungarian-born novelist Baroness Emmuska Orczy.
 * She was born on 23 September 1865 at the family estate "Tarna-Örs" in Hungary, the second daughter of Baron Felix Orczy, a composer and conductor, and his wife Emma.
 * [|More About the Author]
 * ===Birth of the Pimpernel-===
 * Emma and Montague wrote a play based on one of Emma's short stories. The story was about an English aristocrat, Sir Percy Blakeney, who rescued his French counterparts from the bloody revolution taking place in that country.
 * Emmy drew on her own family's plight of having to flee from the empowered working classes in penning the famous literary character.
 * She submitted her novelization of the story under the same title to 12 publishers before it was published in 1905.
 * [|Birth of the Pimpernel]
 * ===Other Work by Baroness Emmuska Orczy===
 * She also wrote scores of mystery novels, adventure romances and other titles.
 * At least a dozen of her novels were follow-ups to //The Scarlet Pimpernel//. These, however, were generally regarded as less successful.
 *  Orczy was a prolific writer and worked actively until her eighties.
 * Her autobiography, "Links in the Chain of Life", was published in 1947.
 * [|Other Works]
 * ===The Scarlet Pimpernel Himself===
 * Scarlet Pimpernel is one of the most famous heroic characters in popular fiction of the past century.
 * The book tells the story of Sir Percy Blakeney, a late-Georgian British society fop who is known more for being a dandy than having an semblance to a swordsman and hero.
 * All is not as it seems, however, and Sir Percy leads a double life as "the Scarlet Pimpernel" -the rescuer of aristocrats and innocents during the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution.
 * Sir Percy, feeling betrayed by his bride, the French Marguerite St. Just, is pursued by his nemesis, the French Republican agent Citizen Chauvelin.
 * ===Causes of the French Revolution-===
 * Political and Social Inequalities
 * The higher classes were more privilaged. They did not have to pay taxes when the common people had to work hard and pay heavy taxes.
 * Bankruptcy of the Government
 * Louis XIV had spent too much and his successors did not cut the expenses. He failed to imporve the financial status and by 1789, the government was bankrupt.
 * Influence of the Enlightenment and the American Revolution
 * The ideas and writings of Enlightenment thinkers like Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau became widespread. The French people were inspired to go against their king. The suucess of the Americans to overthrow British rule encouraged the French to fight for their freedom
 * Outbreak of revolution 1789
 * When Louis XVI finally called the Estates General to solve financial issues, the Third Estate did not agree with the unfair system of the Estates General. They formed the National Assembly to make a constitution. The hungry Parisians, who suffered from bad harvest, burst out their anger by attacking the Bastille prison (for political prisoners). The Fall of Bastille started the French Revolution. It spread out to other parts of France
 * [|Causes of the French Revolution]
 * ===Geography-===
 * Geography varied greatly from mountainous regions to rolling plains.
 * France was an agricultural nation, even though it's agriculture was low in productivity, wasteful and used out of date methods.


 * ===The Guillotine===
 * It draws its name from Joseph Ignace Guillotin, a man interested in the Arts and a professor of literature at the Irisnah College at Bordeaux. He did not invent the gullotine though.
 * A similar device known as the //Halifax Gibbet// had been in use in that Yorkshire town since 1286 and continued until 1650. Dr Gillotin merely proposed that the machine be used to provide a more humane way of executing criminals.
 * Almost all of the French aristocracy were sent to the guillotine during the French Revolution.
 * King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were its most famous victims.
 * Up to 40,000 people were killed during the Guillotine's reign of terror in France - an estimated 80-85 per cent of them were commoners.
 * "[|Off With His Head!" Guillotine Information]
 * ===Fashion During the Revolution===
 * A significant change in fashion was the kind of materials that were now being used to make clothes. Because life was now moving towards the simple side, all those fancy materials such as silk, velvet, ribbons and laces were done away with and cotton was now the most common material.
 * People chose to wear dark and sober colors which were probably because of the mood prevailing at the time or because of the cost effectiveness of the dull colors. The tricolor cockade which was the symbol of the New France was to be seen on every dress as it showed the patriotism of the people.
 * The revolution almost had a demanding effect on the prevailing fashion in the country.
 * [|Fashion during the Revolution]
 * ===The Bastille===
 * The Bastille (little bastion), originally called the Chastel Saint-Antoine, was built between 1370 and 1383 (under kings Charles V and Charles VI) to serve as a fortress for the protection of the city against Anglo-Burgundian forces during the Hundred Years' War.
 * Until the 17th century, the fort was used both as a castle and for the safekeeping of the royal treasure. During the first half of the 17th century, the Cardinal Richelieu (under King Louis XIII) converted the royal fortress into a state prison for the upper class — mainly people who committed high treason or some other kind of offense against either the King or the state
 * The Bastille is a prison in Paris, known formally as //Bastille Saint-Antoine.//
 * The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 marked the beginning of the French Revolution.
 * The four-and-a-half-story building, surrounded by its own moat, was located at the eastern main entrance to medieval Paris — overlooking the Faubourg St. Antoine of the Marais quarter, a former swamp. It had eight closely-spaced towers, roughly 77.1 ft. (23.5m) high, which surrounded two courtyards and the armoury. The towers were named as follows:
 * Tour du Coin
 * Tour de la Chapelle
 * Tour du Trésor
 * Tour de la Comte
 * Tour du Puits
 * Tour de la Liberté
 * Tour de la Bertaudière
 * Tour de la Basinière
 * [|The Bastille]
 * ===The Declaration of Rights of Women and Citizens===
 * Signed in 1791
 * Includes 17 aritcles about the rights of women and a form of a social contract between man and woman
 * [|Declaration of Rights of Women and Citizens]
 * ===The End of the Revolution===
 * Historians cannot agree on when the Revolution ended. Occasionally, you will find a reference saying that france is still in the revolutionary era. Others say that there is a diference in a revolution and the imperial rule of Napoleon Bonaparte and the age of wars that bear his name.
 * there are several common end dates and events which caused the end of the revolution. To see all of them go to []
 * [|Ending of the Revolution]