Preface
Introduction
1. Montauban
2. Paris, Pleasures
3. Olympe's Revolution
4. The Last Two Years
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Sophie Mousset is an avid writer, photographer, and traveler who spends most of her time abroad and on the high seas as a crew member of the three-masted ship, The Boudeuse.
Mousset writes a lyrical prose that just begins to suggest the
influence and impact of this notorious political writer and
provocateur on her contemporaries. The biography demonstrates de
Gouges's significance as an author and the power of her arguments
for students and scholars focused on women's political history. --
Wendy Gunther-Canada, The Review of Politics -Sophie Mousset's
absorbing biography of the bold, brave, and thought-provoking
Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) convincingly rehabilitates the
importance of an unjustly overlooked intellectual from the French
Revolutionary period. Often dismissed as a coquettish socialite and
mere agitator, the 'tall, beautiful, and witty' Olympe de Gouges
was in fact a pioneering social thinker, an uncompromising engaging
playwright, a far-seeing feminist, and indeed the drafter, in
September 1791 of an extraordinary, little-known, Declaration of
the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. As Mousset impressively
shows, Olympe de Gouges developed a forcible, but also subtle and
deep-probing, moral and political conscience, before she herself a
revolutionary fell victim to the same revolutionary excesses that
she had perceived, defined, and incisively denounced (In 1793, she
was the first woman to be guillotined after Marie-Antoinette). By
bringing back to life this intrepid yet percipient writer, Mousset
challenges us to take a new look at the history of women's rights,
at rarely mentioned aspects of French revolutionary thought and,
perhaps most of all, at the perennial dilemma of balancing
effective political action, objective discernment, and generous
restraint.- --John Taylor, author of Paths to Contemporary French
Literature -Mousset's biography of Olympe de Gouges is the first
one available in English. . . . The book is written for a general
audience, without theoretical or scholarly apparatus. . . .
Olympe's story is relevant to feminist history, and also to debates
about the meaning of the French Revolution.- --Joan Roelofs,
Science & Society
Mousset writes a lyrical prose that just begins to suggest the
influence and impact of this notorious political writer and
provocateur on her contemporaries. The biography demonstrates de
Gouges's significance as an author and the power of her arguments
for students and scholars focused on women's political history. --
Wendy Gunther-Canada, The Review of Politics "Sophie Mousset's
absorbing biography of the bold, brave, and thought-provoking
Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) convincingly rehabilitates the
importance of an unjustly overlooked intellectual from the French
Revolutionary period. Often dismissed as a coquettish socialite and
mere agitator, the 'tall, beautiful, and witty' Olympe de Gouges
was in fact a pioneering social thinker, an uncompromising engaging
playwright, a far-seeing feminist, and indeed the drafter, in
September 1791 of an extraordinary, little-known, Declaration of
the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. As Mousset impressively
shows, Olympe de Gouges developed a forcible, but also subtle and
deep-probing, moral and political conscience, before she herself a
revolutionary fell victim to the same revolutionary excesses that
she had perceived, defined, and incisively denounced (In 1793, she
was the first woman to be guillotined after Marie-Antoinette). By
bringing back to life this intrepid yet percipient writer, Mousset
challenges us to take a new look at the history of women's rights,
at rarely mentioned aspects of French revolutionary thought and,
perhaps most of all, at the perennial dilemma of balancing
effective political action, objective discernment, and generous
restraint." --John Taylor, author of Paths to Contemporary French
Literature "Mousset's biography of Olympe de Gouges is the first
one available in English. . . . The book is written for a general
audience, without theoretical or scholarly apparatus. . . .
Olympe's story is relevant to feminist history, and also to debates
about the meaning of the French Revolution." --Joan Roelofs,
Science & Society
"Sophie Mousset's absorbing biography of the bold, brave, and
thought-provoking Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) convincingly
rehabilitates the importance of an unjustly overlooked intellectual
from the French Revolutionary period. Often dismissed as a
coquettish socialite and mere agitator, the 'tall, beautiful, and
witty' Olympe de Gouges was in fact a pioneering social thinker, an
uncompromising engaging playwright, a far-seeing feminist, and
indeed the drafter, in September 1791 of an extraordinary,
little-known, Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female
Citizen. As Mousset impressively shows, Olympe de Gouges developed
a forcible, but also subtle and deep-probing, moral and political
conscience, before she herself a revolutionary fell victim to the
same revolutionary excesses that she had perceived, defined, and
incisively denounced (In 1793, she was the first woman to be
guillotined after Marie-Antoinette). By bringing back to life this
intrepid yet percipient writer, Mousset challenges us to take a new
look at the history of women's rights, at rarely mentioned aspects
of French revolutionary thought and, perhaps most of all, at the
perennial dilemma of balancing effective political action,
objective discernment, and generous restraint." --John Taylor,
author of Paths to Contemporary French Literature "Mousset's
biography of Olympe de Gouges is the first one available in
English. . . . The book is written for a general audience, without
theoretical or scholarly apparatus. . . . Olympe's story is
relevant to feminist history, and also to debates about the meaning
of the French Revolution." --Joan Roelofs, Science & Society
"Olympe's story is relevant to feminist history, and also to
debates about the meaning of the French Revolution." -Science &
Society
"Sophie Mousset's absorbing biography of the bold, brave, and
thought-provoking Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) convincingly
rehabilitates the importance of an unjustly overlooked intellectual
from the French Revolutionary period. Often dismissed as a
coquettish socialite and mere agitator, the "tall, beautiful, and
witty" Olympe de Gouges was in fact a pioneering social thinker, an
uncompromising engag playwright, a far-seeing feminist, and indeed
the drafter-in September 1791of an extraordinary, little-known,
"Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen." As
Mousset impressively shows, Olympe de Gouges developed a forcible,
but also subtle and deep-probing, moral and political conscience,
before she herselfa revolutionaryfell victim to the same
revolutionary excesses that she had perceived, defined, and
incisively denounced. (In 1793, she was the first woman to be
guillotined after Marie-Antoinette.) By bringing back to life this
intrepid yet percipient writer, Mousset challenges us to take a new
look at the history of women's rights, at rarely mentioned aspects
of French revolutionary thought and, perhaps most of all, at the
perennial dilemma of balancing effective political action,
objective discernment, and generous restraint." John Taylor, author
of "Paths to Contemporary French Literature"
"Olympe's story is relevant to feminist history, and also to
debates about the meaning of the French Revolution."-Science &
Society
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