City of Darkness, City of Light tells the story of three courageous women at the time of the French Revolution. Claire Lacombe is the daughter of an impoverished family in the south of France who joins a traveling theatrical company as an actress. Eventually, she becomes a leader in the revolutionary movement for women's rights. Manon Roland, intellectual and disciple of Rousseau, is the wife of a much-older government official and the hostess of a political salon in Paris. During the Revolution, Manon is a member of the Girondist (moderate republican) faction, but, because of her traditional view of the role of women, feels that she must always do her work through men: first her husband, then her lover, the Girondist politician François Buzot. Pauline Léon, an orphan and owner of a chocolate store in one of the poorest sections of Paris, witnesses the execution of the leaders of a bread riot; partly as a result of this childhood experience, Pauline herself takes to the streets as a political agitator during the Revolution. Together with Claire Lacombe, Pauline founds the society of Revolutionary Republican Women, an organization which works for women's rights, more democracy, and economic controls.

Piercy intertwines the story of these women with the story of three men: the Marquis de Condorcet, mathematician and intellectual nobleman, who tries to keep a balance between the old society and the new, and the more familiar figures of Robespierre, leader of the Terror, and Danton, Robespierre's one-time friend and, later, dangerous opponent. Although the men are important characters, this novel is really about the women and shows us a side of the French Revolution that we do not see in most histories: the struggle for women's rights.

For the most part, the novel is well-written. At times, however, Piercy's language is too modern. The use of words such as "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" and phrases such as "nest egg" (p.200) and "the price...has skyrocketed" (p.463) are somewhat distracting and give Piercy's dialogue a twentieth-century flavor. Also disturbing is the use of first names--Robespierre is called "Max" and Danton, "Georges"--at a time when even close friends called each other by their last names. There are also several historical inaccuracies, although these are minor details for the most part; the worst is probably Robespierre's love affair with Eléanore Duplay, which many historians have dismissed as a legend. In spite of this, however, City of Darkness, City of Light is a wonderful historical novel.

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Copyright 1997 Vicki Kondelik.