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attytheresa's review against another edition
4.0
Without Beaumarchais and his provisioning of the Continental Army after it crossed the Delaware and retook New Jersey from the British, the American Revolution would have failed. It is astonishing that his role has been so overlooked in American History, unlike that of Lafayette and Rochambeau. Or maybe not, given those who worked hard to prevent Beaumarchais getting his due during his life.
Beaumarchais today is best known for his two plays featuring his alterego Figaro: The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. Both are still read and performed in France and both were adapted into operas that enchant the world today. Both reflect the spirit of the man during the peak of his life. It's not a bad legacy, but it is incomplete. I have read both plays in French (in college as a French major) and adore the operas. Yet I knew nothing else about him until he was mentioned in Vol. 1 of the American Revolution trilogy by Rick Atkinson. This book was a revelation and welcome treat.
The son of a clockmaker, Beaumarchais was gifted, a genius, a renaissance man who not only wrote poetry and plays, but was a spy for France, policy maker and advisor, engineer, architect, publisher, and a few dozen other professions and roles. Beaumarchais embraced 'fraternite, egalite, and liberte' in their purist forms, inspiring revolution and being himself a revolutionary which led to the aid to the Americans and their ward of independence. In fact Beaumarchais saw the Americans through rose colored glasses, a utopian ideal coming to life. Sadly he was disappointed at the end of his life. Like so many geniuses, Beaumarchais had a fatal flaw or two which I sum up as being too idealistic and trusting of those in positions of class superiority (this is 18th Century France) or political power.
He was also victimized by the extreme classicism of the 18th Century, finding himself jailed more than once by an aristocrat charging him with 'crimes' out of resentment and jealousy. He made and lost many fortunes, suffered many reversals but until the Reign of Terror, he was able to remain optimistic, with song and laughter and wit filling his home. The disillusionment of the bloody chaos and horror of the French Revolution and its aftermath destroyed that idealism, though before his death he did recover some of that wit with more songs and poems and plays written.
This is a very readable enjoyable biography, written by an author clearly enchanted by Beaumarchais and desirous of giving him his due. This sings in the writings of Beaumarchais and his antics - the plan Beaumarchais devised for arming Americans is breath-taking. But the writing in the more basic historical background sections, summarizing war and politics of the time, is flat, writing is dutiful. I found this made it mildly jarring to read, but not enough to disengage me. In fact, I shed a tear or two at the end where his final years are described.
Beaumarchais today is best known for his two plays featuring his alterego Figaro: The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. Both are still read and performed in France and both were adapted into operas that enchant the world today. Both reflect the spirit of the man during the peak of his life. It's not a bad legacy, but it is incomplete. I have read both plays in French (in college as a French major) and adore the operas. Yet I knew nothing else about him until he was mentioned in Vol. 1 of the American Revolution trilogy by Rick Atkinson. This book was a revelation and welcome treat.
The son of a clockmaker, Beaumarchais was gifted, a genius, a renaissance man who not only wrote poetry and plays, but was a spy for France, policy maker and advisor, engineer, architect, publisher, and a few dozen other professions and roles. Beaumarchais embraced 'fraternite, egalite, and liberte' in their purist forms, inspiring revolution and being himself a revolutionary which led to the aid to the Americans and their ward of independence. In fact Beaumarchais saw the Americans through rose colored glasses, a utopian ideal coming to life. Sadly he was disappointed at the end of his life. Like so many geniuses, Beaumarchais had a fatal flaw or two which I sum up as being too idealistic and trusting of those in positions of class superiority (this is 18th Century France) or political power.
He was also victimized by the extreme classicism of the 18th Century, finding himself jailed more than once by an aristocrat charging him with 'crimes' out of resentment and jealousy. He made and lost many fortunes, suffered many reversals but until the Reign of Terror, he was able to remain optimistic, with song and laughter and wit filling his home. The disillusionment of the bloody chaos and horror of the French Revolution and its aftermath destroyed that idealism, though before his death he did recover some of that wit with more songs and poems and plays written.
This is a very readable enjoyable biography, written by an author clearly enchanted by Beaumarchais and desirous of giving him his due. This sings in the writings of Beaumarchais and his antics - the plan Beaumarchais devised for arming Americans is breath-taking. But the writing in the more basic historical background sections, summarizing war and politics of the time, is flat, writing is dutiful. I found this made it mildly jarring to read, but not enough to disengage me. In fact, I shed a tear or two at the end where his final years are described.
joabroda's review
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
4.0
An easy biographical read of Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. Beaumarchis came from a lower/middle class family and tried with all he had to pull himself into high French society. It seemed the more he tired, the more berated he was. This was a time when being of a certain class, you just did not rise.
I learned about Beaumarchais's activity in the American Revolution and was drawn to read more about him. Known most widely for his play writing, it was outstanding to learn all the other things he accomplished.
I loved Unger's forthright manner of explaining him in such a way that he became a man I would be anxious to know better. A sharp mind, and a sense of fun. His story is well worth reading about
I learned about Beaumarchais's activity in the American Revolution and was drawn to read more about him. Known most widely for his play writing, it was outstanding to learn all the other things he accomplished.
I loved Unger's forthright manner of explaining him in such a way that he became a man I would be anxious to know better. A sharp mind, and a sense of fun. His story is well worth reading about
ezreader's review
5.0
Can't remember exactly how I even found out about this book--probably thru another Goodreads search or something. Anyway I read some of the reviews which enticed me to borrow the book and read it. What a story! What a life! Thank you Mr. Unger for your exemplary historical-made-very-interesting writing skills--you kept me reading "just one more page, just one more page." If only our history textbooks in school could have been so engrossing rather than just bland, dry factual paragraphs. Mr. Unger brings history to life! (and made me ashamed of my country that they cheated this man out of his due! perhaps Lin-Manuel Miranda could make something of this in the future?)