“What are the best books about The French Revolution?” We looked at 86 of the top French Revolution books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The 86 best books about the French Revolution are split between fiction and nonfiction titles. The top 9 books, all appearing on 2 or more lists, are below with images, summaries, and additional links to learn more. The remaining books, all appearing on a single list, as well as the lists themselves, can be found in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
In this New York Times bestseller, award-winning author Simon Schama presents an ebullient country, vital and inventive, infatuated with novelty and technology–a strikingly fresh view of Louis XVI’s France. One of the great landmarks of modern history publishing
For Claire Lacombe and Pauline Leon, two poor women of eighteenth-century France, the lofty ideals of the coming revolution could not seem more abstract. But when Claire sees the gaping disparity between the poverty she has known and the lavish lives of aristocrats as her theater group performs in their homes, and Pauline witnesses the execution of local bread riot leaders, both are driven to join the uprising. They, along with upper-class women like Madame Manon Roland, who ghostwrites speeches for her politician husband and runs a Parisian salon where revolutionaries gather, will play critical roles in the French people’s bloody battle for liberty and equality.
“Since his execution by guillotine in July 1794, Maximilien Robespierre has been contested terrain for historians. Was he a bloodthirsty charlatan or the only true defender of revolutionary ideals? The first modern dictator or the earliest democrat? Was his extreme moralism a heroic virtue or a ruinous flaw?
Against the dramatic backdrop of the French Revolution, historian Ruth Scurr tracks Robespierre’s evolution from provincial lawyer to devastatingly efficient revolutionary leader, righteous and paranoid in equal measure. She explores his reformist zeal, his role in the fall of the monarchy, his passionate attempts to design a modern republic, even his extraordinary effort to found a perfect religion. And she follows him into the Terror, as the former death- penalty opponent makes summary execution the order of the day, himself falling victim to the violence at the age of thirty-six.”
Set during the French Revolution, the tale of the man “who was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” This classic novel of swashbuckling adventure and sweeping romance is also a thought-provoking commentary on class, inequality, and the individual’s role in society―a story that has become Rafael Sabatini’s enduring legacy.
In this historical adventure set during the French Revolution, the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel sets out to rescue men, women and children facing the horrors of the guillotine, while evading the relentless pursuit of his arch enemy, Chauvelin.
It is 1789, and three young provincials have come to Paris to make their way. Georges-Jacques Danton, an ambitious young lawyer, is energetic, pragmatic, debt-ridden–and hugely but erotically ugly. Maximilien Robespierre, also a lawyer, is slight, diligent, and terrified of violence. His dearest friend, Camille Desmoulins, is a conspirator and pamphleteer of genius. A charming gadfly, erratic and untrustworthy, bisexual and beautiful, Camille is obsessed by one woman and engaged to marry another, her daughter. In the swells of revolution, they each taste the addictive delights of power, and the price that must be paid for it.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same period. It follows the lives of several characters through these events. A Tale of Two Cities was published in weekly installments from April 1859 to November 1859 in Dickens’s new literary periodical titled All the Year Round. All but three of Dickens’s previous novels had appeared only as monthly installments. With sales of about 200 million copies, A Tale of Two Cities is the bestselling novel in history.
| # | Book | Author | Lists |
| (Books Appear On 1 List Each) | |||
| 10 | A Dish Taken Cold (Otto Penzler Books) | Anne Perry | Jungle Find |
| 11 | A Far Better Rest | Susanne Alleyn, Charles Dickens | Jungle Find |
| 12 | A Sharpness On The Neck (The Dracula Series) | Fred Saberhagen | Jungle Find |
| 13 | A Treasury of Regrets | Susanne Alleyn | Jungle Find |
| 14 | Annette Vallon | Historical Fiction | |
| 15 | Becoming Marie Antoinette | Historical Fiction | |
| 16 | Before the Deluge | Michael Sonenscher | Coop |
| 17 | Behind Closed Doors – At Home in Georgian Englandby Amanda Vickery | Kate’s Blog | |
| 18 | Blundering to Glory | Owen Connelly | History Monocle |
| 19 | Confessions of Marie Antoinette | Historical Fiction | |
| 20 | Contesting the French Revolution | Paul R. Hanson | Coop |
| 21 | Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow | Historical Fiction | |
| 22 | El Dorado Further Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel (Dover Books on Literature & Drama) | Baroness Orczy | Jungle Find |
| 23 | Farewell My Queen | Chantal Thomas. | Madame Guillotine |
| 24 | French Society in Revolution 1789 – 1799 | David Andress | About |
| 25 | From Deficit to Deluge: The Origins of the French Revolution | T. E. Kaiser | About |
| 26 | Game of Patience (Aristide Ravel Mysteries) | Susanne Alleyn | Jungle Find |
| 27 | History of the French Revolution from 1789 – 1814 | Francois Mignet | Kate’s Blog |
| 28 | Illusion | Paula Volsky | Jungle Find |
| 29 | Insatiable | Historical Fiction | |
| 30 | Interpreting the French Revolution | François Furet | Five Books |
| 31 | Ladies of the Grand Tour | Brian Dolan | Kate’s Blog |
| 32 | Les Liaisons Dangereuses | Pierre Choderlos de Laclos | The Guardian |
| 33 | London in the Eighteenth Century | Jerry White | Kate’s Blog |
| 34 | Madame du Barry | Historical Fiction | |
| 35 | Madame Tussaud | Historical Fiction | |
| 36 | Mistress of the Revolution | Catherine Delors. | Madame Guillotine |
| 37 | My Revolution Promenades in Paris 1789-1794 | Alex Karmel, Restif de la Bretonne | Jungle Find |
| 38 | Napoleon and his Collaborators: The Making of a Dictatorship | Isser Woloch | History Monocle |
| 39 | Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe | Alexander Grab | History Monocle |
| 40 | Napoleon Bonaparte | Alan Schom | History Monocle |
| 41 | Napoleon Symphony | Anthony Burgess | The Guardian |
| 42 | Napoleon: How to Make War | Ediciones La Calavera | History Monocle |
| 43 | Napoleon’s Letters edited | JM Thompson | History Monocle |
| 44 | Ninety-Three | Victor Hugo, Ayn Rand | Jungle Find |
| 45 | Our Lady of the Potatoes | Duncan Sprott | The Guardian |
| 46 | Pure | Andrew Miller | The Guardian |
| 47 | Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution | Israel | About |
| 48 | Sans-Culottes | Michael Sonenscher | Coop |
| 49 | Season of Light | Katharine McMahon. | Madame Guillotine |
| 50 | The Ancien Régime and the Revolution | Alexis de Tocqueville | Five Books |
| 51 | The Campaigns of Napoleon | David G. Chandler | History Monocle |
| 52 | The Devil’s Laughter | Frank Yerby | Jungle Find |
| 53 | The Duel | Joseph Conrad | The Guardian |
| 54 | The Elusive Pimpernel (Dover Books on Literature & Drama) | Baroness Orczy | Jungle Find |
| 55 | The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801-1805 | Frederick Kagan | History Monocle |
| 56 | The English – A Social History 1066 – 1945 | Christopher Hibbert | Kate’s Blog |
| 57 | The Fallen Angels A Novel of the French Revolution A Novel of the French Revolution | Susannah Kells | Jungle Find |
| 58 | The French Passion | Diane Dupont | Jungle Find |
| 59 | The French Revolution – Rethinking the debate | Gwynne Lewis | About |
| 60 | The French Revolution – The Essential Readings edited | Ronald Schechter | About |
| 61 | The French Revolution 1789 – 1799 | Peter McPhee | About |
| 62 | The French Revolution and Napoleonic Era | Owen Connelly | History Monocle |
| 63 | The French Revolution Sourcebook edited | John Hardman | About |
| 64 | The French Revolutionary Wars | G. Fremont-Barnes | About |
| 65 | The Frenchwoman | Jeanne MacKin | Jungle Find |
| 66 | The Gods Are Athirst | Anatole France, Alfred Allinson | Jungle Find |
| 67 | The Gods Are Thirsty A Novel of the French Revolution | Tanith Lee | Jungle Find |
| 68 | The Gods Will Have Blood (Les Dieux Ont Soif) | Anatole France. | Madame Guillotine |
| 69 | The Incorruptible; A tale of revolution and royalty | Helma de Bois | Jungle Find |
| 70 | The Lacemaker and the Princess | Kimberly Brubaker Bradley | Historical Fiction |
| 71 | The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel | Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy | Jungle Find |
| 72 | The Mind of Napoleon edited | J. Christopher Herold | History Monocle |
| 73 | The New Regime | Isser Woloch | Five Books |
| 74 | The Origins of the French Revolution | William Doyle | About |
| 75 | The Origins of the French Revolutionary Wars | TCW Blanning | History Monocle |
| 76 | The Oxford History of the French Revolution | William Doyle | About |
| 77 | The Queen’s Confession | Victoria Holt, Philippa Carr, Jean Plaidy, Eleanor Hibbert | Jungle Find |
| 78 | The Rose Grower | Michelle de Kretser. | Madame Guillotine |
| 79 | The Sword of Satan | H. M. Mons | Jungle Find |
| 80 | The Terror in the French Revolution | Hugh Gough | About |
| 81 | The Terror: Civil War in the French Revolution | David Andress | About |
| 82 | The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel | Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy | Jungle Find |
| 83 | The War of Wars: The Great European Conflict , 1793-1815 | Robert Harvey | History Monocle |
| 84 | Twelve Who Ruled | RR Palmer | Five Books |
| 85 | Veronique | Virginia Coffman | Jungle Find |
| 86 | War and Society in Revolutionary Europe 1770 – 1870 | Geoffrey Best | Kate’s Blog |
| Source | Article |
| About | Top Books: The French Revolution |
| Coop | French Revolution |
| Five Books | Lynn Hunt recommends the best books on The French Revolution |
| Flavorwire | 5 Unforgettable French Revolution Moments From Literature and Film |
| Historical Fiction | Category: French Revolution |
| History Monocle | A Review of Books about the French Revolution and Napoleonic Eras |
| Jungle Find | Best And The Worst of Fiction set in the French Revolution on Amazon |
| Kate’s Blog | Best Research Books for the French Revolution, chosen by Charlotte Betts |
| Madame Guillotine | Top ten French Revolution novels |
| The Guardian | The top 10 French Revolution novels |
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