by Marie-Jeanne P. Roland

On June 1st, 1793, Madame Roland was arrested for her involvement in the French Revolution and on November 8 of that same year she went to the guillotine. During her six-month imprisonment she wrote these memoirs. 'Roland writes so vividly that we see the Paris of 1793 rising before us.' So states the London Independent upon reading the first English translation of the Memoirs available in one hundred years.

Married at the age of 25 to an austere local government official, Madame Roland and her husband moved to Paris at the beginning of the Revolution where they played active roles in the ever-changing political scene.

Roland met frequently with leading Republicans, Jacobins and Girondins in his apartment with his wife at his side. In 1792 he was unexpectedly appointed Minister of the Interiour, only to fall rapidly from grace. Madame Roland's memoirs detail the drama of his rise to power, followed by his resignation, denunciation, and ultimately her own arrest.