Helen Maria Williams (1761-1827) English poet novelist and chronicler of the French
Revolution here vividly recounts her experiences in France during the Terror. Arrested in the
fall of 1793 Williams records with passion and sorrow the degeneration of the Revolution into
chaos and murder. She sketches the colorful personalities of her friends and acquaintances
(Madame Roland Charlotte Corday Georges-Jacques Danton) and enemies (Maximilien Robespierre
Louis-Antoine de St. Just Jean Paul Marat) while all the time displaying her enduring
optimism that Revolution would eventually succeed in liberty and justice for people everywhere.
