"If we do not die for liberty, we shall soon have nothing left to do but weep for her." -Memoirs of Madame de Staël and of Madame Roland (1847) The Private Memoirs of Madame Roland (1795) is a justification of the author's and others' roles in the French Revolution. Written while the author was imprisoned during the months before her execution, it was smuggled to a close friend, who published it in 1795 just as the Reign of Terror was ending. This English version appeared the same year.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ... found it more profitable to feast upon a good poem than to starve myself with roots. In vain, some years after, did M. Roland, paying his addresses, endeavor to revive in me this ancient taste; we made, indeed, a great many figures; but the mode of deduction by X and Y was never sufficiently attractive to fix my attention. September 5. / cut the sheet to inclose what I have written in the little box; for when I see a revolutionary army decreed, new tribunals formed for shedding innocent blood, famine threatened, and the tyrants at bay, I augur that they must have new victims, and conclude that no one is secure of living another day. The correspondence with Sophie was still one of my chief pleasures, and the bands of our friendship had been drawn closer by several journeys which she had made to Paris. My susceptible heart had need, I will not say of an illusion, but of an object upon which to centre its affections, and especially of confidence and communication. Friendship offered them, and I cherished it with ardor. My relation with my mother, agreeable as it was, would not have supplied the place of this affection; it had too much of the gravity resulting from respect on the one part, and of authority on the other. My mother might have known everything; I had nothing to conceal from her, but I could not tell her all. To a parent one addresses confessions; one can really confide only in an equal. My mother, without asking to see the letters I wrote to Sophie, was pleased to have them shown to her; and our arrangement of this matter was not without its humorous side. We understood each other without a word having passed between us on the subject. When I heard from my friend, which I did regularly every week, I read to my mother a few...

This is the story of Madame Marie-Jeanne Roland, who with her husband, rose to a high position in the Girondist (more moderate than the opposing Jacobins) political party of the French Revolution. When the Jacobins took power with their extreme radical ideas, many Girondists were sent to the guillotine, Madame Roland among them. Her memoirs were written over a five month period while imprisoned in Paris. Supplementary material explores her romantic involvement with follow revolutionary, Leonard Buzot.

On 1 June 1973 Madame Roland was arrested for her involvement in the French Revolution and on 8 November she went to the guillotine. During her 6 month imprisonment she wrote these memoirs. This is the first modern English translation. Approximately half of the pages concern the author's upbringing in a Parisian bourgeois family and her marriage to the bureaucrat Jean-Marie Roland de la Platiere; the remainder discusses the period from 1789 to 1793, when she and her husband were leaders of the Girondin party. Madame Roland was devoted to her spouse and always gave him full credit for work in which she was a full partner, including the inspection of manufacturers under the Old Regime and the post of minister of the interior during parts of 1792 and 1793. Her memoirs provide glimpses into the daily life of the period and sharp portraits of several revolutionary leaders. Scholars will wish to consult the complete French edition, but this book is perfect for general readers.