The Red Necklace: a story of the French Revolution

The cover of Sally Gardner’s new book shows a revolutionary holding up a presumably aristocratic head after its owner has been guillotined. This might give a misleading impression of the subject of this book which is not the French Revolution itself but a story of intrigue and love with an element of fantasy thrown in, set in a France in turmoil.

Yann, who has mystic powers is an important part of a theatrical act involving a Pierrot and bullets which is invited to perform at the house of the villain of this story, a certain Count Kalliovski who has a nice line in lending money and then blackmailing his victims. The Count has designs on Sido, daughter of the Marquis de Villeduval, who is heavily in debt to the Count. There is a murder at the performance and Sido helps Yann and his friend the dwarf Tetu, to escape. Yann ends up in England and learns how to be a gentleman but yearns to return to France to rescue Sido. This is part of a complex plot which also involves murders where the victim wears the red necklace of the title.

The confusion and fear that the Revolution engendered in its early days are well described but the citizens and the aristocrats are rather caricatures, the one rough and violent, the other foolish and profligate. Yann and Sido rise above this and the vagaries of the plot to become strong characters involving the reader in their plight. Conversations are at times quite adult in tone requiring some understanding of the historical background which is never explained rather assuming knowledge on the part of the reader.

The book is beautifully produced, with endpapers of a map of Paris, and each chapter starts with larger print in red and an embellishment for the heading. It is long, 384 pages, and requires some stamina from the reader and this coupled with the complexity of the plot and the violent deaths of many of its characters make it a challenging read.