The king's pious sister Princess Elisabeth takes a stand to defend her brother, spirit her family to safety, and restore the old order, even at the risk of her head.īut when fanatics use the newspapers to twist the revolution's ideals into a new tyranny, even the women who toppled the monarchy are threatened by the guillotine. When the Bastille falls and Louise leads a women's march to Versailles, the monarchy is forced to bend, but not without a fight.

Emboldened to fight the injustices of King Louis XVI, Sophie aims to prove that an educated populace can govern itself-but one of her students, fruit-seller Louise Audu, is hungrier for bread and vengeance than learning. But as the tide of revolution rises, women from gilded salons to the streets of Paris decide otherwise-upending a world order that has long oppressed them.īlue-blooded Sophie de Grouchy believes in democracy, education, and equal rights for women, and marries the only man in Paris who agrees. In late eighteenth-century France, women do not have a place in politics.

Ribbons of Scarlet is a timely story of the power of women to start a revolution-and change the world. 'The French Revolution comes alive through the eyes of six diverse and complex women, in the skilled hands of these amazing authors.'-Martha Hall Kelly, New York Times bestselling author of Lilac GirlsĪ breathtaking, epic novel illuminating the hopes, desires, and destinies of princesses and peasants, harlots and wives, fanatics and philosophers-seven unforgettable women whose paths cross during one of the most tumultuous and transformative events in history: the French Revolution.

Ribbons of Scarlet by Kate Quinn