Introduction

This is a story of fiction.


A boy became the student of a great philosopher and met his eldest daughter. He fell in love with her and after eight years of corresponding, he married her. They loved each other passionately and were devoted to each other until his death. They thought they would live together happily for the rest of their lives, but the time was too troubled and it was bound for anyone to be killed. The romantic tale became a tragedy.

This is the fictional story of two lovers from the time of the French Revolution (1788-1799). France was in turmoil from revolts and riots. One of the richest and more powerful countries in Europe in 1789, France was being run into the ground by debts due to the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War and by the eve of the Revolution, France was almost bankrupt. Taxes and the peasants' unrest with the privileges of the nobles also contributed to the instigation of the Revolution. As for the lovers, the man was one of the greater leaders of the Revolution during the time of the Reign of Terror. Unfortunately for him, he was brought down by the accusations of tyranny for the deaths of 1, 285 people and was guillotined. The woman was grief-stricken and never married again in the last years of her life.

This is a fictional story with historical facts woven in. Élisabeth Rousseau never existed and Jean-Jacques Rousseau did not keep his children. They were sent to an orphanage and this was the opportunity for other philosophers such as Voltaire to attack Rousseau with. Rousseau explained that he would have been a poor father and they were better off in an orphanage. Others such as Robert Rousseau and Anne Colbert never existed either; they were incorporated to help with the main characters. A Lifelong Devotion deals with the more personal side of Maximilien Robespierre and the fictional daughter of his mentor Rousseau. Most of the chapters are fictional and deal with the personal lives of Robespierre and Élisabeth.


Rose Lillian Marshall