The French Revolution: A History was written by the Scottish essayist, philosopher, and historian Thomas Carlyle. The three-volume work, first published in 1837 (with a revised edition in print by 1857), charts the course of the French Revolution from 1789 to the height of the Reign of Terror (1793–94) and culminates in 1795. A massive undertaking which draws together a wide variety of sources, Carlyle's history—despite the unusual style in which it is written—is considered to be an authoritative account of the early course of the Revolution. Volume 1 is titled 'The Bastille'

Subtitled "The Bastille", Volume 1 of Thomas Carlyle's three volume "The French Revolution: A History" was first published in 1837, and covers the events of the French Revolution up to the forced move of Louis XVI from Versailles to Paris. While a modern listener not already familiar with the events described here may need some time to get their bearings amidst a sea of unfamiliar names and allusions, Carlyle's idiosyncratic yet justly famous present-tense, quasi-firsthand narrative quickly builds into a gripping, highly dramatic story which contemporary scholars still regard as being essentially accurate...

The second volume of this famous and idiosyncratic history covers events from October 1789, after Louis XVI has been 'persuaded' to leave Versailles and take up residence in Paris, through to August 1792. By the end of this time, Louis and his family have tried, unsuccessfully, to flee the country, France has been invaded by foreign powers, and anti-royalist French militia have brutally massacred a corps of Swiss Guards seeking to defend Louis and his family in their Paris residence. Louis is imprisoned, and it is clear to all that a three year effort to establish a constitutional monarchy have failed. - Summary by Peter Dann

Of this third, and final, phase of the French Revolution, including that period known as The Terror, Carlyle comments "It is unfortunate, though very natural, that the history of this Period has so generally been written in hysterics." Carlyle's own account of the prominent personalities and "two great movements" that dominate this phase of the revolution — "a rushing against domestic Traitors, a rushing against foreign Despots" — spares us none of the drama, yet is surprisingly compassionate and understanding from an author whose own society was riven with social inequalities that might conceivably have led to insurrection...