What remains of the Enlightenment when the revolutionary storm rumbles? In The Revolution of Shadows, Bernard Rio brings to life forty years of history through a gallery of characters swept away by the passions, hopes, and dramas of an era that changed the fate of Brittany.
Prolific author well known to Breton readers for his numerous works dedicated to history, traditions, myths, and the sacred, Bernard Rio publishes an ambitious historical novel titled "The Revolution of Shadows." Released by Ar Gedour editions, this 688-page book takes the reader through the upheavals that accompanied the end of the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, and the Empire.
The story begins in 1775 in the Languedoc city of Uzès, where aristocrats, clergy, bourgeois, and artisans intersect on the eve of significant political upheavals. As the pages unfold, the narrative expands to other regions of France, notably Brittany, and follows the fate of real or imaginary characters confronted with the rifts of their time.
At the center of the novel is Blaise Nemo, an enigmatic character who changes identities several times throughout the story. Sometimes a discreet servant, sometimes an actor in counter-revolutionary networks, he navigates the major events of his time as a privileged observer of political passions and ideological confrontations.
Bernard Rio does not merely recount History. He also focuses on individual destinies, convictions, loyalties, and personal choices during a period when certainties waver. The fiction is grounded in solid documentation and accurately captures the atmospheres and tensions that precede the French Revolution.
The author also claims an original tone, inspired by the spirit of the Enlightenment. Behind the historical rigor lies a certain irreverence that sometimes recalls Beaumarchais and allows for a less conventional approach to the great revolutionary events.
Through this vast fresco that spans from the reign of Louis XVI to the fall of Napoleon, Bernard Rio ultimately questions themes that remain relevant today: political crises, ideological confrontations, information manipulation, and issues of identity and belonging.
The Revolution of Shadows, Bernard Rio, Ar Gedour editions, 688 pages, 33 euros. The author will be present at the Livr'à Vannes fair on June 12, 13, and 14 to meet his readers.
