SOURCE: Blashfield, Evangeline Wilbour. “The Salon of Madame Roland.” In Manon Phlipon Roland: Early Years, pp. 381-83. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922.

In this excerpt, taken from her unfinished study of Roland, Blashfield offers a depiction of Roland's salon. Blashfield's high praise and admiration typifies many early biographies of Roland.

[The salon of Madame Roland] was a society of partisans composed of grave folk occupied with serious matters, mostly Girondins. Its tone was thoughtful but not solemn. The lightness of hand which the French display in all social discussion, even of the profoundest subjects, saved it from pedantry, and the presence of women, even such serious-minded women as the femmes politiques, imposed on it a certain good humor. The dinners followed by discussions (during which the project for the Sociétés Populaires of Lanthenas was perfected) took place on Mondays and Thursdays. Soon, however, the popular government...