This is the journal that I, Louis Chanel, have kept over the years of the French revolution. The decade where I have lost many people, and bits and pieces of my sanity. Through monarchies and republics, through life and through death, what I have experienced from the year 1789 to 1799 is present in these pages.

We had started this whole revolution with a monarchy ruled by a reckless spender, we ended this revolution with a republic. Though much has changed, things are still mainly the same. The poor is still poor, the rich are still rich, and those who are dead, will be lost forever. Life is better now than it was at the beginning of this revolution but I feel that I have lost too much for these changes to be worth it. If things were different than maybe I wouldn’t mind, but now I feel as though the only way I can be truly content is if I am reunited with those i’ve lost through death.

A translation for the non french speakers:

French- A vaincre sans peril,  a triomphe sans gloire.

English- to conquer without danger is to triumph without glory.