Of the more than one thousand people who
published memoirs of the French Revolution of 1789,
about eighty were women. And of these eighty women
memoirists, two thirds were members of the upper
(5) class, a proportion that might be attributed solely to
privilege—at the time of the Revolution, only half of
all French citizens could read, and only members of the
upper class were able to write easily. But there were
also political reasons. Most of the memoirs were
(10) published decades after the Revolution, during the
restored monarchy that came to power in 1815. Those
written by royalists, who opposed the Revolution, were
published under the monarchy’s aegis; in contrast,
republican memoirists, who supported the Revolution,
(15) risked political sanctions against their work.

Because the memoirs were written so long after the
events they describe, some historians question their
reliability. Certainly, memory is subject to the loss or
confusion of facts and, more to the point in these
(20) partisan accounts, to the distortions of a mind intent on
preserving its particular picture of the past. But other
scholars have shown that close inspection of these
documents resolves such doubts on two scores. First,
for major public happenings, there are often multiple
(25) accounts, allowing for cross-verification. Second,
regarding the truth of personal events known only to
the author, more subjective guidelines must be used:
Are there internal verifications with a text that
suggest the author is describing a plausible sequence of
(30) events, and acting in accord with what is known of the
writer’s character? Or is the narrative voice so
pervaded by self-justifications that it forfeits
credibility?

Denis Bertholet, in a study of nineteenth-century
(35) French autobiography, states that the women
memoirists of this period defined themselves “in
relationship to their sex”—i.e., they conformed to
socially prescribed feminine roles of the time, fulfilling
obligations as daughters, wives or mothers.
(40) Nonetheless, instances of social activism by women
abounded during the Revolution. On the whole,
women’s memoirs during this period exhibit a variety
of personalities and experiences, and describe how
women participated, individually and collectively, in
(45) the events of the Revolution. For example, the
imprisoned royalist Madame de La Villirouët details
how she managed to liberate not only herself but her
co-prisoners through an epistolary campaign, and how
she subsequently saved her husband’s life by pleading
(50) his case in court. In addition, in both royalist and
republican camps, several women defied the ban
against women serving as soldiers and bore arms for
their causes. Bertholet’s study attests to the credibility
of these accounts on both factual and subjective
(55) grounds, making the memoirs written by women
particularly significant because they embody a clearly
feminist mode of discourse and experience that one
would not expect to find until the French Feminist
movement more than a century later.

1. Which one of the following most completely and accurately states the main idea of the passage?

(A) Despite the attempts of some historians to discredit them on factual or subjective grounds, women’s memoirs of the French Revolution reflect French society’s intolerance toward women’s involvement in the political sphere.
(B) Even though studies have yet to draw any definitive conclusions about their factual accuracy, women’s memoirs of the French Revolution appear to be at least subjectively reliable accounts of the events of the period.
(C) Although written years later, women’s memoirs of the French Revolution can be regarded as factually and subjectively reliable accounts of the various ways in which women participated in the events of the period.
(D) Because of the natural tendency of memory to distort facts and of partisanship to bias accounts, it is unlikely that women’s memoirs of the French Revolution can be relied upon to convey an accurate portrait of the events of the period.
(E) Regardless of their reliability, women’s memoirs of the French Revolution are nevertheless a valuable resource for scholars attempting to gain insight into the impetus that led to the women’s movement in France.


2. Based on the passage, which one of the following can most reasonably be inferred about the majority of the published memoirs of the French Revolution that were written by men?

(A) They depict women who conformed to socially prescribed roles.
(B) They depict women who participated in the Revolution.
(C) They were suppressed by political sanctions.
(D) They were written by members of the upper class.
(E) They were written by members of the lower class.


3. The passage’s reference to Madame de La Villirouët is most likely intended to

(A) demonstrate that women’s roles during the Revolution were partially determined by their social statuses
(B) explain why so few women published their accounts of the events of the Revolution
(C) support the claim that political partisanship inevitably biases recollections
(D) provide an example of the activism of women described in memoirs of the Revolution
(E) illustrate that royalist and republican memoirs were focused on differing themes


4. According to the passage, more of the published women’s memoirs of the French Revolution were written by royalists than by republicans because

(A) royalists could publish their accounts without risking persecution
(B) royalists felt a greater urgency to relate their version of events
(C) royalists were able to afford the prohibitive expense of publication
(D) republicans had little desire to leave written accounts of their actions
(E) republicans typically belonged to professions that left them little time to write


5. Based on the passage, which one of the following views can most reasonably be attributed to the historians mentioned in line 17?

(A) Royalist memoirs of the French Revolution are more factually reliable than are republican memoirs of the same period.
(B) Republican memoirs of the French Revolution are less distorted by partisan biases than are royalist memoirs of the same period.
(C) Many memoirs of the French Revolution published during the restored monarchy likely contain factual inaccuracies.
(D) Many memoirs of the French Revolution contain accounts of events that are not skewed by the biases of their authors.
(E) Many memoirs of the French Revolution consist mostly of unverifiable accounts of certain events.


6. Based on the passage, which one of the following most accurately states a criterion that the scholars referred to in line 22 use to judge the credibility of a memoir’s depiction of events known only to its author?

(A) The depiction should appear consistent with the author’s personality.
(B) The depiction should contain demonstrable factual accuracies.
(C) The depiction should have been verified shortly after being written.
(D) The depiction should not be part of a partisan account.
(E) The depiction should preserve a particular picture of the past.