"The storming of the decrepit Bastille fortress-prison, which symbolically marked the beginning of the French Revolution, took place on 14 July 1789. Bastille Day is the iconic French national holiday, yet it wasn't celebrated until nearly a century later." "Using contemporary accounts, often by eyewitnesses, Prendergast describes the Bastille prison, its reputation as France's most feared place of incarceration: its storming by the armed populace, and the momentous aftermath. He shows how the celebration of this extraordinary day, truly one of those which shaped the world, became part of the fabric of French national life."--BOOK JACKET.