1870.17-year-old apprentice bookbinder -ienne Bonin travels from revolutionary Lyon to even more revolutionary Paris seeking excitement and professional opportunity. By the spring of 1871 he is deeply committed to the insurrection for workers- power, to a new lover - Rose Durand, 16-year-old coworker and budding feminist from Belleville-and to his new comrades. Together they experience festive celebrations, institutional innovations, military disasters and the final -week of blood.-
-ienne and Rose-s coming of age in the midst of a revolution is also the story of the growth of a powerful working-class movement. The tradesmen and women involved in creating and defending the Paris Commune of 1871were not just bookbinders, but also bronze workers, tin smiths, shoemakers, typographers, printers, laundresses, clothing and textile workers, carpenters and many others.
-Rabble- is the closest English equivalent to "canaille", the way th
