The classic work, written by an outstanding English historian in 1837, was published in Russian in 1907 and is now being republished for the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. What made him famous was the combination of historically accurate description with the extraordinary power of artistic depiction of the great historical drama, its characters and events. The book is full of lively sketches of everyday life, morals, characters, and insightful assessments of representatives of French society. This is an exciting and instructive reading, even if today we do not agree with the author on everything. The commentary at the end of the book was written by L. A. Pimenova, candidate of historical sciences; Notes marked with an asterisk were written by Yu. V. Dubrovin, E. A. Melnikova and L. A. Pimenova.