A Place of Greater Safety is a work of historical fiction that relies heavily on primary documents incorporated with fictional renderings of emotions, conversations, and perspectives in its portrayal of the leading figures in the French Revolution. The dominant narrative mode of A Place of Greater Safety is third-person limited perspective. 

This limited perspective shifts rapidly between characters. These are not always primary characters, as seen in the opening lines of the novel which portray the scene from the point of view of Maître Desmoulins, Camille’s father. This mode serves two important historiographical functions. First, it emphasizes that “making” history is a collective enterprise that relies on the actions of countless people, many of whom are forgotten or overlooked by “great man” historical narratives that focus on the genius and exceptionality of leaders like kings, generals, or presidents. Second, these shifting perspectives allow for glimpses of the primary characters, Camille, Robespierre, and Danton, from the perspective of other characters. This penetrates the overwhelming ego of these men and their own high self-regard and lets through insights of their fragility and humanity, such as when Camille is first thought of by his father as an annoying toddler who is underfoot.

The novel is sometimes written in first-person perspective, especially when focusing closely on the thoughts and feelings of a secondary character. Often, this mode is used to elucidate how women, so often marginalized in the historical record, might have felt about the events going on around them. In some moments, the novel shifts into objective third-person narration. This mode is used to provide background about events happening “off-page,” such as notes about the rising price of bread. A wider third-person perspective is also used in passages that are written in the form of scripted dialogue like a play. 

Finally, the narrative is punctuated with English translations of real quotes of speeches and pamphlets written or spoken by the characters. These kinds of quotes are also often used as epigraphs prefacing the parts. These quotes create verisimilitude and contribute to the realism of the work. This multi-modal narrative creates a sense of urgency, suspense, and intrigue as characters reference events or ideas that are only clarified by another point-of-view character later in the text.

Part 1 is effectively a preface giving brief background descriptions of the three primary characters and their personalities: Robespierre, the serious student; Camille, the brash adventurer with a stutter; and Danton, the tough farm boy who is unafraid to taunt a bull. These introductory portraits create moments of foreshadowing regarding the kind of men they will become, introducing the theme of The Dangerous Normalization of Revolutionary Violence by hinting at moments of discontent with the monarchy. For example, the king and queen’s refusal to exit their carriage to hear the young Robespierre’s speech both hints at the monarchy’s growing lack of the common touch with the French people and foreshadows Robespierre’s later confrontation with the monarchical system. Camille defiantly tells the Prince de Condé of his dreams for a republic. Similarly, Fabre d’Églantine’s remark to Danton that “law is a weapon” (38) foreshadows both the legal careers of the main characters and the way in which they will ultimately weaponize—and misuse—the law once they are ruling via the revolutionary committee later in the novel.

By the end of Part 1, all three are in Paris, where the narrative truly begins in Part 2. Although these characters will change significantly over the course of the work, these essential elements of their personalities will remain unchanged.