LAST LETTERS Prisons & Prisoners of the French Revolution <i> by Oliver Blanc (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $9.95) </i>

Working from a cache of prisoners’ letters that were confiscated by officials, Oliver Blanc compares conditions in the Parisian jails and offers brief portraits of people who were executed for alleged counterrevolutionary activities. His subjects range from Marie Antoinette, the dethroned queen of France to middle- and lower-class citizens.

Whether the writers acknowledge their guilt or protest their innocence, the recurring theme of the letters is “remember me.” It might have comforted these unhappy men and women to know that 200 years later, people would read their pleas and remember. A welcome antidote to the gaudy celebrations of the bicentennial of the French Revolution.