Outstanding achievement to condense so much so well - Rated 
As a complete novice with curiosity to feed I started Doyle's 'Oxford History of the French Revolution' together with Asprey's (2 vol) 'Rise & Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte' and Schama's 'Citizens', all together. Doyle's work is a perfect guide to illuminate this labyrinth - he engages very well and very early. For me this is a page-turner, consuming all available time and only with discipline can I put it down to cover the same ground from Asprey's perspective. This latter also a tremendously good read, a little lighter but the first half of the first volume makes a very good companion work. All that is left of Schama is a dent in the wall finally wrung out of my patience at page 83. I seem to be in a minority here, so I will simply record personal exasperation with Schama's style without seeking argument.
Comprehensive but overly so - Rated 
Comprehensive discussion on the revolution with a very practical application. I had hoped for more of a political/philosophical discussion on the topic and was slightly disappointed in this. That said, that book is encyclopaedic in its discussion and covers virtually everything that you might want to know about the practical events of the revolution. As a reference therefore - for anyone reading/writing on the topic - it is thoroughly indispensable... but for the rest of us and as a bedtime read the book is slightly tiresome, overly detailed and slow moving.
Very reliable, a little workmanlike - Rated
One can't complain about this book's factual accuracy or its well-balanced analysis. For a newcomer to the story of the French Revolution, this would be a good place to start. But for those who already know something about the subject, the book is a little uninspiring. One craves for the kind of arresting detail that one finds, for example, in the works of Schama and Cobb.
A very English view - Rated
A thorough English, empirical history of the Revolution. Some of the excitement of the Revolution may be lost in the narrative(unlike the author's exellent Origins of the French Revolution), but the detail and authority it exudes make this an essential text: the thickness of the paperback (and the difficulty in keeping it open!) may make the hardback a better investment.
The comprehensive guide to the French Revolution - Rated 
From the opening description of the accession of Louis XVI, Doyle's work of outstanding scope and depth cuts to the heart of the historiographical debate surrounding one of the most written about periods in history. His narrative style is niether overtly symplistic or inaccesable to newcomers to the topic but commands an authority of understanding and empathy which is compelling and fascinating. Doyle draws the reader into events such as the storming of the Bastille, the emblem of the fight for liberty, egality and fraternity, and later the disillusionment of the terror and the collapse of the new order. Throughout Doyle balances the different arguments from both the Marxist and revisionist camps producing a convincing and superbly supported study. If you are to read one book on the most controversial event in history make it "The Oxford History of the French Revolution". If you feel you need to know more, read it again.
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