I recently read an 1830 french book (the red and the black) and found that many of the references went right over my head...are there any good histories of the french revolution out there?

I googled to try and find one but haven't had much luck. The most reviewed on Amazon is "citizens" by simon schama but I don't trust him much because his bbc series on the power of art was pretty silly.

Am I better off with a series of books about the key figures instead of a book on the overall history?