Dear friends,
I'm having a hard time understanding what the author meant with "struck home" here. I'm sure some context will be needed so that you might feel able to help me.
Because of the Commune and the bloodletting of the civil war in France in 1871, the city was being brought down to ashes. Meanwhile, there was a group of highly conservative religious monarquists who wanted to build the basilic of Sacre-Coeur in order to expiate France's sins commited by the communists. They circulated a pamphlet argumenting why the basilic should really be built, and why it should be built in Paris. They also said that, even if the city were reduced to cinders, they would still want to avowl their national faults and proclaim the justice of God in its ruins. Well, even though communists were gaining a lot of territory, they were terribly massacrated by the forces of order. But this only happened in May, and the author is describing what the atmosphere was in the country in March. Well, here is the paragraph:
"On March 18, Parisians had taken their first irrevocable steps toward establishing self-government under the Commune. The real or imagined sins of the Communards were subsequently to shock and outrage bourgeois and, even more vociferously, provincial opinion. And since much of Paris was indeed reduced to cinders in the course of a civil war of incredible ferocity, the notion of building a basilica of expiation upon these ashes became more and more appealing. As Rohault de Fleury noted, with evident satisfaction, “In the months to come, the image of Paris reduced to cinders struck home many times.” (Paris, Capital of Modernity) By the way, Fleury was one of the advocators for the construction of the Basilic.
I know it must be really hard to give me suggestions without reading this extensive book and without knowing the context very well. I thought of synonyms like: "hitting the sore spot" or "hit the nail on the head" or "made perfect sense" or "made it very clear". But, to be honest, I don't know which way to go... I'm more inclined to choose "hit the nail on the head"...
Thanks!
