The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780393314427)

His latest book vibrates with the strange political and literary energies of ancien r馮ime France. The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France traces the merging of philosophical, sexual, and anti-monarchical interests into the pulp fiction of the 1780s, banned books that make fascinating reading more than two centuries later.

French literature of the eighteenth century means to us today Rousseau and Voltaire and the "classic" texts that, we imagine, gave rise to the Revolution. Yet very few of the standard works of the Enlightenment were as widely read as books whose names we have never heard, books that were the currency of a huge literary underground during the reign of Louis XVI. Included in this volume are Darnton's translations of excerpts from three of these works.

After twenty-five years of research, Darnton has summarized his findings in one brilliant work that examines the reciprocal relationship between private literature and the public world, the (illegal) spread of Enlightenment thought, and the interesting possibility that the writings of some not-so-famous authors contributed to the fall of the French aristocracy.

Author: Robert Darnton
ISBN-10: 0393314421
ISBN-13: 9780393314427
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 04/01/1996
Pages: 466
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 1.20d
Award: National Book Critics Circle Award - Winner

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 08/18/1996 pg. 32
New York Times 12/08/1996 pg. 100
Publishers Weekly 03/18/1996