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The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France |
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The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France
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by Robert Darnton
Sales Rank: 524896
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List Price: $16.95
$15.26
At Amazon
on 6-16-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 464 pages
Published by: W. W. Norton & Company April 1996
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0393314421
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0393314427
Book Dimensions:
8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
Weighs: 14.9 ounces
Product Review
More popular than the canon of the great Enlightenment philosophers were other books, also banned by the regime, written and sold "under the cloak." These formed a libertine literature that was a crucial part of the culture of dissent in the Old Regime. Robert Darnton explores the cultural and political significance of these "bad" books and introduces readers to three of the most influential illegal best-sellers, from which he includes substantial excerpts. Winner of the 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.
From Publishers Weekly
In this NBCC finalist, cultural historian Darnton looks at subversive French works of the 1780s, arguing that these underground books were as influential as more classic Enlightenment fare.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Reader Reviews
The French Revolution was a revolution of ideas. But where did those ideas come from? The traditional answer has focused on high-minded Enlightenment sources, like the works of Voltaire and Rousseau. But, as Robert Darnton proves in this book, for every Rousseau, there were a score of "Rousseaus de la ruisseau" --"gutter Rousseaus" who attacked the Ancien Regieme with scandalous polemics, scurrillous pamphlets and political and pornographic fantasies. That most of this literature was forbidden by law only made it more attractive to the public. Darnton provides us with a scholarly study of the underground book trade in the years leading up to the Revolution. He explores every aspect of the business, and manages to make what could have been an abstruse topic fascinating to the reader. Most of the authors he mentions have been completely forgotten except by scholars, but they were highly influential and controversial in their time. The last part of the book is a fascinating series of excerpts from the books discussed in the text. The pornographic excerpts are the most interesting: to me, they demonstrate that the writing style of the Marquis de Sade, with its philosophical rantings and outrageous obscenity, was far from unique and must be placed in the context of other, less famous writers of the same ilk. I highly recommend this book to people interested in the ideas that sparked the French Revolution, and to those interested in issues surrounding freedom of the press.
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The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France
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Updated on 6-16-2008.
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