The Literary Underground of the Old Regime
Darnton, Robert
From Murphy-Brookfield Books, Iowa City SE, IA, U.S.A.
AbeBooks Seller Since January 24, 1997
Quantity: 1From Murphy-Brookfield Books, Iowa City SE, IA, U.S.A.
AbeBooks Seller Since January 24, 1997
Quantity: 1About this Item
One page has small stain on outer margin. Light staining on edges. Seller Inventory # 010055
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Literary Underground of the Old Regime
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication Date: 1982
Binding: Hardback
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket
About this title
Robert Darnton introduces us to the shadowy world of pirate publishers, garret scribblers, under-the-cloak book peddlers, smugglers, and police spies that composed the literary underground of the Enlightenment.
Here are the ambitious writers who crowded into Paris seeking fame and fortune within the Republic of Letters, but who instead sank into the miserable world of Grub Street-victims of a closed world of protection and privilege. Venting their frustrations in an illicit literature of vitriolic pamphlets, libelles, and chroniques scandaleuses, these "Rousseaus of the gutter" desecrated everything sacred in the social order of the Old Regime. Here too are the workers who printed their writings and the clandestine booksellers who distributed them.
While censorship, a monopolistic guild, and the police contained the visible publishing industry within the limits of official orthodoxies, a prolific literary underworld disseminated a vast illegal literature that conveyed a seditious ideology to readers everywhere in France. Covering their traces in order to survive, the creators of this eighteenth-century counterculture have virtually disappeared from history. By drawing on an ingenious selection of previously hidden sources, such as police ledgers and publishers' records, Robert Darnton reveals for the first time the fascinating story of that forgotten underworld.
The activities of the underground bear on a broad range of issues in history and literature, and they directly concern the problem of uncovering the ideological origins of the French Revolution. This engaging book illuminates those issues and provides a fresh view of publishing history that will inform and delight the general reader.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Store Description
Murphy-Brookfield Books,3542 Dolphin Drive,Unit A,Iowa City,IA 52240,U.S.A.,murphyb671@gmail.com,319-338-3077,FEIN:42-1157329,Jane Murphy,Mark Brookfield,Credit cards accepted (VISA and Mastercard), personal checks on US banks, money orders in US funds, libraries billed upon request.
Domestic shipping: USPS TRACKING ON ALL US ORDERS.
Media Book Rate Mail at $4.50 for 1st volume, $2.00 for each additional volume. Priority Mail at $10.00 for 1st volume, $3.00 for each additional volume.
Internatio...
More InformationShipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required.
Payment Methods
accepted by seller
Check Money Order