The Literary Underground of the Old Regime 0674536576, 9780674536579

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"THIS

IS

SPLENDID HISTORICAL WRITING.

THE

LITERARY" OF THE

OLD REGIME Robert Darnton

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des Brissotins 31.

Desmoulins did not repeat the charge

May

published in

in his Histoire

1793.

Rivarol's letter, reprinted in Ecrits

et

pamphlets de Rivarol,

par A. -P. Malassis (Paris, reported it, on p. Desmoulins contains remark, exactly the as 1877), 115. Following an article by Maurice Tourneux in L'intermediate

recueillis

pour

la premiere fois et annotes

des chercheurs et des curieux,

Warville,

pp.

no.

Apotres,

irrelevant

Grimm

243-244) This

261.

number,

"Fragments de

avec

la

24 (Jan. 25, 1891), 62, Ellery (Brissot de the Rivarol letter to Les Actes des

traces

premiere

la

however,

contains

only

some

correspondance secrete du Baron de publique de toutes les

fonctionnaire

226

Notes

Russies."

Tourneux

Pages 33-38

to

attributed the Rivarol letter to another issue of

Les Actes des Apotres in his edition of the Correspondance

litteraire,

et critique par

Grimm, Diderot, Raynal, Meister, etc. (Paris, 1880), XVI, 265, but I have not been able to find the original. Rivarol and Champcenetz expressed their views of the Revolution's leaders in Petit dictionnaire des grands hommes de la Revolution (1790), which contains a satirical attack on Brissot.

philosophique

Brissot, Memoires,

32.

II,

277.

33. J. -P. Brissot, Replique de J P. Brissot a la Premiere et derniere lettre de Louis-Marthe Gouy, defenseur de la traite des noirs et de .

I'esclavage (Paris, 1791), p. 42.

March 13, 1792. See also Pange's articles in the Journal de Paris of March 18 and 25, 1792, and the anonymous attacks on Brissot in the issues of March 6 and 16, 1792. Brissot's 34.

Journal de

Paris,

pamphlet, Les moyens d'adoucir la rigueur

des lois penales en Prance

(Chalons-sur-Marne, 1781), praised Lenoir on p. 43. 35. Journal de Paris, March 13, 1792. Chenier's letter criticized the lachete of such praise, but

it

shied away from a direct challenge to

on the spying issue, contrary to the inaccurate account of it Vernon Loggins, Andre Chenier: His Life, Death and Glory

Brissot in

(Athens, Ohio, 1965), 36.

p. 161.

Le Patriote francais, March

7,

For background on this quarrel see 37.

Ibid.,

Oct.

38. Bulletin

An

7,

1791

ibid.,

the original).

13, 1791.

1790.

du Tribunal Criminel

Revolutionnaire, no. 45, p. 177.

even more fanciful version of Brissot's

Barlow,

made him an "agent of

Bastille:

"A

career, attributed to Joel

the police" well after the

Sketch of the Life of J.

P. Brissot

Nouveau voyage dans

translation of Brissot's

New

(italics in

March

les

fall

Etats-Unis, entitled

Travels in the United States of America Performed in

LXXXVIII 39.

of the

by the Editor" in a

M.DCC.

(London, 1794), II, xxx. the barrage of pamphlets that Morande

by J. P. Brissot de Warville

The most

effective in

delivered against Brissot Jacques-Pierre Brissot sur

was Replique de Charles Theveneau Morande a

les erreurs, les oublis, les infidelites et les

de sa Reponse (Paris, 1791).

The

calomnies

accusation of spying also failed to

appear in the somewhat milder volleys of pamphlets exchanged

between Brissot and of 1790.

Stanislas de

Clermont-Tonnerre in the autumn

Notes

Etiennc

Pages 58-61

to

227

Dumont, who

kept a sense of objectivity in his friendship with Brissot, considered him a virtuous but dangerously 40.

partisan

zealot:

sur Mirabeau et sur les deux premieres Joseph Benetruy (Paris, 1951), pp. 178, [92,

Souvenirs

assemblies legislatives, ed.

203. Other friends of Brissot, notably Petion and Mmc Roland, produced stronger but more biased declarations ot faith in his

honesty. 41. Bibliotheque municipale d'Orleans, MS. 1422. After looking through these papers, Georges Lefebvre found no reason to doubt their authenticity: "Les papiers de Lenoir," Annates historiques at la Revolution francaise, 4 (1927), 300. On Lenoir and the police of Paris see Max me de Sars, Le Noir, lieutenant de police 1752-180-/ (Pans, i

1948). 42.

Le Patriote francais, Aug.

10, 1790. It

may be

relevant to note

that in 1781 Brissot expressed horror at police spying: Theorie des criminelles

("Berlin,"

1781),

II,

177.

For

the

character

lois

of the

anti-Lenoir pamphleteering see Jean-Louis Carra's opening attack,

L'An

1787. Precis de

l'administration

de la bibliotheque du roi sous

M. Le

Noir (Liege, 1788). 43.

Brissot, Memoires,

II,

23.

44. J.-P. Brissot, J. P. Brissot, membre du comite de recherches de la municipality a Stanislas Clermont (Paris, 1790), pp. 34-35. The most

important gap in the papers in

at the

Bibliotheque de L'Arsenal comes

MS. 12454, which contains nothing about

Brissot but a great deal

about his fellow prisoners of 1784, notably his old friend the Marquis de Pelleport, who was arrested in connection with Brissot on the charge of producing libelles against members of the French

Other police records concerning

court.

Brissot

may have been

destroyed with the Hotel de Ville in 1871. 45.

Bibliotheque de

46. P. L.

Manuel and

1'

Arsenal,

others,

MS. 125 17,

La

77 Bastille devoilee, ou fol.

bis.

recueil de pieces

authentiques pour servir a son histoire (Paris, 1789), troisieme livraison, p.

How much

78.

doubtful.

He

of this work can be attributed to Manuel

seems to have been one of several writers

papers of the Bastille as a source for safely

some

who

is

used the

sensational, lucrative, and

expurgated pamphleteering.

47.

Archive Nationales,

W295; Manuel, La

Bastille devoilee, pp.

105-106. 48.

Bibliotheque municipale d'Orleans, MS. 1422.

228

Notes

to

Pages 62-63

municipale

49. Bibliotheque

d'Orleans,

MS.

entitled

1423,

"Rapport des inspecteurs ayant les departements de la librairie et des etrangers." Robert Pigott was a radical English Quaker, who was still in touch with Brissot during the early years of the Revolution, when he contributed articles to Le Patriote francais. 50.

Jacques Peuchet, Memoires tires des archives de la police de Paris Peuchet added that he himself did not credit

(Paris, 1838), III, 17. this report

(p.

18), but

would

it

not contradict the picture of

Mirabeau's checkered career that emerges from Charles de Lomenie's societe francaise au iff siecle (Paris, and IV, and Bouchary's Les manieurs d'argent a Paris Jean 1889), 6 a la fin du XVIII siecle (Paris, 1939), I. The latter has been incorporated in Joseph Benetruy's Atelier de Mirabeau: Quatre proscrits genevois dans la tourmente revolutionnaire (Geneva and Paris,

Les Mirabeau, nouvelles etudes sur la III

U

In

1962).

an

almost

note

illegible

among

his

papers,

Lenoir

"The famous Comte de Mirabeau had been employed by the lieutenant of police, the famous Brissot de Warville also. The police employed them in producing and [circulating?] pamphlets." Bibliotheque municipale d'Orleans, MS. 1422. scribbled,

Brissot, Memoires,

51.

de Morande, etude sur

le

Brissot, Replique

52.

II,

7-8. See also Paul Robiquet, Theveneau

XVllV .

.

.

siecle (Paris,

a Morande,

1882).

p. 25. Brissot

added, "I have

always especially held in horror the genre of personal libel." Brissot did not challenge the authenticity of the letter from his agent,

Vingtaine, dated April plique

.

.

.

a

3,

which Morande printed

1784,

Brissot, p. 106.

The

in his Re-

extensive correspondence about the

in the archives of the Ministere des affaires etrangeres, Correspondance politique, Angleterre, MSS. 541-549, treats Brissot

libellistes

as a

companion but not an accomplice of them.

Marat, "Traits destines," p. 686. On Sept. 16, 1781, the Society wrote to Brissot, refusing to print an obscene work that he 53.

had sent on behalf of Desauges; yet it printed a pirated edition of Les which Brissot reviewed with horror in his Journal du Licee [sic] de Londres (London, 1784), I 389-391, and his liaisons dangereuses,

Correspondance universale sur

ce

qui

interesse le

bonheur de I'homme

et

de la

(London, 1783), where he maintained, "A novel with an equivocal moral message is a very dangerous poison" (p. 124). The Society sold, but did not print, much pornography, including some

societe

Notes to Pages 64-72

Mirabeau and published partner, Samuel Fauche. written by

Brissot, Memoires,

54.

55. Brissot to 56.

Brissot to

57.

Brissot to

229

Neuchatel by

in

a

former

104-106.

I,

STN, July 26, 1781. STN, Jan. 12, 1782. STN, April 23, 1781.

Brissot also indicated an

source for his report of the government's measure against the continuation of Linguet's Annates politique*, civiles et litteraires du

official

dix-huitieme

siecle

by Mallet du Pan;

know

"You

through

have got

journals

Mallet's

can be sure that none of They have all been

here.

from the very man confiscated." Brissot to STN, Aug. 18, 1782. confiscated.

I

that

who had them

to STN, June 20, 1781. Quandet was referring to a shipment of the nineteen-volume Description des arts et metiers, which was published by the Society and banned from France, owing to the machinations of one of the Society's French

Quandet

58.

seizure of a

competitors. Brissot to

59.

STN, March

30, 1782.

Le Patriote francais, July 31, 1790. 61. Brissot to [Martin], Oct. 21, 1784,

60.

et papiers,

unnamed

pp. 83-85. The context of this letter indicates that addressee was Martin.

Brissot to

62.

63. J. F.

STN,

Bornand

STN,

to

described the state of his

its

Sept. 22, 1782.

Feb. 19, 1785.

Journal du Licee de Londres,

64.

in Brissot, Correspondance

dme

223.

I,

On

225

p.

Brissot

electrisee after

reading the Confessions for

14, 18. Brissot

acknowledged the model

the third time. Brissot, Memoires,

65.

for

his

of

"portrait

Confessions, which

me

of some

memoirs

—

am now

I

—"The

taking up

reading

"I shall

belong to him [Phedor]" imitate Rousseau" (I, 24).

A

Pamphleteer on the

(I,

99-113.

Rousseau's

18)

—and

for his

Run

This and the following extracts of Voltaire's

"Le Pauvre Diable,"

of

for the sixth time, reminds

traits that

3. 1.

I,

Phedor"

poem come from

in Oeuvres completes de Voltaire (Paris, 1877), pp.

Notes to Pages 72-78

230

Le Senne does not appear in any standard biographical

2.

dictionary, bibliography, or catalogue of printed books, not even in

the gossipy Memoires

secrets

pour

servir

a Vhtstoire de la republique

lettres

en France or in Voltaire's correspondence,

great

many obscure

des

where the names of a

writers turn up. This study

is

therefore based

almost entirely on a unique source: the Papers of the Societe

typographique de Bibliotheque de

Neuchatel

la ville

(hereafter

cited

as

STN)

in

the

de Neuchatel, Switzerland.

STN, March 9, 1780: "It is very nice to God, especially in Switzerland, but that doesn't provide much amusement; and your journal can only succeed by having a 3.

Lans de Boissy to

believe in

philosophic tincture." For further details see Lans's letters of Jan. 21 and Feb. 19, 1780, and the undated "Prospectus" in his dossier,

which

stresses the journal's potential role in the philosophies' fight

against fanatisme. 4.

Bosset to

STN, May

with d'Alembert to the

beaucoup 5.

Feb.

3,

17, 1780. In describing his negotiations

home

a la partie lucrative

office,

de

Bosset added,

'II

m'a paru

tenir

ses oeuvres."

Le Senne included the prospectus in his

letter to the

STN

of

1780.

6.

Le Senne to

7.

Ibid.

STN,

Feb.

3,

1780.

Le Senne to STN, March 18, 1780. remarks occurred in a memorandum entitled "Reponse These 9. aux conditions proposees," undated but evidently from May 1780, in Le Senne's dossier. 10. Le Senne to STN, March 26, 1780. n. Bosset to STN, May 15 and 17, 1780. 12. Panckoucke's success in obstructing the entry of the Journal helvetique was confirmed a year later by an agent of the STN, who reported, "Panckoucke is moving heaven and earth, nothing is advancing in the offices of the Keeper of the Seals." Thiriot to STN, May 5, 1 78 1. On the construction of Panckoucke's press empire see Suzanne Tucoo-Chala, Charles-Joseph Panckoucke & la librairie franchise 17 36- 1798 (Pau and Paris, 1977). 13. Le Senne to STN, May 20, 1780. 14. Le Senne to STN, May 14, 1780. 8.

15.

Quandet de Lachenal

to

STN,

Oct. 26, 1781.

Notes to Pages 78-92

16.

Le Scnne to STN, Feb.

17.

Le Senne to

3,

STN, March

1780. 18, 1780.

18. Undated memorandum from Le Senne's sometime in the spring of 1780. 19. Le Senne to STN, April 2, 1780. 20. Le Senne to STN, April 8, 1780. 21. Le Senne to STN, April 19, 1780. 22. Le Senne to STN, May 24, 1780. 23. Le Senne to STN, May 27, 1780. 24. Le Senne to STN, April 19, 1780. 25. Le Senne to STN, June 11, 1780.

26.

Bosset to

STN, June

231

dossier,

written

12, 1780.

27. Bosset described Cugnet's proposal in his letter of June 12,

1780. 28. Le Senne to STN, May 27, 1780. Le Senne described the Cugnet project in more detail in a letter dated May 29, 1780. 29. Le Senne to STN, June 11, 1780.

37.

STN, June 19, 1780. STN, July 25, 1780. Le Senne to STN, Oct. 5, 1780. Cugnet to STN, Oct. 12, 1780. Cugnet to STN, April 2, 1781. Le Senne to STN, Sept. 20, 1780. Le Senne to STN, Oct. 5, 1780. Le Senne to STN, Oct. 12, 1780.

38.

Ibid.

30. 31. 32. 33.

34. 35. 36.

Bosset to

Le Senne to

39. STN to Le Senne, Nov. 19, 1780. The last letter from Cugnet was dated Oct. 12, the same day, or thereabout, as Le Senne's flight from Paris. See also the STN's letter to Cugnet of Nov. 21, in which it complained that it had sent three persons to deal with him and none of them had been able to find his shop. 40. Le Senne to STN, Dec. 2, 1780.

41.

STN

to Le Senne, Dec. 10, 1780.

D'Alembert to STN, Dec. 30, 1780. This is a copy in the STN papers. There is no reason to doubt its authenticity, although I have not been able to find the original. Ostervald and Bosset knew d'Alembert reasonably well, having negotiated with him at length 42.

over the publication of his works.

On

June

14, 1780, Bosset

wrote

Notes

2^2

home about

Pages 92-97

to

"He showed me some would make an octavo volume of opuscules that

the following session with him:

manuscripts, which

he intended to give us to print.

him

for this item. It

I

proposed various arrangements to that the one he would like most,

me

seemed to

me himself, would be for us to advance the and paper and then for him to split the profits with us After that he will have about three volumes of eulogies, but they are not ready yet ... He is talking about coming to Switzerland." Le Senne had participated in these negotiations. He seems to have occupied a place near the center of d'Alembert's entourage, and he was one source for the remark attributed to which he proposed

to

cost of the printing .

Frederick

.

.

II at

for the soul I

of June

43.

when

Frederick agreed to have a service said

of Voltaire: "Although

consent to

letter

the time

it."

Bosset to

I

don't

STN, June

much

believe in eternity,

23, 1780. See also Bosset's

16, 1780.

D'Alembert

to Frederick

II,

July 24, 1780, in Oeuvres de

d'Alembert (Paris, 1822), V, 431: "M. de Catt will give to

Majesty a

new memorandum and some

who

of the poor cure of Neuchatel, fanatical bishop.

Your Majesty

Your

authentic certificates in favor is

being persecuted by his

requested to take this detail into

is

consideration and to obtain justice for this poor devil of a priest,

who

has expected

it

and asked

Neuchatel" must have been 44.

Le Senne to STN, Dec.

patriotiques"

could

have

for

it

for a

long time." The "of

of the pen.

a slip

18, 1780.

been

the

Le Senne's "Observations Neckerite

treatise

on

which he had But he made so many proposals, handled so many manuscripts, and changed titles so often that it is impossible to identify the works he mentioned in his letters. "L' Administration physique et morale de la France,"

proposed to the

45.

STN

STN

to Le Senne, Dec. 24, 1780.

46.

Le Senne to

47.

STN

48. Le 49.

earlier.

STN, Dec.

28, 1780.

to Le Senne, Jan. 4. 1781.

Senne to STN, Jan. 9, 1781. secrets pour servir a I'histoire de

Memoires

en France

(London, 1777-1789), 36

and July n, 1780. 50. Le Senne to STN, Jan.

9,

la republique des lettres

vols., entries for

1781.

June

4,

June

30,

Notes to Pages 98-108

51.

Lc Senne to

52.

STN

STN,

255

Feb. 9, 1781,

to Le Senne, Feb.

2

179 Regine, 173, 178 Peuchet, Jacques, 62

Petit,

Physiocrats,

no

141, 142

Reading, 135-136, 146-147; changing tastes in, 173-182

la

Bretonne, Nicolas,

17,

H*

Revol, Jacques, 183

Riccoboni, Marie-Jeanne Laboras de Mezieres, 167

Index

23 8 Richelieu, A.-J.

du

Plessis,

due

de,

169 Rivarol, Antoine, 9, 17, 22, 38, 53, 57>

Mauvelain, 123-128, 131, 132134; analysis of sales, 135-147 Sociology of literature, 167, 168-173 Soleure, 102, 115

67

Robespierre, Maximilien, 52, 168 Roche, Daniel, 173, 178, 179

Soulavie, Jean-Louis Giraud, abbe, 9

Roger, Jacques, 173, 176, 177, 179 Rohan, Edouard, prince de, 35, 56

Suard, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine, 3-6,

Roucher,

Swift, Jonathan, 109

Spying, 61-62

11, 15,

J.-A., 3

40

Rouen, 99 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 4, 15, 35-36, 64, 68-69, 84, 87, 141, 168, 207 Rousseau, Pierre, 74 Roux, Jacques, 118

Taine, Hippolyte, 50-51

Rulhiere, Claude-Carloman de,

Thomas, Antoine-Leonard,

3,

12

Target, Guy-Jean-Baptiste, 3 Terray, Joseph-Marie, abbe, 33, 190 Tesse, madame de, 5 3, 12, 15,

22

Thompson,

Sainmore, Blin de, 8 Saint-Hyacinthe, Themiseul de, 167 Saint-Just, Louis de, 51, 58 Saint- Lambert, Jean-Franqois, mar-

quis de, 8 Salic

E. P., 153 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 22

Trenard, Louis, 178 Troyes, 101, 102, 104-105, 123, 125, 127-128, 130, 134, 135-13 6

Turgot, Anne- Robert-Jacques, 188,

Law, 205

Salons, 4-5, 23

190, 191

Sartine, A.-R.-J.-G. Gabriel de, 189

Saurin, Bernard-Joseph,

widow,

4,

5, 8;

his

8

Slave trade, 54

Smuggling (of books), 84-86,

Vergennes, Charles Gravier, comte de, 43, 194-206 passim Versailles, 184,

104,

113-114, 116, 128-132, 183-185, 193-195; insurance costs, 131 Societe des Amis des Noirs, 54 Societe Royale de Medecine, 21, 26 Societe typographique de Neuchatel,

7

Voiture, Vincent, 12

Volney, C-F. de, 53 Voltaire, Franqois-Marie Arouet, 2-3, 4, 11, 17-18, 25, 35, 71-72, 108-118 passim, 141, 168, 177

44-48, 63-67, 206; correspondence with Le Senne,

87,

72-108; sales in France, 84-87, 98-101, 104, 107, 113-114, 124, 127-128; correspondence with

Warsaw,

vi-vii,

194

Vicq d'Azir, Felix, 26 Vidaud de Latour, Jean-Jacques,

vii

Yverdon, 150, 153, 154

"

"

p "Thisis splendid historical writing

.

.

Darnton

.

[has] a well-justified

reputation as one of the most original contributors to our understanding ofhre In pre-revolutionary Paris

.

.

.

The French

Revolution was

a continuous conflict between people, as well as a battle of ideas, and anyone who wants to understand the people had better start with the work of Robert Darnton. New York Review of Books

—

Robert Darnton introduces us to the shadowy world of pirate publishers, garret scribblers,

under- the-cloak book peddlers, smugglers, and

composed the literary underground of the Enlightenment. By drawing on an ingenious selection of previously hidden sources, he reveals for the first time the fascinating story of this eighpolice spies that

teenth-century counterculture that has virtually disappeared from history.

" [Darnton s]

book

gives us not only a history of 18th-century publish-

ing but a notion of

the

fall

of the

how

the lower orders of literature contributed to

Old Regime

.

.

.

The

reader

who wants a glimpse of the

world behind a very unusual literature and an enlightening look at a

famous time in history

an

will get

eyeful in this surprising

— New

taining volume.

and enter-

York Times Book Review

"Rarely has assiduous, original research (aided and abetted by Darnton's energetic prose) made for c.^u c~. •

USED

DARNTON Robert

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