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One summer day in 1778, a book sales representative from the Swiss publishing house Neuchâtel crossed the Jura Mountains and entered from Pontarlier in eastern France on an official trip around most of France. Visit bookstores along the way, sell, collect bills, arrange freight, investigate the market, and the itinerary of more than five months is intensive and orderly.
The sales representative wrote down what he had seen and heard along the way, the rain in Bordeaux, the cost of treating horses, the marseille booksellers who had fled bankruptcy, the books that the peasants of Poitou liked... His journals and correspondence became first-hand sources of understanding the 18th-century book market and social reading.
One summer day in 1965, a doctor of history from the United States flew across the ocean to Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He came to track down the letters of Brisso, the leader of the Girondins during the French Revolution, but inadvertently broke into a secret place that historians dreamed of. He discovered the only surviving archive of 18th-century publishers, the Neuchâtel Publishing House Archives.
Since then, he has spent 15 winter and summer vacations going through all 50,000 letters, bank accounts, transaction records, and travel logs of the sales representative. The extreme abundance of information makes it no longer delusional to restore the reading and life before the French Revolution. More than fifty years later, he finally published the book he had thought.
Two legendary stories have jointly woven the book to be introduced today, "The World of Books on the Eve of the French Revolution".
The French Revolution
01 After many years,
Harvard professors return with blockbuster new works
Only one master storyteller could breathe such life into the world of 18th-century books.
—Lynn Hunt, Professor, University of California
The World of Books on the Eve of the French Revolution is a journey around France about wealth, reading, and revolution, and the creator of this journey, Robert Darnton, is the Same American doctor of history who came to Neuchâtel in 1965.
For many readers of world history, Darnton is a name that does not need much introduction. He is a well-known leader in new cultural history and a former president of the American Historical Society. He has received numerous international awards and honors, including the Leo Gershoy Prize of the American Historical Society, the National Book Review Award, the French Government's Knight of the Order of Honor, and the National Humanities Medal.
He has published a series of important works, such as "The Cat Slaughter Carnival", "La Molett's Kiss", "Bestseller Banned Books Before the French Revolution", etc., which have been introduced to the Chinese world and have had a major impact on the academic community.
Robert Darnton
After many years, Robert Darnton is finally returning with his latest work. The World of Books on the Eve of the French Revolution, based on his 50 years of complete research on the archives of the Neuchâtel publishing house, is the culmination of his research on the history of books in the 18th century.
In the book, Darnton tries to combine knowledge and fun with wonderful immersive writing. He is no longer limited to a certain issue such as banned books or the encyclopedic trade, but with a new perspective and framework, he restores the overall situation of the book world and restores the individual life in the torrent of history.
As soon as the English version was published, it quickly attracted widespread attention and was unanimously praised by peers in the academic circles and the international media. For example, Yale Professor John Merriman praised Darnton's research for truly creating "a social history of ideas" and calling it "one of the best historians of this era and of any kind."
Darnton selects representative materials from archives, builds websites www.robertdarnton.org, and digitizes them, which is convenient for interested readers to dig deeper, eliminates lengthy citation information, and effectively improves reading fluency.
02 Cross-border travel of sales representatives,
A bustling and chaotic book market
Surely you know we have a saying here... 99 roast chefs were so rich that one selling books was starving to death.
—Jean-François Bjør, 18th-century French bookseller
The salesman's travels around France in 1778 formed the narrative of The World of Books on the Eve of the French Revolution. Our protagonist is named Jean-François Favarger. In 1778, at the age of 29, he was employed by the Swiss publishing house Neuchâtel as a book sales representative.
In the 18th century, a good book sales representative "had to have the qualities of a psychologist, an economist, and an investigative journalist, as well as an expert in book sales skills." "In Darnton's view, Favarger is undoubtedly a competent candidate." His style of writing letters is straightforward and unadorned, with precise grammar and beautiful calligraphy... Rigorous, eager to please others, hardworking, and quite humble. "Favarger learns about French society from the streets, observes with honest eyes, describes it in direct language; and, of course, occasionally with a little humor.
The Favarger journal, from left to right, consists of memorandums, letters, and expenditure accounts
Over a journey of more than five months, Favarger traveled along the Rhône to the Mediterranean, east to Bordeaux, across the central part of France, and back from Orléans to the north, passing through important towns such as Lyon, Marseille, and Toulouse. When he returned to Neuchâtel, Favarge knew more about the 18th-century book market and social reading than any historian had hoped.
Darnton traces in The Footsteps of Favarger, reconstructing all aspects of the book trade from printing, transportation to sales and settlement, using the important towns he passes through as chapters; narrating with the narrative of "picaresque" (picaresque), dissecting the major issues of social history, cultural history, and economic history - what books did the French read at that time? How do these books reach the readers? What is the life and mental state of ordinary people?
Favarre Circumnavigation tour route map
Through the tip of Darnton's pen and the eyes of Favarger, we are fortunate to glimpse a highly competitive and chaotic book world—unpredictable tax policies, capricious censorship, blatant piracy and smuggling, and often contradictory decrees (3,000 laws on publishing issued by the French government in the 18th century) that both book makers and book sellers need to deal with.
The need to read is everywhere. As an official institution, the booksellers' guild was unable to regulate the market, and the decree of versailles was only enough to fly to Paris. In the vast area outside the capital, change is happening all the time. Booksellers moved from township to town in order to achieve sales, trade routes were constantly changed by government decrees, and information about writers and works flowed rapidly. People try to run a business that meets demand, and no one would have thought that they were preparing for a revolution.
03 Bestsellers from 250 years ago,
The spiritual world of ordinary people in the era of turnaround
If you don't forget to memorize historical labels and study the human factor in major accidents, it is not difficult for you to learn the tricks of the world.
- Balzac, Disillusionment
It is a world of game and adventure, chaos and vitality, with Balzac's "human comedy" everywhere. Writers, publishers, smugglers, truck drivers, warehousekeepers, literary critics, readers, the diverse groups of people involved in the archives of The Neuchâtel Publishing House are not only the cogs of the book industry, but also the epitome of millions of ordinary French people.
Gill from Ludan, who drove the carriage all day, was still in debt, and was arrested and imprisoned for two months;
Caldeseg from Marseille, abandoned his wife after bankruptcy, hid in Hiding, and escaped from prison...
People are full of expectations and throw themselves into the trend of the times where opportunities and traps coexist, but due to lack of ability, experience or capital, they often bear great risks and pressures, struggle to survive on the brink of bankruptcy, and even be forced to flee: "it seems to run to Cadiz", "go to the United States to fight", "put the key under the door and disappear". One by one, real stories of life emerge from the pile of old papers, collage the magical human world when the revolution is coming.
Leonardo de François, Under the Patronage of Minerva, inv3550-13 © Musée des Beaux-Arts dijon/François The heat
These seemingly scattered stories are actually related to a major issue, namely, the ideological and cultural origins of the French Revolution. The French Revolution ushered in a new model of modern political and social life, and is a key historical event that cannot be circumvented in understanding the world today.
Although Darnton refuses to establish a direct causal link between reading and revolution, through his 18th-century French bestseller list of 1145 books, a panorama of popular reading on the eve of a great change slowly unfolds, and the spiritual world of ordinary people is still faintly visible. They were particularly curious about the secret anecdotes of versailles and the Church, loved Voltaire and Rousseau, and also loved travel literature and historical geography; some of the best-selling novels and plays of the time still had a place in literary history, such as Lawrence Stern's Sentimental Travels and Molière's plays. In reading preferences, we see the infiltration of Enlightenment ideas, the peeling off of feudal dynastic honors, and the desire to reset reality.
Title page of the Encyclopedia, collection of the Neuchâtel Public and University Library
Man makes history, dissipates over time, and is resurrected in "history" by posterity.
Travels 250 years ago, seeing the light of day again 50 years ago;
"The World of Books on the Eve of the French Revolution", a panoramic picture of public reading and social life in the 18th century, a live-action play at the time of the French Revolution, the curtain has begun.
Open the book and embark on this thrilling tour of France with Robert Darnton and Favarger.