The Literary Underground of the Old Regime

This well written book is a set of linked essays on the literary underground of pre-Revolutionary France. Darnton was fortunate to discover a treasure trove of archival materials in the form of business records and correspondence of a major 18th century Swiss publisher producing for the French Market. The French book market was controlled by a combination of government censorship and the activities of Parisian publishers/booksellers who enjoyed semi-monopoly privileges. Darnton describes the activities of the clandestine book trade including the difficult life of the Grub Street hack who wrote much of the published material through the actual and often difficult mechanics of smuggling proscribed books into France and selling them. Cumulatively, these essays paint a vivid picture of pre-Revolutionary France; a nation where the government tried, with variable success, to control the press, where there was a consistent market for tracts attacking the monarchy and aristocracy, and where a marginal living could be made by individuals committed to some forms of the Enlightenment critiques of the Ancien Regime. Beyond exposing an interesting aspect of 18th century French social history, Darnton's work leads to some generally interesting points. Much of what was retailed, and presumably read, was not the major works of the Enlightenment philosophes, but rather a mixture of scurrilous political attacks, semi-pornographic tracts, and popular fiction. Much of this work, however negligible its literary or intellectual merit, had the effect of discrediting the monarchy and aristocracy, and particularly the whole notion of privileged orders of society. While often presented in vulgar and actually libelous forms, this literature probably contributed greatly to the erosion of the legitimacy of the Ancien Regime. Darnton shows also that a number of the leaders of the early Revolution emerged, including individuals like Brissot and Marat, emerged from the literary underground. Their relatively primitive ideology was formed in this milieu and their experience as marginal figures in French life contributed greatly to their hatred of the Ancien Regime and their zeal to destroy the established orders of society.