The Writer's Lot

Does a great deal to shed illusions that the budding fourth estate of the prerevolutionary era was made up entirely of radical revolutionaries…convincingly doubles down on the claim that the cutthroat, competitive milieu in which this reserve army of hacks and scribblers moved made them uniquely placed to take advantage of the disorder and uncertainty that the French Revolution produced. -- Bartolomeo Sala * Jacobin * How has Darnton revised his arguments fifty-four years later? Partly, by examining in detail the pre-revolutionary careers of selected writers who succeeded or failed before 1789, and their fortunes during the revolution. This allows him to display once more his marvellous eye for colour and apposite anecdotes…Darnton’s achievement is to refine his original argument while retaining his essential insights, and presenting them, as always, in superb prose. -- Munro Price * Literary Review * Darnton began his brilliant career by insisting on the part the French Grub Street writers played in the ideological origins of the French Revolution. He remains unpersuaded 'by historians who argue that some form of Enlightenment discourse brought down the ancien régime and determined the course of the Revolution.' After dedicating decades to studying 'printing, pirating, censorship, book-selling and the politics of publishing', Darnton has finally come full circle back to the writers. -- Ruth Scurr * The Spectator * A fresh and vital history, as well as an appealing romanticization of the freelancer’s lot. * Publishers Weekly * In this gorgeously written and original study, one of our greatest historians returns to one of his greatest themes: the passage of French authors from the literary world of the Old Regime into the French Revolution. Robert Darnton also offers precious reflections on his own previous work. -- David Bell, author of <i>Men on Horseback</i> and coeditor of <i>French Revolutionary Lives</i> The writer’s life has never been more brilliantly portrayed than in this vivid book by Robert Darnton, our leading historian of all things literary in eighteenth-century France. -- Lynn Hunt, coauthor of <i>The French Revolution and Napoleon: Crucible of the Modern World</i> Robert Darnton has set the capstone on a brilliant career of writing about the French Enlightenment and Revolution. Full of color, sparklingly written, and deeply thought through, this book will be read with enjoyment and profit by anyone interested in the pains, perils, and pleasures of being a published author from any age. -- Colin Jones, author of <i>The Fall of Robespierre: 24 Hours in Revolutionary Paris</i> Darnton’s trademark verve makes for a gripping account of how prerevolutionary French writers thought about authorship. Combining characteristically rich research on eighteenth-century France with a moving series of autobiographical reflections, this retrospect of our premier historian of intellectual life offers pleasures on every page. -- Leah Price, author of <i>What We Talk About When We Talk About Books</i> A lifetime's study of the world of hacks, books, and literature in prerevolutionary France has not exhausted Robert Darnton's ability to offer fresh insights into its complexities. As always, his writing makes his conclusions a pleasure to absorb. -- William Doyle, author of <i>The Oxford History of the French Revolution</i>