#robert darnton

[enlitment]

Asking for a friend...

What, if anything, would you interpret into La Nouvelle Heloise being an 18th century man's favourite book?

No this is not about any history blorbo why do you ask...

Oh boy... I have only read some passages from it, because romance is not really my genre and I have a distinct feeling that the history which surrounds it is thousand times more interesting than the book itself.

That said, I'll combine all my useless JJ knowledge to give the best possible answer I can!

First of all, it cannot be overstated how massively popular it was when it came out, so it's actually kind of a mainstream choice (some people apparently paid an hourly fee just to rent the damn book)! It mainly struck a cord with women readers, but plenty of men read it as well. And cried over it (one guy even claimed he cried so hard it cured his cold somehow).

I know this will probably sound like an insane comparison, but I kind of think of it as an 18th-century equivalent of Fifty Shades? Both in terms of popularity and it being rather risqué, just less overtly so. For instance, there is definitely a Ménage à trois element to the story that will be very familiar to any poor, unfortunate reader of Rousseau's own Confessions...

My diagnosis? You reached for LNH if you wanted to read something that was actually quite raunchy, but which was so carefully wrapped in sentimental pathos with JJ's weird moral lessons sprinkled on top that it gave you plenty of plausible deniability (unlike, let's say, Bijoux or something more overt).

Definitely not a story about some horny Swiss idiots making their lives needlessly complicated. You could practically feel the virtue radiating from every page and penetrating your very soul! Ah, what bliss!

tl;dr: 1. a pretty mainstream choice for the time 2. as much as it pains me to say it JJ is unfortunately a damn good writer capable of throwing you on an emotional roller-coaster in just a few pages - so a part of me gets the appeal? 3. a sort-of-smut for people who would likely have hang-ups about reading actual smut or at least admitting to it (this would likely apply to a lot of people in the 1700s)

If you haven't read the chapter Readers Respond to Rousseau: The Fabrication of Romantic Sensitivity in Robert Darnton's The Great Cat Massacre please please do, it's amazing, it's funny, it's one of the best things I've read this year! It also involves some primary sources, most of which are - I'm sorry to say - fan mail to JJ.

On the other hand, if you're a man who's read Confessions six times, there's a high chance you might just be a bit of a sub... <- no, you appreciate the truth and virtue above all, obviously!

[mali-umkin]

"Most Frenchmen probably did not speak French during Voltaire’s childhood. By the time of his death (1778), improved roadways and demographic and economic expansion had brought the country together. But France did not cohere as a nation until after the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. To understand how the Enlightenment “took” in such a fragmented society is no easier than to measure its influence on a European scale."

Robert Darnton, ‘The social history of ideas’ in The Kiss of Lamourette. Reflections in Cultural History, pp.218-252. 

[hawkwinglb]

Peculiar and interesting bits of 18th-century French cultural history: Robert Darnton's THE GREAT CAT MASSACRE

Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. London: Little, Brown. 2009. First published 1984. Blackwell’s affiliate link. Cover art for The Great Cat Massacre I’m more familiar with Darnton’s work on book culture in pre-Revolutionary 18th century France and on censorship both then and more generally. The Great Cat Massacre is a peculiar and peculiarly…

[somerabbitholes]

greetings. do you know any books that talk about the history of books/novels? 🌸

I think these should be good —

A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel: essays on what reading is, what it has been historically and philosophically

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester: a history of the Oxford dictionary and how that came about/was put together

Bookshops by Jorge Carrion: less a history of books, more about reading and bookstores and the cultural value of the space. It's one of the most beautiful books I've ever read; the prose is so silky and poetic

The Library, a Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree: basically what it sounds like; about the institution, its personal and public life, and finally its cultural and political value

The Case for Books by Robert Darnton: looks at how writing and books and have been approached by societies, and through it, looks at how and if a case can be made for the material form of it to be preserved

The Book, a Global History by Michael Suarez and Henry Woudhuysen: an edited collection of essays about book-making, writing, and reading from all over the world

The Novel Before the Novel by Arthur Ray Heiserman: a history of the novelistic form; tries to position it in the development of modern intellectual history and modern pursuits of truth

If you want something very serious, there's The Novel: A Biography by Michael Schmidt and The Theory of the Novel by George Lukacs, although I wouldn't recommend Lukacs to start your reading with.

happy reading!

[justadram]

I'm looking forward to seeing the last chapter and to see the one shot, later in the year.

From what i recall, you are a professor of medieval history for southern France, right? I was wondering, would you be able to recommend some good books or authors that write about the day to day life in the medieval period? And possibly some books or authors that write about the military aspect of the period (man at arms, knights etc) and also about castle construction?

I am! And while I'm happy to recommend some books, I also feel compelled to say I'm always leery of doing so. What do people actually want in a rec? Something engaging? Something easily digested? I'm not familiar with popular medieval history (it's not something I'd ever have reason to read) and academic history can be stuffy or even rather poorly written. But full of info!

Frances and Joseph Gies, husband and wife duo, are probably the best-selling historians of medieval history and they have a series of books that touch on a lot of what you're asking about.

Life in a Medieval Village

Life in a Medieval Castle

Life in a Medieval City

Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages

The Knight in History

Also:

Anything published by Barbara Hanawalt or David Herlihy.

All of the above are pretty good reads, but there are some engaging medieval history books out there that aren't exactly what you're looking for. For sheer entertainment/informational value, I'll throw those out too. They tend to trend toward the weird because that's my jam:

Montaillou, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie: maybe the most famous and widely read book in medieval history, and this is precisely what I do, meaning southern French heresy. Heresy tends to be weird and this features a lot of weird cultural stuff and love affairs.

The Holy Greyhound, Jean-Claude Schmitt: 13th c. dog cult and the inquisitor attempting to root it out!

And then if you dip into Early Modern history, which people popularly lump in with medieval:

The Cheese and the Worms, Carlo Ginzburg: the most widely read microhistory of all time no doubt, this one is about a peasant interviewed by the Roman Inquisition about his unique cosmology. He believes the earth formed like cheese and the angels were the worms in the cheese.

The Great Cat Massacre, Darnton: this one is a collection of French cultural history essays, which includes the topic of fairy tales and eponymously, a workers' protest and "massacre" of the cats by apprenticed printers in Paris.

Immodest Acts, Judith Brown: focuses on the life of a nun in Renaissance Italy accused of being a lesbian.

The War of the Fists, Robert Davis: discusses worker culture in Venice and the factional violence carried out in mock battles for spectators on Venitian bridges.

[hoursofreading]

When the Balinese prepare a corpse for burial, they read stories to one another, ordinary stories from collections of their most familiar tales. They read them without stopping, twenty-four hours a day, for two or three days at a time, not because they need distraction but because of the danger of demons. Demons possess souls during the vulnerable period immediately after a death, but stories keep them out. Like Chinese boxes or English hedges, the stories contain tales within tales, so that as you enter one you run into another, passing from plot to plot every time you turn a cor-ner, until at last you reach the core of the narrative space, which corresponds to the place occupied by the corpse within the inner courtyard of the household. Demons cannot penetrate this space because they cannot turn corners. They beat their heads helplessly against the narrative maze that the readers have built, and so reading provides a kind of defense fortification surrounding Balinese ritual. It creates a wall of words, which operates like the jamming of radio broadcasts. It does not amuse, instruct, improve, or help to while away the time: by the imbrication of narrative and the cacophony of sound, it protects souls.

Robert Darnton

[mortalityplays]

Hello! I just saw your fascinating post on book smuggling in ancien régime France, and was wondering if you'd be willing to share the title of the book you're reading about it. TIA, veuillez agréer l'expression de mes sentiments distingués, etc.

The main two books I've been reading are 'The Newspaper Press in the French Revolution' by Hugh Gough, and 'Revolution in Print: The Press in France 1775-1800' by Robert Darnton and Daniel Roche.

My research is specifically into the material changes that came about during the revolution, how they impacted labour organisation in print workshops, and how public relationships to print news changed. If you're interested in book piracy during the ancien régime, I would (also) recommend Darnton's other book 'Pirating and Publishing: The Book Trade in the Age of Enlightenment'.

[newhistorybooks]

"Standing at the summit of Robert Darnton’s towering intellectual career, The Revolutionary Temper plunges the reader into the coffee shops, workrooms, and alleys of pre-revolutionary Paris. Following the traces of songs and rumors, insults and discontent, Darnton allows us to eavesdrop, almost miraculously, on whispers nearly two and a half centuries old. Here is the hive mind of ordinary people in extraordinary times, as they shake loose the thought and feeling of ages past, and decide—slowly, and then all at once—to begin the world anew."

[cliozaur]

There isn’t much to say after an amazing analysis by @patron-minette. The quartet discussed through the prism of circus archetypes is just a chef’s kiss!

I have a couple of observations and questions, though. Returning to Hugo’s surprising talent as a horror writer, there are two moments that I find particularly horrifying. One is Claquesous, a perfect character of a horror fiction: without a face, without a voice (except for that coming from his stomach), without a name. Emerging from the darkness and disappearing into darkness. “Vague, terrible, and a roamer” (which may hint that he is, as we’ll later find out, a police informant). I don’t want to encounter someone like Claquesous in my nightmares! And the second is Montparnaase: “a child” and a murderer, who “had all vices and aspired to all crimes” — it’s a truly horrifying combination. Hugo definitely gave more attention to this enfant terrible than to any other of member of the quartet, but I still believe that this archetype deserved even more blood-chilling stories!

And the whole concept of Babet, “thin and learned,” — doesn’t it contradict Hugo’s claim that “the third lower floor” is inhabited by ignorance? He is indeed learned and smart, and this makes him dangerous. So, it’s not always ignorance that poses a problem.

The topic of tooth pulling made me think of Robert Darnton’s description of Le Grand Thomas, a tooth puller from the Pont-Neuf, who was “the most famous character in eighteenth-century Paris, aside from the public hangman.” In the early nineteenth century, experienced tooth pullers were still in high demand as the only way to alleviate the suffering caused by tooth pain was to have them pulled. I am not sure that Babet was a good tooth puller, but he chose quite a popular and lucrative craft.

[veramoraez]

É importante poder sentir um livro, a textura do papel, a qualidade de impressão, a natureza da encadernação. Do livro: A questão do livro, Robert Darnton

[enlitment]

N°2 for the book asks

Thanks for the ask kind anon and sorry for taking forever to answer! (this one was not easy!)

Top 5 books of all time?

In no particular order:

1. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Set in an interesting historical period (Canada in the 1800s) + partially based on real events + focuses on women's issues + from a female perspective + includes complex, morally grey characters + unreliable narrator trope + criminal (sub)plot + weird historical psychoanalysis & psychiatry + some really great writing. Need I say more?

(Also the show is actually really good as well, if you don't feel like reading the book!)

2. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I mean, it's a classic for a reason. Gay yearning. Corruption. Murder. Beautiful descriptive prose. But hey, this is Tumblr, so I feel like I'm preaching to the choir here.

(Still need to get my hands on the uncensored version at some point!)

3. The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

I've reread this one more times than I can count. Duffy draws on the classics (mostly Greek mythology, but also fairy tale characters and even Faust) but reimagines them through a more contemporary, as well as female perspective. That could go wrong really easily, but this book in fact does a stellar job in my opinion.

Just read Eurydice, my favourite (I don't think I've ever felt quite as represented by a poem before). Or Medusa. Or Pygmalion's Bride.

Or, you know, and poem that is not Mrs. Tiresias - I like to pretend that one is not there.

4. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Very much my teenage obsession. It's a gripping read written from the point of view of a teenage criminal that speaks in a strange mix of English and Russian that is at first barely coherent. It's raw, it's brutal, but it also asks some very interesting questions about the nature of morality and free will in a way that does not feel forced.

Oh, and the movie's great as well. Possibly the best soundtrack of all time. So good and so problematic that it's been banned in the UK until the 2000s.

5. The Great Cat Massacre (and Other Episodes in French Cultural History) by Robert Darnton

A collection of essays focusing on the microhistory of 18th century France? It's a real mystery why I like it so much, huh.

It's actually a bit insane how much I owe to this book. It arguably helped to spark my Rousseau and Diderot (and, in general, enlightenment era) obsession. I also sneakily reapplied Darnton's argument to justify my thesis (it's totally necessary to study 18th-century mental health approaches, give me all the funds now, please! /s).

Darnton is not only a hilarious author, but you also get a sense that he truly cares about the people he writes about. If you get your hands on it, I recommend reading chapter 4 (includes police description of the key enlightenment figures, like V, Rousseau, and Diderot!) or chapter 6 (the Rousseau stan culture analysis).

Maybe skip the titular chapter, especially if you are fond of cats. I'm afraid the name is, in this case, quite literal.

[mali-umkin]

"The idea of subverting society, if it ever occurred to them [Enlightenment philosophers], would have struck them as monstrous. Not only did they believe in the basic structure of the Old Regime, they thought that it ought to remain hierarchical. As d'Alembert explained: “Is a great effort of philosophy necessary to under stand that in society, and especially in a large state, it is indispensable to have rank defined by clear distinctions, that if virtue and talent alone have a claim to our true homage, the superiority of birth and eminence commands our deference and our respect?” With exceptions like Rousseau, the philosophies were elitists. They enlightened through noblesse oblige in company with noblemen, and often with a patronizing attitude toward the bourgeois as well as the common people. In the article “Gout” of his Dictionnaire philosophique, Voltaire observed, “Taste is thus like philosophy; it belongs to a very small number of privileged souls… It is unknown in bourgeois families, where one is continually occupied with the care of one’s fortune.” It has been argued recently that, far from rising with the middle class, liberalism descended from a long line of aristocrats, and so did the Enlightenment. Except for men like Condorcet, the last of the philosophes fit in perfectly with the Sevres porcelain and chinoiserie of the salons; the High Enlightenment served as frosting for France’s thin and crumbling upper crust."

Robert Darnton, ‘The social history of ideas’ in The Kiss of Lamourette. Reflections in Cultural History, pp.218-252. 

[adarkrainbow]

I talked previously of an article that explored one aspect of the oral versions of Little Red Riding Hood (right here), but I realized... Maybe people are not aware of the main dfference between the “oral” versions of Little Red Riding Hood and its “literary” counterparts. 

And this difference can be best summed up by the issue of a comic book. Not just any comic book: issue 14 of the famous and excellent “Sandman” comic book, created by none other than Neil Gaiman. I don’t think this comic needs any introduction now - and even if I had to do one, it would hard to sum it all up easily, as this is a vast, complex and deep but immensely fascinating comic series (as expected from any of Neil Gaiman’s works). 

Issue 14 takes place during a specific arc - the Cereal Convention arc. The protagonist of this volume of the story is a young girl trying to find back her missing little brother, and who is escorted in her quest by a Chesterton-like character who clearly knows more (and is more) than what he seems... And during their journey they stop by a motel where a “Cereal Convention” is happening... Which turns out to be a thin cover for a convention of serial killers, here to share their particular “hobby”, gush over their personal stars and debate over the details of their job. (This arc is a true balancing arc between dark comedy and full-on horror).

During their stay at the motel, the Chesterton-like character (Gilbert) tells the protagonist (Rose) about a disturbing version of “Little Red Riding Hood” - which actually serves as a metaphor and warning for the situation they are in (especially since one of the “guests” of the convention is a dangerous pedophile-killer, who wears a wolf-eared cap in a parody of the Mickey Mouse hats). The version of the Little Red Riding Hood story here is presented by Gilbert as an “original version” of the story, predating Charles Perrault’s own story (he also claims that Perrault invented the “red hood” part of the story). Now, I want to clarify something: while it is a real oral variation of “Little Red Riding Hood”, it is not the “original” story, or rather it is impossible to prove. Again, this was one of the “folklorist misconception” that ruled over research in the 20th century (the comic was from the 90s), that oral, countryside versions of the tale HAD to be the “original” versions predating the literary tale (when the truth is that half of them are younger than the literary tale, and the rest we cannot prove). So while this version exist, I do not support the concept that it is an older version than Perrault’s story.

Or rather I do not support it “yet”, because I need to check the book Neil Gaiman took the story from - which he revealed in interviews to be 1985′s “The Great Cat Massacre” by Robert Darnton. I know this book is quite famous and divisive, and I haven’t read it yet, so I cannot actually judge more or speak further of the nature of this variation. But I will check it one day and update my thoughts. 

But putting beyond all that, I need to say that this comic and this issue was the first time I ever heard of the oral variations of Little Red Riding Hood, it opened up to me a whole world of darker fairytales hidden behind the real ones (before I only knew of the edits the Brothers Grimm did, like turning evil mothers into wicked stepmothers), and this story stayed ingrained in my mind, and for me it will stay without a doubt the quintessential “darker, oral variant of Little Red Riding Hood”. And while I actually couldn’t find back the tale as such in my researches, all the oral variants of the tale I found included the elements mentioned in this issue one way or another (one folkloric variation had for example the meat part, without the wine ; and another had the stripping section, but with different details). If you have checked my previous post on the “pins and needles” articles, you’ll recall the nasty bit where the wolf feeds the girl her granny’s sexual organs.

Now maybe the pictures do not load or you do not want to read them, so here is a brushed and rushed recap of the variation told by Gaiman:

A girl (no “red hood” involved) was told to bring her grandmother milk and bread. As she was walking through the woods, she met a wolf who asked her where she was going and she told him. The wolf rushed to the grandmother’s house, killed her, sliced her flesh on a plate, and poured her blood in a bottle, before wearing her clothes and getting into bed. When the girl arrived, the wolf-grandma encouraged her to eat “some meat” and drink “some wine” left in the pantry. The girl obeyed, but each time the cat of the house screamed at her “Slut! To eat the flesh and drink the blood of your grandmother!”. Afterward the wolf asked the girl to undress before climbing into bed with him/her ; the girl removed one piece of clothing after another, each time asking her grandma where she should put it, and the wolf answering “Throw it in the fireplace, you won’t need it anymore”. And then the end of the story plays out as Perrault’s... 

[racefortheironthrone]

Following up on your French Rev Ask about the European monarchs response to it. I read up on Brissot and apparently historians like Robert Darnton and Sylvia Neely have found evidence that Brissot was a foreign agent/asset and that he might have instigated war to serve their interests.

I believe the accusation against Brissot personally was that he was a police spy for the ancien regime, not a foreign spy.

[sahelstudies]

just finished reading Robert Darnton's The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. i'm traumatized, but it's a good book

to-do's

psychology and education notes

really go to the historiography class

[illimitable-freedom]

"Books belong to economics because they are commodities -- they are bought and sold. They belong to art history because they are works of aesthetic value. They belong to philosophy and intellectual history because they are carriers of ideas. They belong to English as a form of literature, and they belong to history because they mobilize public opinion and often prove decisive during political conflicts."

- Robert Darnton, director of the Harvard University Library