Literary Tour de France: The World of Books on the Eve of the French Revolution

Before the Revolution, the French publishing industry was a lively and sometimes rough-and-tumble affair, with publishers and printers scrambling to deal with censorship laws and tax regulations. Historian Robert Darnton uses exclusive access to documents to reveal the world of a publishing house in Neuchatel, Switzerland, which was a hotbed of piracy. Darnton's narrative of Jean-François Favarger's 1778 voyage around France to visit bookstores and renew accounts offers an engaging, immersive, and unforgettable narrative of book culture at a critical moment in France's history.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 376 pages
\n Publication date: 03 May 2018
\n Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
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The publishing industry in France in the years leading up to the Revolution was a vibrant and often chaotic affair, as publishers and printers grappled with constantly shifting censorship laws and tax regulations in their quest to satisfy the voracious appetite of the reading public for a wide range of books, from the esteemed Encyclopédie, a repository of reason and knowledge, to scandalous libel and pornography. Historian and librarian Robert Darnton, through his exclusive access to a vast collection of documents, including letters, documents, and accounts from authors, publishers, printers, paper millers, type founders, ink manufacturers, smugglers, wagon drivers, warehousemen, and accountants, vividly brings to life this world. Switzerland, like other peripheral regions of France, was a hotbed of piracy, meticulously monitoring the demand for specific types of books and finding ingenious ways to fulfill it. Darnton's focus is particularly on the diary of Jean-François Favarger, a traveling sales representative for a Swiss firm whose 1778 voyage, spanning both horseback and foot, around France to visit bookstores and renew accounts, forms the backbone of this captivating story. By delving into Favarger's diary, Darnton not only provides a detailed account of how the publishing industry functioned and which titles were in high demand but also unveils the human dimension of its operations. A Literary Tour de France is a literal manifestation of this, as Darnton captures the hustle, picaresque comedy, and occasional risks associated with Favarger's travels in the service of books, offering an engaging, immersive, and unforgettable narrative of book culture at a pivotal moment in French history.

\n Weight: 682g\n
Dimension: 165 x 242 x 27 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780195144512\n \n