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Blackmail, Scandal, and Revolution - London's French Libellistes, 1758-1792 (Paperback)
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Blackmail, Scandal, and Revolution - London's French Libellistes, 1758-1792 (Paperback)
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In *Blackmail, scandal, and revolution*, Simon Burrows examines the
activities, adventures, publications, and influence of the most
venomous critics of the Bourbon monarchy - French exile libellistes
who flocked to London to publish scandalous or sexually salacious
pamphlets hoping to extort lavish suppression fees. Smut-mongering
pamphleteers are prominent figures in the recent historiography of
the French revolution. Many historians now contend that nihilistic,
'Grub Street' authors sapped the foundations of the monarchy with
their 'desacralising' and frequently pornographic attacks on French
monarchs and their consorts, above all Marie-Antoinette. Such
arguments, it has been suggested, amount to a veritable
'pornographic interpretation' of the French revolution. Simon
Burrows offers a comprehensive refutation of this interpretation
and recontextualises 'Grub Street' pamphleteers within the
political life of the ancien regime. In the course of his
dissection of the libellistes' life histories, social networks,
business activities, literary output, political affiliations, and
blackmail negotiations, he demonstrates that political pornographic
attacks on living monarchs or their consorts were almost
unobtainable prior to 1789. He concludes that the libellistes'
primary importance lies in their contribution to factional politics
and in the public disquiet aroused by desperate and heavy-handed
attempts to kidnap or silence them. With its revisionist
interpretation of the pre-revolutionary public sphere, Blackmail,
scandal, and revolution is essential reading for students of
eighteenth-century political culture and the French revolution.
However, its colourful and lively cast of perfidious spies, cynical
ministers, royal mistresses, a tragic queen, conniving diplomats,
and criminal rogues will also appeal to a wider audience.
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