Un tour de France letterario: Il mondo dei libri alla vigilia della rivoluzione francese

France and Culture

by Robert Darnton, Maurizio Ginocchi (Translator)

Contrabbando, edizioni pirata, concorrenza sleale, perenni difficoltà finanziarie, censura, interferenze del governo... per le case editrici e per i librai la fine dell'Ancien Régime fu un periodo burrascoso e rappresentò il tramonto di un mondo ricco e spietato, che l'autore ricostruisce attraverso il giro d'affari di un commesso viaggiatore per la Francia e la corrispondenza dei suoi clienti con la casa editrice svizzera STN, i cui preziosi archivi sono miracolosamente sopravvissuti fino ai giorni nostri.

Genres: History, France, Books About Books, Nonfiction, Literature, French Literature, French Revolution

375 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2018

About the author

Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the Harvard University Library

Reviews

[Ned · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lifetime of work went into this journey across the book trade across central and southern France in the decades before their revolution. The lens here shows how books were sold and distributed in a time of increasing agitation amid class and legal divisions then.

The frame that holds the lens' view is the Swiss publishinghouse Société typographique de Neuchâtel from which time has left a treasure-trove of detailed records. While these records account for just one such house among the many publishers throughout Europe, perched just outside of France, the makers there had license to print whatever they thought might sell and crucially without being shut down by the French censors. The difficulty was in getting the books to customers and the intermediary sellers- it was the disastrous disruptions between the supply and the demand that the publishers most often had to contend with, wondering when they might get paid for their work.

The crafter fleshing out these frames of activity is Robert Darnton our author who uses the subject of the travelling salesman from Neuchatel as prime example and focus of his lens in order to show how difficult it was to sell quantities of books then. I'd like to know more and happily the author's website has MUCH MORE.
Though many such sites and gates or windows will be needed to learn about such swarms of human behavior, even if just from merely the commercial aspects (leaving alone how the substance of such books interacted with the brains of the readers). This one seems a great way to start exploring.
http://www.robertdarnton.org/

[Robert Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A difficult book to read because of the level of detail. Its emphasis on the book trade in all of its physical aspects is a useful antidote to an exclusive emphasis on the author. Concentrating on one long sales trip focuses attention on the details. Probably helpful to have some knowledge of 18 century France

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should be more than a laundry list and datebook.

[Qwerty88 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
obviously the outcome of a lot of research and analysis, sometimes difficult to keep track of the different players

[Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

《法国大革命前夕的图书世界》（美）罗伯特·达恩顿。

[Claire Binkley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've heard of much of this before - it's a good and solid backdrop to have, just in case you were snoozing through your European Literature course.

I thought it was in the essence, however, a reference to Rousseau, Voltaire, and Diderot. (I've heard a couple others say those are the three big names you have to know but I just shrugged it off in the past. Now, hmmm.)

So, I didn't think much of this book, but you might like it instead.