The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748–1789

"This is an enthralling account of life on the streets of pre-revolutionary Paris. It’s full of wonders and surprises, even though you would think that this is rather a well-ploughed field. It’s so wonderfully vivid. Darnton, who is the master of Paris and of the surprising angle on what was going on, looks back to the fifty years of the ancien régime before the French Revolution . He tracks back to see how one of the great revolutions of history, in 1789, could possibly have happened, how the unthinkable happened, and how the will of the people can overthrow the power of kings. It takes you to people who are suffering from hunger and penury and oppressed by the nobles, but it’s really looking at ideas, and how ideas circulate. The medium is the message, so it’s looking at the ‘nouvelles’— the newssheets and newspapers and pamphlets and rumour. “We’re looking for books that are distinguished, are beautiful, are going to last” I know this period a bit, but I was very surprised because one moment, you’re looking at the Jansenists at Port Royal and the Jesuits; the next it’s the case of the diamond necklace, which is when Marie Antoinette is suspected of having strange relations with a cardinal in order to gain a great bauble. It takes you to mesmerism and the new hot air balloons, to people suddenly knowing about the royal debt and how the royal adultery can taint the power of kingship. It’s a very sweeping account, but it’s very particular as well. There are all these short chapters, and you turn every page, not knowing what’s going to happen next, except it’s all building to this astonishing denouement . It’s an extraordinary book. Yes. It’s always coming at you from left field, somehow. It’s full of songs. It’s a very original book, and the result of a lifetime of immersion in these events. It’s written by someone who’s in love with the period and wants to explain it. It’s wonderful."