Blackmail, Scandal and Revolution

London's French Libellistes, 1758-92

Simon Burrows

Manchester University Press

Download Image Simon Burrows Blackmail, Scandal and Revolution
Buy it now

Available Formats

Book

This important study, newly available in paperback, examines the activities, adventures, publications, and influence of the most venomous critics of the late Bourbon monarchy.  These were the French exile libellistes who flocked to London to publish scandalous or sexually salacious pamphlets in the hope of extorting lavish suppression fees. These ‘smut-mongering’ pamphleteers have become prominent figures in the recent historiography of the French revolution, with many historians contending that their ‘desacralizing’ and frequently pornographic publications sapped the foundations of the monarchy.

Simon Burrows here offers a comprehensive refutation of this interpretation and re-contextualizes ‘Grub Street’ pamphleteers within the political life of the ancien régime. 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 their attacks on living monarchs and their consorts (most notably Marie Antoinette) were in fact 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.

This revealing book is essential reading for students of eighteenth-century political culture and the French revolution.

Connect with the Author

Simon Burrows

Sign Up for
Author Updates

Reviews

Praise for Blackmail, Scandal and Revolution

"This is one of the most important books to be published on the origins of the French Revolution for a generation." --William Doyle, University of Bristol
Back

About the Author

Simon Burrows

Simon Burrows is Professor of Modern European History at Leeds University.

Simon Burrows

Back

Buy the Book

Available Formats and Book Details

Blackmail, Scandal and Revolution
London's French Libellistes, 1758-92
Simon Burrows

Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback
Manchester University Press
June 2009
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780719065279
ISBN10: 0719065275
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 272 pages, 12 b/w illus.
$31.95
Buy

Hardcover

Learn more about this edition
Hardcover
Manchester University Press
January 2007
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780719065262
ISBN10: 0719065267
6 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches, 288 pages, 12 b/w illus.
$89.00
Buy
Back

{ About }

{ Services }

{ Store }

{ Publishers }

Education

Children's

© 2011 Macmillan