Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 278 (review)

274 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION 4:3 large in the STN records. The Parisian Voltaire tops the list, partly because he lived at Ferney and published almost exclusively in Geneva, while the Swiss Rousseau fares less well, partly because most of his illicit works were first published in Holland. The writings of popular authors who died during this period continued to sell well, but sales of their individual works suffered as publishers competed to bring out their complete works. Finally, the poverty of other sources of evidence obviates the possibility of controlling findings based on the riches of the STN. As Darnton says: "Comment juger du degré de représentativité d'une archive, aussi riche soit-elle, quand on ne dispose pas d'autres archives avec lesquelles justement la comparer?" (p. iii). Darnton proceeds, however, to compare his findings wiüi those drawn from three contre-enquêtes, using the registers of books confiscated by French customs between 1771 and 1789, lists of books seized by the police between 1773 and 1783, and six catalogues of livres philosophiques for the period 1772-80. He concludes that "Ie commerce de la STN n'avait rien d'aberrant ni de particulier, puisqu'il se déploie, en réalité, au centre de la librairie clandestine de l'Ancien Régime" (p. 165). He also adds to his bestseller list the number of known editions of each book, but specialized bibliographies of eighteenthcentury French authors are too few for this yardstick to be useful at present. One of Darnton's statements strikes me as contestable: Mme Riccoboni, so far from having "complètement sombree dans l'oubli aujourd'hui" (p. 47), had enjoyed a revival even before the emergence of women's studies. One wonders why Holbach's Système de la nature is classed under Religion, whereas Helvétius's De l'homme is under Philosophy. Confusion between Voltaire's Lettres philosophiques (plural) and a scabrous anonymous Lettrephilosophique (singular) is sorted out on p. 152, but survives on p. 92 and perhaps on pp. 71 and 95. Finally, two generalizations on p. 41 are not suitably hedged until later in the book. He states that French provincial booksellers obtained their stock from "tous les pays qui encerclent la France depuis Amsterdam jusqu'à Avignon," but it becomes clear that Rouen, notably the Besongne and Machuel families, played a pivotal role in the production of banned works. The records of all libraires save the STN are said to have disappeared "sans laisser de trace," but mention is made later of Cramer's grand livre and some records of the Société typographique de Bouillon. This is the first of Darnton's books to be written in French, a language in which he loses none of his flair. His publisher might have been expected to eliminate several misprints and occasional errors ("créditeurs" for "créanciers," p. 83; "i'Henriade" for La Henriade," p. 194; "parviennent" for "proviennent," p. 267; "aient" for "ont," p. 268). Despite spending "la moitié de [s]on existence" poring over the dusty records and fifty thousand letters of the stn, Darnton has retained his sense of the dramatic. His eye for a "human interest" story is just as keen, and he brings to life in his inimitable way "les belles heures du marché de l'ombre" (p. 180). Specialists will find new material and fresh insights, and all will read this book with pleasure and fascination. David Smith University of Toronto H.T. Mason, ed. Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 278. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1990. ? + 475pp. This volume is one of the richest in terms of subject matter and quality that has appeared in a very distinguished series. Nineteen contributions cover a diverse range of subjects REVIEWS 275 dealing with the philosophes, eighteenth-century drama, linguistic theory, English history, and Jewish emancipation. Roland G. Bonnel follows the path trod by Pauline Kra, among others, in seeking to unravel the secret chain of Montesquieu's Lettres persanes, and updates traditional theories by showing that the light-hearted format of the work masks a serious political agenda. Montesquieu's harem, in Bonnel's scenario, is a paradigm of the way in...