Kate Berridge > Quotes

“...spells of incarceration or exile were almost badges of honour for Enlightenment writers.”
― Kate Berridge, Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax

“Instead of fearing the barbarians at the gate, she charged them admission and sold them catalogues”
― Kate Berridge, Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax

“Rampant consumerism was a powerful aspect of secularism, as Paris fell in love with shopping.”
― Kate Berridge, Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax

“Mercier provides an amusing insight into the transactions at a sermon shop in Mont Saint-Hilaire. ‘And what can we do today for your reverence? A Conception? A Nativity? An Assumption? Fifteen Last Judgements going very cheap, a nice lot of “Forgive us our trespasses”, thirty-two Passions–take your choice.’ ‘No,’ says the deacon, ‘It’s an Immaculate Conception I want, and a Mary Magdalene as saint not sinner.’ ‘I can do it for Your Reverence, but I’ve only three copies left. Mary Magdalene without sins nearly as rare as Immaculate Conception: 8 francs a piece, lowest I can do them. But anything on charity I can let you have very reasonably 2 francs 50 a piece.”
― Kate Berridge, Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax