法国大革命前夕的图书世界

France and Culture

by Robert Darnton, 罗伯特·达恩顿, 高毅 (Translator)

故事围绕⼀位来自瑞士的图书销售代表展开。1778年夏日的⼀天，29岁的让-弗朗索瓦·法瓦尔热动身上马，开启了⼀趟环绕大半个法国的公务旅行。他受雇于纳沙泰尔出版社，任务是拜访沿途书店，推销书籍、查收账目、安排货运、调查市场。在历时五个多月的行程中，他翻越汝拉山脉，沿罗讷河直抵地中海，横穿法国中部地区，途径里昂、马赛、图卢兹等重要城镇。法瓦尔热详细记录了沿途经历。这份珍贵的旅行日志无异于⼀场18世纪法国外省出版市场及图书贸易的导览。与它同样完好⽆缺地保存在纳沙泰尔出版社档案中的，还有上千份内容翔实的信件、银⾏账⽬、交易记录，涉及出版业有关的各⾊⼈群。罗伯特·达恩顿充分利⽤这批宝藏，在本书中描绘了⼀个处于历史重要关头的，⼈物鲜活、⽣机勃勃的图书世界。达恩顿⽤精彩的浸⼊式书写带读者走进图书贸易的哥哥环节，并亲历竞争激烈且秩序混乱的18世纪图书世界。当时市场上流通的是什么书籍？这些图书怎样到达读者手中？通过回答以上两个问题，《法国大革命前夕的图书世界》为读者铺陈了变革前夕法国社会阅读和基层人民生活的全景画卷，以及塑造今日世界的革命性变革酝酿之时的历史微观图景。

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

438 pages, Kindle Edition

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.