For those who finished reading the Memoirs of Madame Campan ( awww... you are fast readers!), so wisely advised by Melle De Plessis, may I suggestanother book, revealing the opposite side of this historical period?

Louis Sebastien Mercier wrote " Tableau de Paris" in 1781: it is the most extraordinary description of everyday life in those days in the French Capital City ! Mercier wanders in the streets of Paris and details what he sees, before adding some comments. EVERYTHING interests him: there is nothing to him as a trivial matter he would set aside. it is by far the best testimony on how the majority of the people lived inthis city, then the biggest in Europe.Besides, it is full of life, both as a depiction of characters and situations, and by its alert and straightforward writing.

Louis Sebastien Mercier ,was a prolific writer,within the fields of poetry, theater, novels, essays..,whose work is uneven. (He wrote a curious "The Year 2440, a dream if there ever was one "), where he described an imaginary societyin the future, ruled byphilosophical ideas, for instancethat people are granted a role according to their merit, and not to their hereditary privileges: this anticipation fiction was a brand new way, when this book was published, to criticize thecontemporary state of affairs in France.)

Unfortunately, Le Tableau de Paris is unavailable ina complete english version on the net ( and maybe elsewhere), but you can "sip" a translation of some extracts in the hereunder link.

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updated by @lord-myron-de-verne: 06 Oct 2016 06:03:35AM

Thank you for this literary tease, Myron Cheri ~With the recent offerings suggested by RC members, my summer reading is nicely falling into place!

Thank you for the link, Lord Myron. I'm looking forward to learning more!


--
Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

Hopefully, the readers of this book will present their findings when Arthur Young returns to Paris in the autumn! He will stay there for a few weeks, so hopefully we will have many contributors. We will also talk to the music academy director about arranging to have some of the performances that Arthur will see when he is in Paris.

Excellente, my Lord Myron. Mercier would most certainly rejoice to be shared among such august company. Men and women of letters, like Louis Mercier, Lady Anne Clifford, the English diarist Samuel Pepys, offer us such riches.