[MARIE-ANTOINETTE]. - HISTORICAL ESSAY on... - Lot 10 - Osenat

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[MARIE-ANTOINETTE]. - HISTORICAL ESSAY on... - Lot 10 - Osenat
[MARIE-ANTOINETTE]. - HISTORICAL ESSAY on the life of Marie-Antoinette of Austria. In London, 1789 then in Versailles, at the Montensier, hotel des Courtisannes, [1789]. 2 volumes in one in-8, (2 of which the second one is blank)-vi-79-146 pp. half brown leather, smooth threaded spine with gilt title throughout, red speckled edges; some foxing (modern binding). Portrait-frontispiece engraved on copper, at the head of the second part. ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS PAMPHLETS DIRECTED AGAINST MARIE-ANTOINETTE, AND GATHERING ALL THE FEATURES OF HER BLACK LEGEND. It was published in numerous editions and forgeries, and consists of two distinct parts: the first, written between 1776 and 1781, was distributed in manuscript form and then printed, but all its copies were destroyed by the police in 1783. Its main purpose was to discredit the queen as a woman leading a dissolute life in which female homosexuality played a part. Without proof, the work was sometimes attributed to Jacques-Pierre Brissot, and generally to Pierre-Antoine-Auguste Goupil Des Pallières, inspector of the bookshop, a troubled man who profited from the publication of libels against the queen, and who, locked up in Vincennes in 1778, died there in 1780. The second part, written in 1789, takes up the same elements but makes Marie-Antoinette speak in the first person singular to add to the scandal, accentuates the pornographic character, mixes the Count of Artois with the debaucheries, and turns into an inflammatory pamphlet on the revolutionary themes. This text, which some tried to attribute to the Marquis de Sade or Jean-Paul Marat, was printed at the fictitious address of Mademoiselle Montansier, the actress and theater director rumored to be the queen's mistress. Cf. Robert Darnton, The Devil in the Stoup, The Art of Slander in France, 1650-1800, Paris, Gallimard, Nrf (Esssais), 2010.
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