Abstract
From both geographical and literary perspectives, London's colony of scandal mongering French exile blackmail pamphleteers (libellistes) - a motley collection of adventurers, renegade diplomats, defrocked clergy and petty criminals - appears peripheral to the French Enlightenment. Yet through Robert Darnton's so-called 'Grub Street theory', such writers have in recent decades assumed a centrality to Enlightenment revolutionary studies disproportionate to their nurnbers and the intellectual fecundity of their works. This essay reappraises their importance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Peripheries of the Enlightenment |
| Editors | Richard Butterwick, Simon Davies, Gabriel Sanchez Espinosa |
| Place of Publication | U.K. |
| Publisher | Voltaire Foundation |
| Pages | 145-161 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780729409261 |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 |
Keywords
- Enlightenment
- writers
- scandals
- French Revolution