The Great Cat Massacre and Other Essays - Softcover

Darnton, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0394729277 ISBN 13: 9780394729275

Publisher: Vintage Books, 1985

Synopsis

When the apprentices of a Paris printing shop in the 1730's held a series of mock trials and then hanged all the cats they could lay their hands on, why did they find it so hilariously funny that they choked with laughter when they reenacted it in pantomime some twenty times? Why in the 18th century version of "Little Red Riding Hood" did the wolf eat the child at the end? What did the anonymous townsman of Montpelier have in mind when he kept an exhaustive dossier on all the activities of his native city? These are some of the provocative questions Robert Darnton attempts to answer in this dazzling series of essays that probe the ways of thought in what we like to call "The Age of Enlightenment."

About this title

Review:

"* 'A brilliant work of popular history' - NEWSWEEK * 'Authoritative... elegant and searching' - DAILY TELEGRAPH * 'A rich and splendid book' - Marghanita Laski"

About the Author:

Robert Darnton was born in New York in 1939 and was educated at Harvard (B.Phil., 1962) and Oxford (D.Phil., 1964). After working as a reporter on The New York Times, he returned to Harvard as a junior research fellow before moving to Princeton where he is Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History. Professor Darnton is the author of many books on French history.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Books
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0394729277
• ISBN 13: 9780394729275
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 298