The Frankenstein of 1790 and Other Lost Chapters from Revolutionary France
336 pages
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29 halftones, 2 line drawings
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6 x 9
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© 2012
The French Revolution brings to mind violent mobs, the guillotine, and Madame Defarge, but it was also a publishing revolution: more than 1,200 novels were published between 1789 and 1804, when Napoleon declared the Revolution at an end. In this book, Julia V. Douthwaite explores how the works within this enormous corpus announced the new shapes of literature to come and reveals that vestiges of these stories can be found in novels by the likes of Mary Shelley, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, and L. Frank Baum.
Marie-Hélène Huet, Princeton University
“Julia V. Douthwaite succeeds admirably in showing the interrelations between history and literature and introduces the reader to a long-neglected body of works. By showing the role of Revolutionary fiction and its reinterpretation by later writers, this important book fills a significant gap in the history of literature.”
Ronald Schechter, College of William and Mary
“In this meticulously researched, carefully argued, and beautifully written book, Professor Douthwaite shows us why we should care about the neglected literature that came out of France from the fall of the Bastille to Napoleon’s coronation. Whereas most scholars of the French Revolution focus on its origins or course, Douthwaite concentrates on its consequences, locating its imprint on literature and culture from the early nineteenth century to our own day. Her skillful use of archival sources as well as printed texts and images, combined with her trenchant historiographical interventions and brilliant contextual readings, make The Frankenstein of 1790 a model of interdisciplinary scholarship.”
James Chandler, University of Chicago
“This book offers eye-opening revelations about French fiction in the Revolutionary period, not least the rediscovery of a parable about an inventor named Frankenstein and his life-size artificial man, published more than a quarter century before Mary Shelley’s famous novel. Moreover, in a series of inspired chapter codas, Douthwaite shows the subsequent importance for literary history—both in France and in England—of the now-neglected 1790s novels on which she focuses. The Frankenstein of 1790 will be of enormous interest to any student of the French Revolution’s literary legacies.”
Ernest Becker Foundation Newsletter
“An enticing combination of detailed historical research and healthy theoretical ambition.”
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History: European History
Literature and Literary Criticism: Romance Languages
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