The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History

Following the relative departure of the previous chapter, Darnton returns to his question of how ordinary individuals thought and behaved in 18th-century France. Here, he focuses on how they read. His guide in this process is Jean Ranson, a reasonably well-off merchant from La Rochelle, France, and a member of the bourgeoisie. Ranson is a strong case study because he left behind 47 letters written to his friend Frédéric-Samuel Ostervald, a Swiss book seller. While the utilitarian purpose of most of the letters was to order books from Ostervald, the correspondence also reflects Ranson’s reactions to various novels, sermons, essays, and other texts.

From both his letters and the specific book orders he submitted, Darnton determines that Ranson was a fairly pious individual. He was continually on the lookout for great new sermons, for example. At the same time, Ranson’s piety didn’t stop him from ordering The Encyclopédie. Also on the list of orders are two books that were forbidden by the church: Le Tableau de Paris by Louis-Sébastien Mercier and Mémoires secrets pour servir à l’histoire de la République des Lettres en France by Louis Petit de Bachaumont. This reflects that even very religious members of the bourgeoisie were at least curious about key texts of the Enlightenment, despite that movement’s broad antipathy toward religion.