Book launch: 'The Letters of the Duchesse d’Elbeuf: Hostile Witness to the French Revolution'

In The Letters of the Duchesse d’Elbeuf: Hostile Witness to the French Revolution, the recently-discovered letters of the wealthy counter-revolutionary aristocrat, Innocente-Catherine de Rougé, dowager Duchesse d’Elbeuf (1707–94), offer a vivid and exciting new eye-witness perspective on the French Revolution and the Terror. Hostile witness to everything about the Revolution, the duchess’s letters, dating from 1788 to early 1794, to an unknown friend offer an unparalleled real-time narrative by an aristocratic woman struggling to understand radical change. Though tempted by emigration to the Low Countries, the duchess was unusual among her contemporary fellow-aristocrats in remaining in France down to her death in 1794, based in her homes in Picardy and at the heart of Paris. The letters constitute a remarkable example of female life-writing in the Age of Revolutions from a unique perspective.

The volume includes a lengthy introduction and extensive scholarly apparatus. The book launch involved the book’s co-editors, Colin Jones (QMUL), Simon Macdonald (UCL History) and Alex Fairfax-Chomleley (Exeter), with further contributions from Sanja Perovic (King’s College London) and Catriona Seth (Oxford).

Dr Simon Macdonald

Associate Lecturer in Modern European History

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