Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations and Captions for Volume I
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Gothic in/and History
- 1.1 The Goths in Ancient History
- 1.2 The Term ‘Gothic’ in the Long Eighteenth Century, 1680‒1800
- 1.3 The Literary Gothic Before Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto
- 1.4 Gothic Revival Architecture Before Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill
- 1.5 Horace Walpole and the Gothic
- 1.6 Shakespeare’s Gothic Transmigrations
- 1.7 Reassessing the Gothic/Classical Relationship
- 1.8 ‘A World of Bad Spirits’: The Terrors of Eighteenth-Century Empire
- 1.9 In Their Blood: The Eighteenth-Century Gothic Stage
- 1.10 Domestic Gothic Writing after Horace Walpole and before Ann Radcliffe
- 1.11 Early British Gothic and the American Revolution
- 1.12 Gothic and the French Revolution, 1789–1804
- 1.13 The Aesthetics of Terror and Horror: A Genealogy
- 1.14 Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis
- 1.15 The Gothic Novel Beyond Radcliffe and Lewis
- 1.16 Oriental Gothic: Imperial-Commercial Nightmares from the Eighteenth Century to the Romantic Period
- 1.17 The German ‘School’ of Horrors: A Pharmacology of the Gothic
- 1.18 Gothic and the History of Sexuality
- 1.19 Gothic Art and Gothic Culture in the Romantic Era
- 1.20 Time in the Gothic
- Select Bibliography
- Index
1.12 - Gothic and the French Revolution, 1789–1804
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 July 2020
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- The Cambridge History of the Gothic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations and Captions for Volume I
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Gothic in/and History
- 1.1 The Goths in Ancient History
- 1.2 The Term ‘Gothic’ in the Long Eighteenth Century, 1680‒1800
- 1.3 The Literary Gothic Before Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto
- 1.4 Gothic Revival Architecture Before Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill
- 1.5 Horace Walpole and the Gothic
- 1.6 Shakespeare’s Gothic Transmigrations
- 1.7 Reassessing the Gothic/Classical Relationship
- 1.8 ‘A World of Bad Spirits’: The Terrors of Eighteenth-Century Empire
- 1.9 In Their Blood: The Eighteenth-Century Gothic Stage
- 1.10 Domestic Gothic Writing after Horace Walpole and before Ann Radcliffe
- 1.11 Early British Gothic and the American Revolution
- 1.12 Gothic and the French Revolution, 1789–1804
- 1.13 The Aesthetics of Terror and Horror: A Genealogy
- 1.14 Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis
- 1.15 The Gothic Novel Beyond Radcliffe and Lewis
- 1.16 Oriental Gothic: Imperial-Commercial Nightmares from the Eighteenth Century to the Romantic Period
- 1.17 The German ‘School’ of Horrors: A Pharmacology of the Gothic
- 1.18 Gothic and the History of Sexuality
- 1.19 Gothic Art and Gothic Culture in the Romantic Era
- 1.20 Time in the Gothic
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Centred on the period of the French Revolution (1789–1804), this chapter explains how the revolutionary decade marked a distinct change in the type of fiction available on the French literary market, with the paradoxical increase of translations from the English at a time during which England and France were at war with one another. By focusing on mostly forgotten and overlooked French translators of the English Gothic novel, the chapter shows that French translators of the English Gothic were not only men and women of a certain notoriety, but were also deeply implicated in contemporary political events. Such figures not only actively participated in the circulation of the French new national identity, but also played a significant role in the intercultural exchanges between France and England. Finally, the chapter demonstrates the participation of Gothic novels in the diffusion of republican values, and their coincidence with the sociological emergence of a new and ever-growing ‘democratic’ French readership that had experienced revolutionary events first hand.
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- The Cambridge History of the GothicVolume 1: Gothic in the Long Eighteenth Century, pp. 262 - 283Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020