Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France

by Robert Darnton

Overview

“[An] excellent and exemplary study in the history of ideas…Provides a commendable model for those interested in the way ‘true’ and ‘false’ ideas interact and broadly influence behavior.” —Science

Early in 1788, Franz Anton Mesmer, a Viennese physician, arrived in Paris and began to promulgate a somewhat exotic theory of healing that almost immediately seized the imagination of the general populace. Robert Darnton, in his lively study of mesmerism and its relation to eighteenth-century radical political thought and popular scientific notions, provides a useful contribution to the study of popular culture and the manner in which ideas are diffused down through various social levels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674569515
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1986
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Robert Darnton is Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and University Librarian at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

1. Mesmerism and Popular Science

2. The Mesmerist Movement

3. The Radical Strain in Mesmerism

4. Mesmerism as a Radical Political Theory

5. From Mesmer to Hugo

6. Conclusion

Bibliographical Note

Appendix 1. Mesmer's Propositions

Appendix 2. The Milieu of Amateur Scientists in Paris

Appendix 3. The Société de l'Harmonie Universelle

Appendix 4. Bergasse's Lectures on Mesmerism

Appendix 5. The Emblem and Textbook of the Sociétés de l'Harmonie

Appendix 6. An Antimesmerist View

Appendix 7. French Passages Translated in the Text

Index

Editorial Reviews

This is an excellent book and one of singular interest both to the historian of science and to the French historian.

Isis

A fascinating study of the effects that the theories of the notorious Viennese physician, Franz Mesmer, had upon social and political thinkers during the two decades preceding the French Revolution. This book is a skillful exploration of the various psychological factors that made mesmerism a widely accepted attitude…[The book] will interest literary scholars as well as historians since mesmerism is examined as a phenomenon that bequeathed an attitude that found its expression in the writings of the preromantics and the romantics.

Virginia Quarterly Review

[An] excellent and exemplary study in the history of ideas. Based on a thorough study of manuscripts, pamphlets, and journals, learned in its broad setting and persuasive in its internal logic, supported by richly relevant quotations and reproductions of contemporary engravings, Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France provides a commendable model for those interested in the way ‘true’ and ‘false’ ideas interact and broadly influence behavior.

Science

[An] excellent and exemplary study in the history of ideas. Based on a thorough study of manuscripts, pamphlets, and journals, learned in its broad setting and persuasive in its internal logic, supported by richly relevant quotations and reproductions of contemporary engravings, Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France provides a commendable model for those interested in the way 'true' and 'false' ideas interact and broadly influence behavior.-- "Science"

A fascinating study of the effects that the theories of the notorious Viennese physician, Franz Mesmer, had upon social and political thinkers during the two decades preceding the French Revolution. This book is a skillful exploration of the various psychological factors that made mesmerism a widely accepted attitude... [The book] will interest literary scholars as well as historians since mesmerism is examined as a phenomenon that bequeathed an attitude that found its expression in the writings of the preromantics and the romantics.-- "Virginia Quarterly Review"

This is an excellent book and one of singular interest both to the historian of science and to the French historian.-- "Isis"

From the Publisher

[An] excellent and exemplary study in the history of ideas. Based on a thorough study of manuscripts, pamphlets, and journals, learned in its broad setting and persuasive in its internal logic, supported by richly relevant quotations and reproductions of contemporary engravings, Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France provides a commendable model for those interested in the way ‘true’ and ‘false’ ideas interact and broadly influence behavior.

Science

Rarely has assiduous, original research (aided and abetted by Darnton’s energetic prose) made for such fascinating reading.

Boston Globe

Darnton’s book gives us not only a history of 18th-century publishing but a notion of how the lower orders of literature contributed to the fall of the Old Regime… The reader who wants a glimpse of the world behind a very unusual literature and an enlightening look at a famous time in history will get an eyeful in this surprising and entertaining volume.

New York Times Book Review

This is splendid historical writing… Damon [has] a well-justified reputation as one of the most original contributors to our understanding of life in pre-revolutionary Paris… The French Revolution was a continuous conflict between people, as well as a battle of ideas, and anyone who wants to understand the people had better start with the work of Robert Darnton.

New York Review of Books