Revolution and Enlightenment in France
Simon Schama, 20 December 1979
The Business of Enlightenment: A Publishing History of the ‘Encyclopédie’ 1775-1800
by Robert Darnton.
Harvard, 624 pp., £13, September 1979,0 674 08786 0 Show More
by Robert Darnton.
Harvard, 624 pp., £13, September 1979,
“... Specialising in rapid turn-over and massive profit margins, he never hesitated to use graft, strong-arm pressure and extortion to secure them. While tyrannising his subcontractors to produce the goods, he was quietly creaming off enormous sums by falsifying his inventory of sales. Even he, however, could go too far and expose himself to lethal ... ”