Louis-Sébastien Mercier

This work offers English-language readers an introduction to one of the forgotten masterpieces of French literature, Louis-Sebastien Mercier's 12-volume "Le Tableau de Paris" (published from 1781 to 1788), an important and original work that helped shape many kinds of French writing. The text provides a portrait of everyday life in Paris on the eve of the French revolution, describing the interactions of workers, street peddlers, prostitutes, police spies, actresses, noblemen, parish priests, servants, and criminals. Based on Helen Simpson's 1933 abridged translation, this edition includes seven newly translated chapters and an introduction by Jeremy D. Popkin. Earlier authors had described Paris's monuments and the lives of its wealthy elites, but Mercier was the first to try to capture in words the texture of its everyday life. His text, contemporary with Rousseau's "Confessions", is the first attempt to write the autobiography of a unique urban community. His writing deeply influenced Balzac and other 19th century French novelists and continues to serve as a major source of social and cultural history for French historians. "Panorama of Paris" should be of interest to students of French literature and history, and to anyone interested in the origins of modern attitudes toward city life.

Includes biography, plus plot summaries, character lists, anc critical views of L'Ecole des femmes, Tartuffe, Dom Juan, Le Misanthrope, Le bourgeois gentilhomme, and Le malade imaginaire.

La scene est proche d'un village situe a quelques lieues des frontieres de la Flandre, pres desquelles est campee l'armee francaise. Le theatre represente un lieu champetre, dont l'horizon est termine par une montagne, un hameau dans le lointain, un orme sur le devant de la scene, et sur un des cotes ; au pied est un tertre de gazon sur lequel peuvent s'asseoir deux ou trois personnes. Louise. Ariette. Peut-on affliger ce qu'on aime ? Pourquoi chercher a le facher ? Peut-on affliger ce qu'on aime ? C'est bien en vouloir a soi-meme je l'aime, et pour toute ma vie : (a cet instant son pere entre.) et vous voulez que cette perfidie... ah ! Mon pere, je ne saurois : a sa place, moi, j'en mourrois. Peut-on affliger ce qu'on aime ? C'est bien en vouloir a soi-meme. ACTE 1 SCENE 2 Jean-Louis, Louise, Jeannette, la tante, Bertrand. il a une baguette a la main, dont il niaise. Jean-Louis. -je le veux, je le veux. He bien !