Handsome, Charming…

David A. Bell

  • BuyBeaumarchais: A Biography by Maurice Lever, translated by Susan Emanuel
    Farrar, Straus, 411 pp, $26.00, May 2009, ISBN 978 0 374 11328 5

The 18th century was the great age of the European parvenu. Social hierarchies were rigid enough to make a sudden leap up the ladder not just unusual but shocking. Yet even before the French Revolution these hierarchies were coming under unprecedented pressure as a result of a surging commercial economy, Enlightenment philosophy and absolute rulers who sought to twist traditional elites into new forms. Thus more people than ever before – women as well as men – had the chance to bound upwards in a variety of colourful ways.

You are not Logged In

  • If you have already registered login here
  • If you are a print subscriber using the site for the first time please register here
  • If you are not yet a subscriber you can subscribe here
  • If you are a member of a subscribing institution or University library please login here
  • If you have an Institutional print subscription and online access is not included, find out about our Institutional online subscriptions