Talk given at the 'Out of the Box and Dusted Down: Foraging and Findings' Seminar

“Le hazard, qui m’a fait tomber entre les mains Les Lettres que je me hasarde de metre au jour, est trop singulier pour ne point en faire part à mes Lecteurs’. ‘The stroke of chance, which dropped this book of letters into my lap, is so extraordinary that I am unable to withhold [the stories it speaks about from] my readers’ (my translation). The lines which I have just read are from the Editor’s Avertissement or preface to this book, Verités à l’ordre du jour: Lettres à Madame de B. sur les spectacles. The book is a second edition and was published in 1798, four years after the execution of Maximillien Robespierre and one year before Napoleon Boneparte staged the coup d’etat of the 18 Brumaire against the French Republic and installed himself as Emperor. I was attracted to this object from the Cavanagh collection for two reasons, both of which are, with what the French might grandly call, une sensibilité intime.