The Allure of the Archives

Arlette Farge's 'Le Goût de l'archive' is widely regarded as a historiographical classic. While combining through two-hundred-year-old judicial records from the Archives of the Bastille, historian Farge was struck by the extraordinary intimate portrayal they provided of the lives of the poor in pre-Revolutionary France, especially women. She was seduced by the sensuality of old manuscripts and by the revelatory power of voices otherwise lost. In this book, she conveys the exhilaration of uncovering hidden secrets and the thrill of venturing into previously unknown dimensions of the past.  Read more... Abstract: Arlette Farge's 'Le Goût de l'archive' is widely regarded as a historiographical classic. While combining through two-hundred-year-old judicial records from the Archives of the Bastille, historian Farge was struck by the extraordinary intimate portrayal they provided of the lives of the poor in pre-Revolutionary France, especially women. She was seduced by the sensuality of old manuscripts and by the revelatory power of voices otherwise lost. In this book, she conveys the exhilaration of uncovering hidden secrets and the thrill of venturing into previously unknown dimensions of the past