Author: Pidansat de Mairobert, Mathieu-Francois
Title: Vile book, libel 1775 | Anecdotes sur M. la comtesse du Barri, Londres [s.n.], 1775, 350 pp.
Description: Original paper binding, 18 x 10 cm. First edition of one of the most scurrillous works of the French 18th- century and a very popular libel published in the run up to the revolution. See Darnton, Corpus of Clandestine Literature in France 1769-1789, nr. 37. B0241Book with frayes, but pages very clean and bright. This book is a blend of fact and fiction, using just enough of the former to lend an air of authoriy to otherwise salacious accounts of the rich and famous. Posing as an historian, the author presents the narrative of his imagined world through a jumble of court intrigue, gossip, sexual misdemeanour and general political and sexual filth. The book became a great success. First because it was a good read. It is witty and wicked, entertaining and informative, and it has a strong narrative line, which carries the heroine from humble origins to the palace of the king. It reads like an off-colour Cinderella tale or a sexual success story, because du Barry sleeps her way from a brothel to the throne. But the sex only adds spice to the main appeal of the plot, which gave uninformed readers an chance to know the inside story of life in Versailles. The authorship of this work has always been uncertain but the general attribution to Pindansat de Mairobert, royal censor and an intimate friend of Restif de la Bretonne, is usually accepted.Fake news - sex - brothel - fairy tale - French revolution

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