“It happened on night in Paris”
“A pornograf which should have been the journalist has captured the Horace Engdahls of interest”
“What history teaches us? “
“Every survey of the past, says at least something about our own time. That is not completely alien rarely become the subject of reflections. “
“When Horace Engdahl takes on Rétif de la Bretonne as he finds our time as a belated shadow of the French writer’s observations in the parisian 1700s.”
“Possibly Rétif (or Restif) de la Bretonne in our time bildkultur for the most familiar from Ettore Scolas Night in Varennes, where he, played by no less than Jean-Louis Barrault, spend a night in 1791, in the same flyktvagn as Casanova, Thomas Paine, and Marie-antoinette’s lady-in-waiting Sophie de la Should.”
“Already in his time he was called husjungfruarnas Voltaire or rännstenens Rousseau. Today, he would probably have become a journalist.”
“nthere are other nights that Engdahl is interested in, the nights that preceded the revolution that few, if any, suspected was in the offing – at the very least, Rétif de la Bretonne himself. This man has essentially gone down in history as pornograf, despite the fact that he brought forth a startling, large number of writings in different topics: erotic stories, science fiction or an autobiography of Rousseau’s imitation of christ.”
“His reputation has historically wavered; a simple kolportör, the forerunner to the realism, surrealistfavorit, etc. Already in his time he was called husjungfruarnas Voltaire or rännstenens Rousseau. Today, he would probably have become a journalist.”
“nNågon time at the beginning of the latter part of the 1700s decides Rétif de la Bretonne, in order to investigate what happens if the night in Paris. He goes methodically about it, block by block. He claims to have walked in a thousand and one night, even if only a third of these proved interesting enough to get space in the book that came to be called Nuits de Paris, ou le spectateur nocturne – Paris nights, or the nattlige the viewer. He came after the revolution to issue additional volumes under the same title.”
“He behaves much like the Stig Dagerman’s the definition of a reporter – to be the first that will be late.”
“nVad he can find then, in this ill-lit, dirty, stinking city before haussmann harmoniously boulevards was a warren of alleys? The word ”find” is located here, near ”search”. It is the lowest echelons of society he sought on the night in the alleys, in front of all the young ladies that he at the last moment rescues from being raped, but also the drunk brawlers, the slaves of gambling or självmördare.”
“He behaves much like the Stig Dagerman’s the definition of a reporter – to be the first that will be late. The fascination is the neighbor of the indignation: he saves at the last moment a number of people from the accident, meet the wretched home or end up in theological disputes.”
“nEngdahl depicting some of these nightly meetings, but observe especially the time, how society’s bottom could te for the in lärdomshistorien perhaps the most astounding top – of Enlightenment – just before the society was turned upside down.”
“the Phenomenon that has become obvious is born during this century, not least in Paris. Just over a decade before the Paris nights had the american revolution taken place, the citizen – this modern-invention – makes his entrance. All the schisms in philosophy, theology or natural science makes it possible, not to say necessary, to tolerate conflicting normative systems exist in parallel, something as Engdahl points out, the first had real impact after the 1900-century totalitarian ideologies, with the proviso, ”let be that this insight has been difficult to penetrate in our country”.”
“it is of Rétif de la Bretonne dreams of a better, not least cleaner future, straighter streets (which came true) and a world where modernity’s downsides do not spoil the good, real life. “
“Life, he dreams, should be natural, freed from all of the perverse effects of urbanization brought with it.”
“It is an elegant essay whose dual perspectives allow the reader to choose which direction they wish to direct the eyes – then or now. In any case, so we learn a little something about the history, and perhaps thus a little something about what in some circles is happening now.”
“the Night of humanity nVandringar by Rétif de la Bretonne”