RaveTimes Literary Supplement (UK)Vintage Darnton. Written in his strikingly clear prose, argued with cogency, craft and conviction, and drawing on a lifetime of distilled research, the book seeks to make a contribution towards understanding the origins of the French Revolution. Darnton’s way into the question focuses heavily on the city of Paris ... The range and the variety of sources that Darnton deploys to penetrate the Parisian \'temper\' is extremely impressive ... Darnton advances his argument by steady, drip-drip accumulation – thick description rather than sweeping overview or structural analysis ... He is a shrewd, observant, wise and unfailingly entertaining guide through these dense, thought-provoking and colourful thickets of Parisian experience.
