1789, alas, is the great year of the 18th century. That is one of the problems in characterising the age: whenever it is thought to begin - in 1700, or with the death of Louis XIV in 1714, or in 1730 as Professor Hufton has had to accept for her new book - we always seem to finish up at the Tennis Court or the Bastille. There is overwhelming pressure to see the century as an age before the deluge, everything in it being placed and scrutinised in the light of the great revolution to come.

LRB 22 January 1981 | PDF Download