Ancien Regime and the French Revolution

335 Pages·2008·1.25 MB·English

by  Alexis de Tocqueville

PENGUIN CLASSICS
THE ANCIEN REGIME AND
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE was born in 1805 into an aristocratic French family
loyal to the exiled House of Bourbon and to the Catholic Church. He
acquired liberal sympathies by studying French and English history and
observing the folly of the restored Bourbon monarchy; liberty became
his central political ideal. Impressive academic achievements and family
influence led to a legal career in government service in 1827. It was as a
junior magistrate at Versailles that he met Gustave de Beaumont, the
man with whom he would travel to America to prepare a study of its
penal system for the French government.
After a lengthy journey round the United States, Tocqueville and
Beaumont published their report on prisons; then Tocqueville turned his
attention to other work. The result of this was his hugely influential two-
volume Democracy in America, the first volume of which was published
in 1835 (at which point he also married Mary Mottley, an
Englishwoman) and the second in 1840. The book secured both his
reputation as a writer and thinker, and his election to the celebrated
Academie Francaise in 1841.
In 1839 Tocqueville was elected to the Chambre des Deputes, and
remained a member of the French assemblies until 1851. He was Foreign
Minister for five months in 1849 under Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. In
1850-51 he wrote his Recollections of the 1848 French Revolution.
His last work, The Ancien Regime and the French Revolution, was
published in 1856. He meant it to be the first volume of a grand study of
the Revolution of 1789, but he did not live to complete it. He died in
1859.
GERALD BEVAN was educated at King Edward’s School, Five Ways, in
Birmingham, St John’s College, Cambridge, where he studied Modern
and Medieval Languages, and Balliol College, Oxford. His career in the
teaching of French, Latin and Religious Studies ended in 1993 at St
Albans School as Director of Studies and Head of Modern Languages. He
specializes in French literature from the seventeenth, eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. Alongside his translation work, he teaches for the
Workers Education Association offering courses in Philosophy,
Psychology, Politics and Religion as well as Literature in English.
HUGH BROGAN is the author of the Penguin History of the United States of
America and Alexis de Tocqueville, a biography published in 2006. A
graduate of St John’s College, Cambridge, he has worked at the
University of Essex since 1974, and is now a Research Professor of
history there.
ALEXIS DE
TOCQUEVILLE
The Ancien Régime
and the French Revolution
Translated and edited by GERALD BEVAN
With an Introduction by HUGH BROGAN
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN CLASSICS
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First published 1856
This translation first published in Penguin Classics 2008
1
Translation and editorial matter copyright © Gerald Bevan, 2008
Introduction copyright © Hugh Brogan, 2008
All rights reserved
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s
prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
ISBN: 9781101489208
978-0-14-191973-7
Contents
Chronology
Introduction
Further Reading
Translator’s Note
The Ancien Régime and the French Revolution
Glossary
Chronology
1805 Born in Paris, on 29 July to Herve, Comte de Tocqueville, and
Louise-Madeleine, Comtesse de Tocqueville, French Catholic
aristocrats 1814 Napoleon falls and the Bourbon monarchy is
restored under Louis XVIII 1820-23 Tocqueville studies at the
College Royal in Metz, where his father is Prefect 1823-7
Tocqueville studies law in Paris
1824 Charles X succeeds to the French throne
1827 Tocqueville granted an appointment as a minor judicial officer in
the Versailles court of law 1830 Charles X’s edicts restricting
suffrage and censoring the press spark a revolution on 27 July
which brings his reign to an end 1830 The ‘July’ Monarchy of Louis-
Philippe begins on 7 August 1831 Tocqueville and his companion
Gustave de Beaumont arrive in Newport, Rhode Island, on 9 May,
for their nine-month visit to America 1833 Tocqueville publishes Du
Système pénitentiare aux États-Unis with co-author Beaumont; first
visit to England 1835 January. Publication of Democracy in America
Part I Second Visit to England 1835 Marriage to Mary Mottley, an
Englishwoman
1836 Journey to Switzerland
1839 Tocqueville elected to the French Chamber of Deputies; writes
‘Report on the Abolition of Slavery’
1840 Tocqueville publishes the two volumes of Part II of Democracy in
America 1841 Journey to Algeria
1841 Tocqueville elected to the Academie Francaise 1846 Second
journey to Algeria
1848 Revolution in Paris: Louis-Philippe abdicates the French throne on
24 February amidst growing popular demands by republican and
socialist reformers for change 1848 Tocqueville elected in April to
the Constituent Assembly for the Second Republic; later appointed
French Foreign Minister by Louis Napoleon 1848 Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon, elected President of the French
Second Republic in December 1850-51 Stay in Italy: writes
Souvenirs, his unfinished book on the 1848 Revolution 1851 Louis
Napoleon forcibly dissolves the Assembly 1851 Tocqueville resists
the coup d’etat of Louis Napoleon, is arrested and briefly imprisoned
1852 Louis Napoleon declares himself Emperor, as Napoleon III
1852 Tocqueville begins L’Ancien Regime et la Revolution 1853
Studies at the Tours Archives
1854 Journey to Germany
1856 Death of his father
1856 Publication of L’Ancien Regime et la Revolution 1859 Having moved
to Cannes for health reasons, he dies there of tuberculosis. He is
buried three weeks later in his chateau in Normandy
Introduction
‘Classic’ is a word of treacherous and evasive meaning, whether we
apply it to a writer or to a text. It seems to imply that the work in
question is undeniably of permanent, universal value; at the very least,
that it can make a solid contribution to its readers’ enlightenment. Yet it
is not self-evident that any book can have such universal validity.
Charlotte Bronte despised Pride and Prejudice; George III thought that
much of Shakespeare was ‘sad stuff’, though he admitted that one must
not say so. To claim that a book is a classic because vast numbers of
people have enjoyed it over a vast number of years simply begs the
question, why have they enjoyed it? To call a book a classic is to make a
high claim for it without making a case. Hence the need for
introductions.
If applied to a work of history the term is even more difficult, for most
historical writing is and ought to be perishable. To write history without
being content merely to repeat whatever has been said before is to
engage in a perpetual argument; and, as times change, as new
discoveries are made and new minds come forward, the soundest
analyses grow vulnerable. A classic work of history is normally one that
is left to gather dust on a high shelf; a classic historian is one who is
remembered for having done good work in his day, but is now read only
by specialists. In the truest sense of the word, a classic author is one who
is perpetually present. With few exceptions, the great historians have left
the room.
Alexis de Tocqueville is one of the exceptions.
Open any of his books at any page and you will hear a living,
individual voice, that most precious of literary achievements. It does not
hector, its language is plain, the topics which it discusses are frequently
as dry as the most tedious pedant could require; but it is agreeable. Not
everyone will want to listen, and nobody is in the mood for the same
author every day; but the chances are high that anyone who enjoys