Publications
Publication details [#58748]
Rogers, Rachel. 2024. “To shew men and things in their true colours”: a radical translation of the Révolutions de Paris account of the ‘August Days’ for a British readership. La Main de Thôt (12). URL
Publication type
Article in jnl/bk
Publication language
English
Source language
Target language
Person as a subject
Title as subject
Journal WWW
Abstract
This article takes a fresh look at a little-known text published in Britain just after the fall of the French monarchy on 10th August 1792. A Circumstantial History provided an immediate account of the confrontation between Louis XVI’s Swiss guards and the popular militias on that day for a British readership. The original source of the report on the ‘August Days’ is traced to the French revolutionary newspaper Révolutions de Paris and the article also examines in detail the context in which this commented translation was published, its probable author and translator and the choices made in the translation process itself. The conclusion reached is that, while they were reasonably faithful to the original French report, the author-translators made significant amendments in line with their own partial stance, as revolutionary sympathisers and radical reformers, and in anticipation of the reaction and resistance of British readers to the events depicted. Not only are the French people held up as legitimately claiming their rights in the face of monarchical injustice, but the portrait of violent reprisals meted out by popular militias and vindictive conduct towards the bourgeoisie is tangibly attenuated. Robert Merry and Nicholas Madgett, the probable collaborators behind this initiative, not only sought to provide an immediate counter-portrait of the popular seizure of power to contradict the critical representations circulating in the British press, they were also using the power of print, and an account of a foreign revolution, to convey the necessity of political and constitutional reform at home.
Source : Abstract in journal