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"A fresh modern translation of a major French Revolutionary text, whose arguments for popular sovereignty are couched in the form of an Oriental dream-tale. This is a forgotten bestseller in the history of political thought which was translated by Thomas Jefferson and hugely influenced radical poets from Shelley to Whitman"--
List of contents
Translators' preface; Introduction; Chronology of Volney's life; Further reading; Biographical notes; The Ruins; Catechism of Natural Law; Appendix I. Volney's endnotes and sources; Appendix II. Volney's Black Egyptianist passages; Appendix III. Significant textual variants; Index.
About the author
Colin Kidd is Wardlaw Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. Brought up in the west of Scotland, he was educated at Cambridge, Harvard and Oxford, where he was a Fellow of All Souls between 1987 and 1994, and again from 2005 to 2019. He has been a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, New Statesman and Guardian. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List.Lucy Kidd is a former writer, who published three romantic novels, one historical, earlier in her career. Born in the United States, she was educated at Harvard University and the Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier. More recently, she has worked in Scotland in the TEFL/TESL sector. Her interests are in music, literature and modern languages.
Summary
A fresh modern translation of a major French Revolutionary text, whose arguments for popular sovereignty are couched in the form of an Oriental dream-tale. This is a forgotten bestseller in the history of political thought which was translated by Thomas Jefferson and hugely influenced radical poets from Shelley to Whitman.
Foreword
Fresh, modern translation of a major French Revolutionary text, which argues for popular sovereignty in the form of a dream-tale.
