Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France / / Robert Darnton.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP eBook Package Archive 1893-1999
• VerfasserIn: Darnton, Robert,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2022]; ©1968
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (232 p.)

Early in 1788, Franz Anton Mesmer, a Viennese physician, arrived in Paris and began to promulgate a somewhat exotic theory of healing that almost immediately seized the imagination of the general populace. Robert Darnton, in his lively study of mesmerism and its relation to eighteenth-century radical political thought and popular scientific notions, provides a useful contribution to the study of popular culture and the manner in which ideas are diffused down through various social levels.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- 1. Mesmerism and Popular Science -- 2. The Mesmerist Movement 3. The Radical Strain in Mesmerism -- 4. Mesmerism as a Radical Political Theory -- 5. From Mesmer to Hugo -- 6. Conclusion -- Bibliographical Note -- Appendix 1. Mesmer's Propositions -- Appendix 2. The Milieu of Amateur Scientists in Paris -- Appendix 3. The Societe de !'Harmonie Universelle -- Appendix 4. Bergasse's Lectures on Mesmerism -- Appendix 5. The Emblem and Textbook of the Societes de !'Harmonie -- Appendix 6. An Antimesmerist View -- Appendix 7. French Passages Translated in the Text -- Index