Laura Marcus Life-Writing Workshop: Professor Colin Jones, 'Personal Lives and Political History: the letters of the Duchesse d’Elbeuf, hostile witness to the French Revolution'

Personal Lives and Political History: The Letters of the Duchesse d’Elbeuf, Hostile Witness to the French Revolution

With Professor Colin Jones

Several years ago, a serendipitous archival discovery—six scrappy and not easily decipherable notebooks—revealed themselves to be copies of letters written between 1788 and 1794 to an anonymous friend by the unknown figure of Innocente-Catherine de Rougé du Plessis-Bellière, Duchesse d’Elbeuf.

The letters are a quite unique ‘real-time’ testimony by a staunchly counter-Revolutionary aristocrat to the unfolding of a Revolution that in essence destroyed her life. The account is all the more intriguing in that for most of the time, she was living in Paris and records major political events even as her own status, wealth, and lifestyle were crumbling before her eyes.

Can the letters of Duchesse d’Elbeuf be considered life-writing through a highly public and, indeed, Revolutionary prism?

The workshop will consider the generic status of the notebooks (letters? a proto-diary? a literary fraud?) and the extent to which we can classify them as life-writing.

Speaker Details:

Professor Colin Jones is a Fellow of the British Academy. He is Professor Emeritus in History at Queen Mary University of London, and teaches at the University of Chicago as Visiting Professor. He is the author of many books on French history, particularly on the eighteenth century and the French revolution. Recent books include The Fall of Robespierre (2021), The Letters of the Duchesse d’Elbeuf (co-edited with Alex Fairfax Cholmely and Simon Macdonald: 2023), and French Revolutionary Lives (co-edited with David Bell: 2024). In early 2025, he will publish The Shortest History of France.

Registration:

This is an in-person event and will not be recorded. Registration is required and will close one week before the event (9:00 am on 21 February 2025). 

Please note that this event is exclusively open to current members of the University of Oxford. Workshop places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, with priority given to members of the English Faculty. Confirmations of successful registration will be sent one week before the event.

Further Information:

Tea, coffee, and cake will be served during the workshop.

The event will take place in the St Cross Building on Manor Road (more information). Attendees are encouraged to wear face coverings while indoors and to use an LFT prior to attending.

Event Queries/Contacts:

Any queries regarding this event should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.