Duels, Assault and Domestic Violence in Pre-Revolutionary France

A woman who killed three men in a sword fight; drunken musketeers assaulting passers-by; a wife whose husband brought his mistress home and beat her when she objected.... These are just some of the colorful figures from eighteenth century France in this addition to the Old Regime Police Blotter series, a collection of source books on crime and police matters in the period. From the organized, consensual violence of dueling to the random mistreatment of the vulnerable in public and in private, this collection looks at violence in its most personal form, at court, in the street, in theaters, in private homes, in the process giving vignettes of daily life in France before the Revolution. This material comes from the Bastille archives, from periodicals, from letters and memoirs and much of it has never been translated. If you have enjoyed other volumes in this series or simply have an interest in French history or in the history of dueling, brawling or domestic violence, you will find much to interest you in this new and unique collection.

The Old Regime Police Blotter is a series of source books on criminal and police matters from Pre-Revolutionary France.