Olympe de Gouges, Witness to Revolution

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Author of plays and pamphlets before and during the French Revolution, Olympe de Gouges has been misread and unread. This book, a sequel to Carol Sherman's _Reading Olympe de Gouges_ , carefully examines her essay on _Le Bonheur primitif de l'homme_ and the brochures and posters that she wrote, had printed and displayed on the walls of Paris. Misogyny in her century and in ours has deformed her reputation. She was a passionate observer of revolutionary events, and she tried to influence opinion, always in the direction of moderation. Her concept of good government evolved from hoping for monarchy's reform to imagining--with Paine, Lafayette and others--a constitutional monarchy, and then reluctantly joining with republican ideals even as the Terror approached and finally killed her in November of 1793. Her _Déclaration des droits de la femme_ is extraordinarily prescient, even though most of its reforms did not occur in France until the twentieth century; and it often appears in anthologies of women's literature. She wrote much more, and this book calls attention to her other political writings.