Record Number: 28046
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'I was in Paris during the elections for the Chamber, when a triumphant majority was returned, as of course you know, against the very bad, or very stupid, or else both, person, Marshal MacMahon. It was an interesting time, you may imagine. On the morning of the elections, a manifesto of the President’s came out. I was living at the time in what we call Bohemian style, buying and cooking my own food, and had occasion to go out early for some chocolate. When I read the proclamation, which was on all the walls, I could have beaten MacMahon with my cane. It was a scandalous attempt to insult the poor people and so drive them to the barricades; if that was not the intention of the document, it was either written by a man out of his mind, or I do not know the meaning of words when I see them. They disappointed him for one while; but how it is all to end, who can foresee?'
Century:1850-1899
Date:14 Oct 1877
Country:France
Timen/a
Place:city: Paris
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:13 Nov 1850
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation:Writer
Religion:Uncommitted
Country of Origin:Scotland
Country of Experience:France
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author:Edmé-Patrice-Maurice MacMahon, comte de
Title:n/a
Genre:Politics
Form of Text:Print: Poster
Publication Details14 October 1877 (posted in Paris Streets)
Provenanceread in situ
Source Information:
Record ID:28046
Source:Robert Louis Stevenson
Editor:Bradford A. Booth
Title:The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879
Place of Publication:New Haven and London
Date of Publication:1994
Vol:2
Page:230
Additional Comments:
Letter 493, To Kinjiro Fujikura, [6 December 1877], 17 Heriot Row. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The foregoing material in square brackets has been added by the editors.
Citation:
Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879, (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 230, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=28046, accessed: 26 March 2025
Additional Comments:
For the occasion on which RLS saw and read President MacMahon’s election manifesto, see ID= 27584 on Letter 486, To his Parents, [15 October 1877], [Paris]. The Evidence passages in that letter and this refer to a manifesto posted in the streets and sighted and read by RLS in the morning of Sunday 14 November 1877, day of the first round of the 1877 French legislative elections.
