The Last Judgment of Kings / Le Jugement dernier des rois

A Bilingual Edition

Sylvain Maréchal (1750 - 1803)

Translated by: Yann Robert

2024
156 pages
$14.95
ISBN 9781684485444
Scènes francophones

First performed the day after Marie-Antoinette's beheading, Le Jugement dernier des rois stages the burlesque trial of the remaining kings and queens of Europe - paraded in chains like animals, made to brawl over a barrel of crackers, and finally obliterated by a spectacular volcanic eruption. Such is the shocking context - at once tragic and farcical - of the most infamous play of the French Revolution, familiar to all specialists of the period. Until now, however, no standalone critical edition or English translation of this historic play existed. This bilingual edition revives Maréchal's play and reveals its centrality to scholarly debates about Revolutionary notions of justice, religion, commemoration, comedy, and propaganda. Provocative, written in accessible prose, and short - perfect for students in a French or history seminar - Le Jugement dernier des rois offers an ideal introduction to the most important and contentious questions of the Revolutionary period.

Joué pour la première fois le lendemain de l'exécution de Marie-Antoinette, Le Jugement dernier des rois met en scène le procès burlesque des autres rois et reines d'Europe : exhibés et enchaînés tels des animaux, contraints de se battre pour un tonneau de biscuits, et finalement anéantis par l'éruption spectaculaire d'un volcan. Tel est le contexte scandaleux - tragédie et farce à la fois - de la pièce la plus célèbre de la Révolution française, bien connue de tous les spécialistes de cette période. Jusqu'à maintenant, pourtant, il n'existait ni édition critique ni traduction anglaise de cet ouvrage historique. Notre édition bilingue fait revivre la pièce de Maréchal et la replace au centre des plus grands débats chez les historiens de la Révolution, traitant de justice, religion, commémoration, comédie, et propagande. Provocateur, facile à lire, et concis - parfaitement adapté aux étudiants d'un cours de français ou d'histoire - Le Jugement dernier des rois propose ainsi une introduction idéale à la période révolutionnaire et à ses principales controverses.

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Reviews
"This is a great pedagogical enterprise. . . . It is important to provide this curious piece to anglophone readers, helping us all understand the mindset of the French public during the Revolution of 1789. . . . I would recommend this book to whomever intends to motivate students to investigate the French literature produced around the time of the French Revolution." - Monde Français du Dix-huitième Siècle, 2025

"A superb edition and lively translation of one of the French Revolution's most striking plays. In his expert introduction, Yann Robert carefully lays out the theatrical and political contexts, bringing this subversive comedy to life for readers of all levels." ~Thomas Wynn, author of Reading Drama in Eighteenth-Century France

"This innovative and erudite edition restores Sylvain Maréchal's astonishing and wildly comic play to a rightful place of prominence while breaking new ground with a new, student-led collective translation. Yann Robert's book is a brilliant example of how scholarship can align with the teaching of the French Revolution's endlessly fascinating theater." ~ Annelle Curulla, author of Gender and Religious Life in French Revolutionary Drama

"Sylvain Maréchal's Le Jugement dernier des rois was the most important play performed during the French Revolution, yet it is surprisingly little-known. Scholars and students alike will therefore warmly welcome this new edition and translation of the play, for which editor Yann Robert has supplied a sparkling introduction." ~ Colin Jones, author of The Fall of Robespierre: 24 Hours in Revolutionary Paris

About the author:

SYLVAIN MARÉCHAL (1750 - 1803) was a French journalist, philosopher, political theorist, and playwright, famous for his militant atheism and radical egalitarianism.

About the translator:

YANN ROBERT is an associate professor in the Department of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. He is the author of Dramatic Justice: Trial by Theater in the Age of the French Revolution and, with Mark Darlow, of a critical edition of the revolutionary play L'Ami des lois.

YANN ROBERT enseigne dans le département d'études françaises et francophones à l'université d'Illinois, Chicago. Il est l'auteur de Dramatic Justice: Trial by Theater in the Age of the French Revolution et, avec Mark Darlow, d'une édition critique de la pièce révolutionnaire L'Ami des lois.

Distributed by Rutgers University Press

Cloth: 9781684485451, $69.95; EPUB: 9781684485468, $14.95