Darnton discusses the nature of the forbidden works, the reasons for their popularity, and the role they played in French literary, social, and political life.

"Robert Darnton's acclaimed 1995 work on the late eighteenth-century illegal book trade, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France, has become one of the most cited and studied texts in its field.

The culmination of thirty years' archival reflection, it roots Darnton's previous case-study-driven articles and monographs in a wide-ranging empirical survey of the order books of the Swiss printer-booksellers, the Société Typographique Neuchätel.

"[M]any basic issues are delineated and debated with exceptional grace and clarity; much valuable information is presented; specialists and non-specialists will profit by viewing and evaluating it.

"[8] John Lough in Romanische Forschungen concluded "One may greatly admire Darnton's brilliant researches into the underground book trade without being able to accept some of the conclusions which he draws from them.