Révolution à rebours: le renouveau catholique dans la littérature française (1870–1914). Par Richard Griffiths

Abstract

At an event to mark the centenary of the death of Charles Péguy at the Maison Française in Oxford in 2014, I reminded Professor Richard Griffiths that the fiftieth anniversary of his book The Reactionary Revolution: The Catholic Revival in French Literature, 1870–1914 (London: Constable, 1966) was just around the corner and evoked the possibility of holding some kind of event to mark the moment. Smiling very modestly, he declined the opportunity, leaving me — an ardent though not uncritical admirer of the work — slightly crestfallen. For this republication and updating of Révolution à rebours in its French edition, however, I am delighted that he showed no such modesty. In fact, he has penned a new preface for its republication, and taken the opportunity to remove a small handful of conclusions he no longer agreed with, while significantly revising the chapter on occultism and Satanism. Révolution à rebours represents...