to life, in which men and women of three hundred years ago become flesh
and blood beings who think and suffer, cry or laugh. No reader, unless he is
of a particularly bilious and carping nature, could possibly resist this sensitive
and subtle quest for a lost humanity. But at the same time, the book is also
intended as a "defense and illustration" of a new way of conceiving of and
writing about cultural history. For this reason, I hope I shall be forgiven for
turning aside for a moment from the seductive picture Darnton paints to the
unavoidable grisaille of a discussion of concepts and methods.