any french historian will find robert darnton's most recent book an invitation to reflection but and let me make this clear from the start that is what makes the work of such engrossing interest. An invitation to reflection, first, because it combine two purposes generally considered incompatible : understanding the radical foreignness of the behavior and thought of men of three centuries ago and distinguishing a lasting French identity in that alien world "Frenchness exists" Darton wrties, discernible in peasant tales of the eighteenth century (or before), embodied in the heroes of french national literature, and present to this day in popular wisdom. How, though is it possible to trace a continuity of this sort in texts or actions that Darton himself qualifies as "opaque" and likely to contain strong " does of cultural shock" for today's readers? This is the first question the book raises