Readnara
The Ancient Regime — Hippolyte Taine

The Ancient Regime

Hippolyte Taine

  • History
  • Book language: English
  • 519 pages

A historical study and the first volume of Taine's Origins of Contemporary France. It examines the institutions, privileged classes, court life and social conditions of France before the Revolution, seeking to explain how the old order worked and weakened. Listen for its detailed, analytical portrait of a vanished world.

Listen to the whole book free

Already have an account? Sign in and listen

Free with a free account. The book is read by an AI-generated voice; the text follows along.

Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).

Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.

Contents

  1. THE ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY FRANCE, VOLUME 1
  2. THE ANCIENT REGIME by Hippolyte A. Taine
  3. INTRODUCTION
  4. PREFACE:
  5. THE ANCIENT REGIME
  6. PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR: ON POLITICAL IGNORANCE AND WISDOM.
  7. BOOK FIRST. THE STRUCTURE OF THE ANCIENT SOCIETY.
  8. CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF PRIVILEGES.
  9. I. Services and Recompenses of the Clergy.
  10. II. Services and Recompenses of the Nobles.
  11. III. Services and Recompenses of the King.
  12. CHAPTER II. THE PRIVILEGED CLASSES.
  13. I. Number of the Privileged Classes.
  14. II. Their Possessions, Capital, and Revenue.
  15. III. Their Immunities.
  16. IV. Their Feudal Rights.
  17. V. They may be justified by local and general services.
  18. CHAPTER III. LOCAL SERVICES DUE BY THE PRIVILEGED CLASSES.
  19. I. Examples in Germany and England.—These services are not rendered by
  20. II. Resident Seigniors.
  21. III. Absentee Seigniors.
  22. CHAPTER IV. PUBLIC SERVICES DUE BY THE PRIVILEGED CLASSES.
  23. I. England compared to France.
  24. II. The Clergy
  25. III. Influence of the Nobles.
  26. IV. Isolation of the Chiefs
  27. V. The King's Incompetence and Generosity.
  28. VI. Latent Disorganization in France.
  29. BOOK SECOND. MORALS AND CHARACTERS.
  30. CHAPTER I. MORAL PRINCIPLES UNDER THE ANCIENT REGIME.

and 95 more chapters

You may also like