Invention of Celebrity

Antoine Lilti is Professor of History at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and former editor-in-chief of the journal Annales.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction - Celebrity and ModernityChapter 1 - Voltaire in Paris“The Most Famous Man in Europe"Voltaire and JanotChapter 2 - Society of the SpectacleThe Birth of Stars: The Economics of CelebrityScandal at the Opera“Something Idolatrous”A European CelebrityThe Invention of the Fan(atic)Chapter 3 - A First Media RevolutionThe Visual Culture of CelebrityPublic FigurinesIdols and Marionettes“Heroes of the Hour”Private Lives, Public FiguresChapter 4 - From Glory to CelebrityTrumpeting FameConceptualizing CelebrityCelebrity“Chastisement for Merit”Chapter 5 - Loneliness of the Celebrity“The Celebrity of Misfortune”Friend Jean-JacquesEccentricity, Exemplarity, CelebrityThe Burden of CelebrityRousseau Judges Jean-JacquesThe DisfigurationChapter 6 - The Power of CelebrityA Fashion Victim?Revolutionary PopularityThe President is a Great ManSunset IslandChapter 7 - Romanticism and CelebrityByromaniaPrestige and obligationsWomen Seduced and Public WomenVirtuososCelebrity in AmericaDemocratic Popularity and Popular Sovereignty“Celebrities of the Hour”Towards a New Age of CelebrityConclusionPostface to the English editionNotesIllustration creditsIndex

“Lilti’s achievement is highly impressive. He provides a new perspective on the transformations of Western culture in the age of revolutions, and on the genesis of modern notions of selfhood and personal authenticity. And he reminds us that even as we laugh at contemporary celebrity culture, we need to take it seriously, and not merely as an excrescence or a pathology, but as a constituent element of political and cultural modernity.”David A. Bell, Princeton University“With The Invention of Celebrity, Antoine Lilti has established himself as one of the most significant and talented historians of eighteenth-century France…It is an imaginative study, at once audacious and theoretically grounded, that establishes celebrity as an object of historical analysis and lays the groundwork for further studies of the phenomenon.”Colin Jones, Queen Mary University of London"Exhaustively researched, with in-depth analysis, this book is not a light read, but is definitely an interesting read for those who have more than a passing curiosity for the history behind the rise of 'celebrity.'"Feathered Quill Book Reviews"Good history opens up sightlines not only to the past but to the present as well.  It allows us to see aspects of our current circumstances as the product of developments that are deeper and richer than we knew… Antoine Lilti’s The Invention of Celebrity is a book that does just that.  A chronicle of the origins and development of our modern société du spectacle, it provides a genealogy of the media-driven world of celebrities and personalities who now dominate our headlines and crowd (out) our public debates."Literary Review"An original and seminal work of outstanding scholarship that is thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, "The Invention of Celebrity" is an impressively informative and insightful work that is enhanced with the inclusion of a section of full color illustrations, fifty-six pages of Notes, and a thirteen page Index."Midwest Book Review“This well-written and well-translated study of a central phenomenon of the modern world has a great deal to offer.”Canadian Journal of History