Yale French Studies, Number 122

The English saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words" has often been applied in a perverse manner by ruling authorities, who have frequently feared visual imagery even more than the printed word. This was especially the case in countries, such as nineteenth-century France, where a significant segment of the population was illiterate and could understand visual imagery better than the printed word. In this volume, specialists in nineteenth-century French history trace the use of censorship by nineteenth-century authorities who feared the power of all the visual and performing arts, from caricature to the cinema and the theater.