Revolution on Trial: Writing Memoirs in Times of Revolution, Emigration, and Restoration (1789-1824).

The Mémoires de Wéber, concernant Marie-Antoinette were of central importance to the wave of memoirs of the French Revolution published during the Restoration period. Commonly attributed to Joseph Weber, Marie-Antoinette's foster brother, the Mémoires' authorship has always remained doubtful. This article discusses the text's complex origins in the London émigré community around 1800 and analyzes the process by which it became a canonic eyewitness account with its republication in 1822. In light of newly discovered sources and recent scholarly interest in the emigration and postrevolutionary period, this article reexamines the Mémoires as a case of ghostwriting revolving around royalist loyalties, public emotions, and publication strategies. Highlighting personal networks reaching from the Revolution to the emigration and into Restoration France, this article makes a case for reconsidering generational factors, long-term relations, and interpretative struggles among the eyewitnesses of the Revolution in a period when memoirs became a key element of turning the Revolution into contemporary history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]