Princeton professor to address ‘Private Life of Louis XV’

One day a chambermaid at Versailles went National Inquirer on King Louis XV, publishing a novel about his sexual escapades. To be sure, underground stories about the monarch’s salacious business had been circulating for years. However, Mlle. Bonafon’s work used themes and language well-known to an increasingly literate population. To the 21st century, her book, one of the few during that era penned by a woman, illuminates aspects of the history of reading and writing, and ways in which information was disseminated then.

Robert Darnton, professor of history at Princeton University, will discuss “Mlle. Bonafon and the Private Life of Louis XV: What the Butler Saw and What the Public Read in 18th Century France” as the first of the Center for the Humanities‘ Humanities Without Borders lectures. The talk will take place on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Information: 263-3409 or http://www.humanities.wisc.edu.