« Ci-gît, enfin, un tyran ! », ou une épitaphe en tant que prophétie dans les Apologues modernes de Sylvain Maréchal (1789)

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to analyse a forgotten work by Sylvain Maréchal, a French political writer of the Enlightenment. Written on the eve of the French Revolution, his Apologues modernes heavily criticize the socio-political system of the French monarchy of Louis XVI. The analysis of his work proves that the author does not limit himself to criticising the situation before 1789, but he clearly predicts events of the forthcoming revolution and the resulting change. One could say that, like a true prophet, he foresees the end of the monarchy as such and proclaims the arrival of a new social and political order, a universal republic, not only in France, but in Europe in general.