The world has changed since 1953. That year, André Castelot published a biography of Marie-Antoinette with Perrin. His copyright allowed him to buy a large apartment on Avenue Foch – thanks to the American translation, he added a second home near Giverny to his assets. If Charles-Eloi Vial in turn releases a remarkable bio of the guillotined queen from the same publisher, he has no illusions: “If successful, I might be able to afford the photo of a apartment on avenue Foch!”
As house prices rose, sales of history books fell. It is estimated today in this sector that 30,000 copies is a bestseller, where Castelot and Alain Decaux sold ten times more. Instead of giving in to declinist discourses, some young historians are trying to renew their favorite genre. With her feminist reading grid, Virginie Girod multiplies her interventions in the media (TV and radio). Arthur Chevallier, Baptiste Roger-Lacan and Raphaël Doan have created the Vestigia laboratory, which puts artificial intelligence at the service of history through different applications – Doan also published last year If Rome hadn’t fallen (Compound Pasts), a fun uchrony written with the help of AI. More classic but no less inventive, Charles-Eloi Vial, 36, is undoubtedly the greatest hope in his discipline. Already the author of a dozen books, he is also a curator at the BnF (Richelieu) and director at Perrin of the marvelous collection “La Bibliothèque des illustrious”, which makes archives unearthed at the BnF accessible to the general public. Who is this singular man? Where does it come from and what will its next discoveries be? We took him away from his old papers for an hour to ask him a few questions.
Born in Alsace in 1987, Vial is a child of the ball: his father teaches history in prep class at the Montaigne high school in Mulhouse. When he has to watch his son, the teacher takes him with him and places him at the back of the class. While others go to kindergarten, little Charles-Eloi is already entitled to khâgne lessons. At home, he opens the books lying around, including On campaign with Napoleon, a summary of the Memoirs of General Marbot published in 1959, whose “slightly cowardly illustrations” particularly struck him. Later, preparing for the National School of Charters, Vial discovered with passion Restoration, book by the historian (and ecclesiastic) Guillaume Bertier de Sauvigny: “It brought me into the 19th century. The brave father Bertier de Sauvigny is the first historian that I really identified. I remember the anecdotes well, the vivid way in which he recounts the return to Paris of Louis XVIII sprawled in his carriage – that left an impression on me.” The Revolution, the Empire and the Restoration: Vial has found his favorite period, he will never change it.
“The interest in history is still there”
Chartist, then doctor in history, Vial the Stakhanovist began to publish at the crazy rate of two books per year, often peaks, like The Royal Family at the Temple in 2018. He tells us he writes 10,000 signs every evening when he works hard on a manuscript (for comparison, this article has 7,500). Thus the fine connoisseur of Napoleon leads a form of counter-offensive: “There are fewer old-fashioned readers, but the interest in history is still there, it simply comes through other channels For example, there is a very strong sensitivity to places: people love the exhibitions. This interest is also manifested on social networks, where there are unfortunately errors and clichés which are taken up and disseminated. Perhaps it is the historians who have not been able to renew themselves in time. The ball is in our court: I see potential readers likely to return to bookstores if we manage to design books that are worth it. I am thinking about it with the illustrated books that I publish at Perrin. We can offer something other than yet another reissue of Castelot…”
In no way defeatist, Vial even sees good reasons to rejoice: “We don’t necessarily realize it, but historical science has made a lot of progress over the last two decades, thanks to the digitization and putting sources online. It is much easier today to write a well-researched history book. Not long ago, it would have taken me six or seven years to complete my biography of Marie-Antoinette – I would have had to travel in France and abroad. I certainly studied the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had been little seen until then, and I searched through a lot of things everywhere (BnF, Pierrefitte, library of the Arsenal, Mazarine library, etc.), but I was also able to do some of the research on my computer. It revolutionizes the way of working.” Vial claims to be “positivist”: “It’s the Chartist method that stands out: I like to confront raw documents. Go beyond the different filters and dig deeper. There are always new things lying dormant in public funds or in the attics of castles.” In her book, Marie-Antoinette is neither the treacherous Messalina pilloried by Jacobin propaganda, nor the martyr sanctified under the Restoration, nor the frivolous fashionista brought back into fashion by Sofia Coppola – removing all these lying masks, Vial seeks his true face.
“The best place in the world, in my eyes, is my sofa”
We have already seen this discreet and deadpan boy on Yann Barthès’ set and on Stéphane Bern’s show. Is he comfortable in this exercise? “It’s certain that at the Ecole des Chartes we are not trained in communication and the media – it’s a somewhat exotic world for me. It’s a chance to talk about what we do and of what we love. It allows us to convey a few ideas: remember that archives are essential and history is living, current, exciting. It’s basic, but it doesn’t hurt to say it again. Yes, after having listened to me, people buy a history book or go to visit Versailles or Fontainebleau, I believe that I have done my job. However, I have no particular media ambitions. I prefer to be at home in write. The best place in the world, in my eyes, is my sofa.”
Known for willingly making his archives available to his colleagues, to whom does Vial feel close in the young historical guard? “I get along very well with Arthur Chevallier. I really appreciated the books by Flavie Leroux, who works on women at court. And I recommend Clément Weiss’ book on August 10, 1792.” In addition to the names mentioned in the introduction, let us add those of Pierre-Louis Lensel, Pierre Ménard, Hélène Delalex and Guillaume Frantzwa, proof that history did not die with Castelot. Rather than investing on Avenue Foch, Vial has numerous projects in the works. At the BnF, he must study the Beaumarchais fund, which has just joined it. As editor of “La Bibliothèque des illustrious”, he announced with an air of mystery a title which would “give a boost to the collection” (read: a title on the Marquis de Sade). In addition to his books to write, he would finally like to get involved in exhibitions and continue to “snoop” here and there in search of documents that are still poorly exploited. With him, the archives will never have said their last word.
Marie Antoinette, by Charles-Éloi Vial. Perrin, 711 p., €28.
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