ABSTRACT
The Revolution in France of 1789 provoked a major pamphlet war in Britain that was to last throughout the following decade. It has been estimated that around four hundred pamphlets were eventually published in Britain on the subject of France during the 1790s, a figure that does not include other forms of public engagement such as poems, ballads, periodical essays and novels.1 This meant that there were over four hundred voices all fiercely contesting what exactly had happened in France, why it had happened, what it meant for Britain and where events were now headed. In this war of words, questions of representation and interpretation became fundamentally important as writers attempted to convince readers of the truth of their own accounts, while discrediting those of their opponents.
