"Maslan's work is concerned with three major interrelated themes: the tension between representative and direct democracy, antitheatricalism, and surveillance as a means of guarding and preserving the Republic. These concerns take her study far beyond the specific matter of the theatre of the French Revolution, into matters of central importance in European cultural and political history. The scope and depth of Maslan's work and the original critical insight that she brings makes this an important contribution to the cultural study of early modern France and the history of the French theatre."