Théorie et pratique des droits de l'homme

What it is

This is a French translation of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, titled Théorie et pratique des droits de l'homme. It was translated by F. Lanthenas and printed in Rennes in 1793, bound together with a French edition of Common Sense. The text names Paine as a secretary of the American Congress for foreign affairs during the war.

Why it matters

This edition shows Paine's writings circulating in France at the height of the Revolution, translated by Lanthenas, a French sympathizer. It reveals how Paine's political ideas crossed from the American Revolution into the French one, making him a figure admired on both sides of the Atlantic.

Look closer

• What does the title page reveal about who translated and printed this work?
• Why might this book combine two of Paine's works together?
• What does the date 1793 suggest about why this text mattered at that moment in France?