Libelle (literary genre)

A libelle is a political pamphlet or book that libels a public figure. Libelles held particular significance in France under the Ancien Régime, especially during the eighteenth century, when the pamphlets' attacks on the monarchy became both more numerous and venomous. In recent years, cultural historian Robert Darnton has written on the libelles, arguing for their subversive power of the late eighteenth century exercised in undermining monarchical authority.