Qu'estCE Que Le Tiers Etat and Sieyes Author:Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes, Charles Augustin Sainte Beuve (WHAT IS THE THIRD ESTATE?) Edited by Edme Champion. With an Introduction by Peter Campbell and We print this, the most famous pamphlet published during the French Revolution, on the basis of the critical edition by Edme Champion of 1888. Sieyes' pamphlet appeared first in January 1789. Four editions were published in the same year and onl... more »y the last one carried the name of the author. Champion has preceded Le Tiers Etat by Sieyes' Essai sur les Privileges, which is also included in this volume. It was published anonymously in November 1788 during the second Assembly of the Notables which was consulted for the convocation of the Assembly of the Estates General. The echo of the Tiers Etat was tremendous; its publication certainly contributed greatly to the destruction of the French state based on estates and paved the way for a more representative state structure, however long and painful it was to establish it. All French historians of the Revolution have written on the Tiers Etat: Mignet, Thiers, Louis Blanc, Sorel, Taine; amongst German historians Sybel should be mentioned for his exemplary impartiality. Champion's introduction, though suggestive, is superseded by Otto Brandt's pages on the Tiers Etat which introduce the German edition of Was ist der Dritte Stand?, Berlin, 1924. The latter edition indicates also all the variants of Sieyes' pamphlet. We attach Sainte-Beuve's essay from his Causeries du Lundi which is a masterpiece. French Text Two Volumes in One« less