A turbulent, brilliant figure from Old Regime France, Simon Nicolas Henri Linguet was a lawyer - very popular at a time when that was frowned upon - whose colleagues drove him from the Bar and into journalism, where he founded Louis XVI's most popular newspaper. Which did not prevent him from getting thrown into the Bastille after he'd annoyed enough people. When he got out, he wrote this book, which helped stir popular indignation against the Bastille.
His role in the run-up to the French Revolution did not protect him from its turmoil and he was ultimately guillotined