Representation of the contemporary as ruin for political commentary in a novel by Louis Sebastien Mercier, L'An 2440 (published in English as "Annals from the year 2500"). Radisch posits that "the prospect of the present in ruins had a kind of currency in eighteenth Century French culture, both before and after the Revolution". The novel, an underground best seller and censored by the Ancien Regime, depicts a twenty-fifth Century in which the main protagonist sees many wonderful things before coming across the ruins of the Palace of Versailles.

I arrived at Versailles, and looked round for that superb palace, from whence issued the destiny of many nations. What was my surprise! I could perceive nothing but ruins, gaping walls, and mutilated statues; some porticoes, half-demolished, afforded a confused idea of its ancient magnificence. As I walked over these ruins, I saw an old man sitting upon the capital of a column. Alas! I said to him, what is become of this vast palace? - "It is fallen." - How? - "It was crushed by its own weight. A man in his impatient pride would have here forced nature. He hastily heaped buildings upon buildings; greedy of gratifying his capricious will, he harassed his subjects; all the wealth of the nation was here swallowed up; here flowed a stream of tears to compose those reservoirs of which there are now no traces. Behold all that remains of that colossus which a million of hands erected with so much painful labour. The foundations of this palace were laid in iniquity; it was an image of the wretched greatness of him that built it. The kings, successors, were obliged to fly from it, lest they should be crushed by its fall. O, may these ruins cry aloud to all sovereigns; that they who abuse a momentary power, only discover their weakness to future generations." - At these words, he shed a flood of tears, and turned his eyes to heaven with a mournful, repenting look. Why do you weep? I said. All the world is happy, and these ruins by no means declare a public calamity. He raised his voice and said: "Oh, how wretched is my fate! Know that I am Lewis XIV who built this rueful palace. The Divine Justice has again illumined the torch of my days, to make me contemplate more nearly my deplorable enterprise. How transient are the moments of pride; I must now and for ever weep. O, that I had but known ....."

Louis Sebastien Mercier (1795/ 1973) Memoirs of the Year 2500, New York: Sentry.