a historical phrase that comes with so many perceived political connotations and judgements usually use the phrase Vieille Noblesse ("Old Nobility") to refer to the aristocracy that existed prior to 1789 - or those today whose family lineage stretches back to before the Revolution. In English, the usage of ci-devant is less clear. One might refer to ci-devant nobility simply to distinguish them from later nobility created by Napoleon Bonaparte under the First French Empire or by Louis XVIII and Charles X under the Bourbon Restoration. Culturally, there have been some instances of ci-devant being used in a positive or sympathetic manner, mostly by those critical of the French revolution. For example, in the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905), the aristocrat Baroness Orczy refers to "ci-devant counts, marquises, even dukes, who wanted to fly from France, reach England or some other equally accursed country, and there try to rouse foreign feeling against the glorious Revolution or to raise an army in order to liberate the wretched prisoners in the Temple, who had once called themselves sovereigns of France." Similarly, Joseph Conrad in The Rover (published 1923, set during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic period) wrote of a "hunter of the ci-devants and priests, purveyor of the guillotine, in short a blood-drinker." See also Incroyables and Merveilleuses Former people Notes and references Groups of the French Revolution