Books in the Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series

Rousseau et la lecture est un livre collectif, fruit d'un séminaire de l'Equipe J.-J. Rousseau anime par Tanguy L'Aminot à l'Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne. Compose d'une vingtaine d'articles, il se propose d'examiner le rapport que Jean-Jacques Rousseau a entretenu avec les livres, la littérature, la philosophie, la science et l'esthétique de son temps.Plus que les sources de son oeuvre ce qui est analyse ici, c'est le dialogue qui s'établit dans les écrits de Jean-Jacques avec un ou plusieurs auteurs ou avec un sujet particulier, Celui qui dans l'Emile déclarait haïr tous les livres, s'est révélé un lecteur étonnant, au fait de la pensée et de l'art sous leurs aspects les plus divers. Les auteurs de ce recueil se sont donc demande non seulement quels étaient les ouvrages qui avaient marqué Rousseau et quelle valeur ou quel intérêt présentait telle ou telle lecture pour lui, mais aussi comment Rousseau souhaitait être lu lui-meme. Lire apparaît comme un véritable révélateur de tout l'être et peut avoir des conséquences funestes ou perverses dont il convient de se prémunir. En aucun cas, chez Rousseau, la lecture n'est un rite innocent ou gratuit. Quatre études présentent d'ailleurs quelques-unes des lectures qui ont été faites de Rousseau depuis sa mort. De Sade à Jean Starobinski, Pierre Burgelin, Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man et au lecteur ordinaire des années 1980, on peut apprécier les multiples portraits qui ont été faits d'un auteur qui tenait à ce qu'on le voit, le lise et le comprenne à sa façon. Rousseau qui avait lu Leibniz, Spinoza ou Helvétius selon son coeur et son système, n'etait-il pas a son tour victime de la trahison de ses lecteurs? Mais lire, ne serait-ce pas avant tout trahir, traduire et contredire celui qui est lu? Le conduire au-delà de lui dans l'univers d'autrui?

Ce recueil d'articles vise a saisir l'esprit qui animait l'un des salons les plus importants des vingt-cinq dernieres annees du dix-huitieme siecle, celui de Mme Helvetius.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

En 1894, un siecle apres sa mort, Condorcet est porte au faite de la gloire par la troisieme Republique. La permeabilite et l'entrelacement de ces types discursifs permettent de definir la plasticite de la figure de Condorcet qui conduit a la naissance posthume de l'eidolon: a la fois image et sens.

Studies of three works: Les âegarements du coeur et de l'esprit, La nuit et le moment, and: Le hasard du coin du feu.

Etude des modalites du temps et de l'espace dans Les Bijoux indiscrets, La Religieuse, Le Neveu de Rameau et Jacques le fataliste.

Réunissant le travail d'une nouvelle génération de chercheurs et des prévostiens les plus établis, cette collection d'études permet de faire le point sur l'image que se forme notre époque de l'abbé Prévost, dont l'art subtil et parfois ironique reflète un monde en transition, et s'insère dans une tradition littéraire qu'il fait évoluer mais qui le comprend mal. L'oeuvre de Prévost, tel que les auteurs de ce recueil nous la découvrent, révèle un univers mouvementé qui ne se borne plus à l'image captivante de Manon Lescaut qu'une certaine tradition littéraire a voulu nous léguer.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

Realism in terms of plot, structure, characterisation and narration in the moral tale all undergo transformation as the century progresses, primarily because many of the leading literary figures of the period wrote moral tales, from Diderot to Wieland, Louis-Sebastien Mercier to Sophie von La Roche.

As editors of the Encyclopédie, Diderot and D'Alembert claimed that one of the work's greatest strengths was that the knowledge it contained was useful. It was indeed, for the Encyclopédie assembled existing knowledge from a wide range of fields, making that knowledge potentially accessible to a broad readership. In addition, the Encyclopédie contributed to creating new areas of inquiry and forming new knowledge in vast fields now called science and technology, the arts and humanities. The sheer amount of knowledge contained in the pages of the Encyclopédie is impressive enough. But what the encyclopedists aimed for was a way to put knowledge to work. What they sought above all was a way to fashion critical knowledge, the kind designed to demystify readers, to 'undeceive them' as Diderot put it, and thus to free them from the reign of superstition, doctrine, and received ideas. The Encyclopédiedoes aim to advance the Enlightenment project in this fashion. It also contains voices that are hostile or merely indifferent to such a grandiose project. Yet ultimately, the encyclopedists are correct in their claim that the Encyclopédie provides a stronger, more powerful way of knowing things, one more able to resist or at least to situate critically prior ways of knowing. A century and a half after the appearance of the first volume of the Encyclopédie in 1751, as we open its pages - or view them on-line or from a CD-Rom - what the encyclopedists knew is of less importance to us now than how they knew. Or rather, to understand what the Encyclopédie presents to its readers in the way of knowledge, we must also consider how that knowledge is to be read. For us today, the most fascinating, compelling, and challenging aspect of this daring, monumental experiment is the way it entwines what the present volume calls ways of knowing and ways of reading. Thanks to the extensive scholarship of literary and cultural historians, we now know more than ever about the Encyclopédie project, from the socio-intellectual networks to which individual encyclopedists belonged, to the print culture networks through which their work circulated. Building on that contextual knowledge, the present volume returns to the text of the Encyclopédie in a series of essays that consider, in various ways, the encyclopedic relation to knowledge. The range of topics treated here is broad, corresponding quite naturally to the breadth of the Encyclopédie itself. But these essays call us to reflect on the twin issues of epistemology and history, exploring the questions, debates, and paradigms in terms of which critical knowledge is produced in the eighteenth century, as well as in our own.

Ceux d'aujourd'hui ne nous parlent que de manufactures, de commerce, de finances, de richesses et de luxe meme.'Ancient philosophers had conceptualised model regimes where human beings would flourish in accordance with their natural purposes and potentialities shaped by good laws well obeyed.

Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort remains one of the most enigmatic 'prompters' of the French Revolution. This study analyses his rhetorical and political programmes in tandem to reveal how Chamfort's discourse and politics inform and elucidate one another in both pre-revolutionary and revolutionary periods. It considers his key political texts - his 'Discours à l'Académie française', Des académies, the Tableaux historiques de la Révolution française and his posthumous Maximes et pensées, caractères et anecdotes - and exposes how, in each instance, Chamfort's conception of politics hinges on the adoption and subversion of prescribed discursive forms (reception speech, historical tableau, maxim). In the 'Discours' and Des académies, Chamfort opposes the implicit discursive norm of le bon usage sanctioned by the Académie française, because it represses free expression and at the same time constitutes the Académie itself into an oppressive corporation imbued with neo-feudal values. Chamfort's subsequent interpretations of revolutionary events in his Tableaux historiques, while making explicit this same radical libertarianism, frame some reservations about the insurgent peuple as a political force. In the end, many of the tensions troubling Chamfort's politics are resolved by his posthumous Maximes et pensées, whose prevailing principle of honnêteté gives them a rhetorical and political independence from both the ancien régime, centred on notions of honneur, and the revolutionary Republic, founded on a principle of vertu. Previous studies have tended either to interpret Chamfort's works from their historical or biographical context, or - by considering exclusively the Maximes et pensées - to subordinate them to an established literary tradition. This innovative reading posits Chamfort's texts as an exemplary meeting-place of literary practice and political praxis at the time of the Revolution, shedding new light on both the function of literary forms in Chamfort's politics and the role of Chamfort the writer, as an ideological subject caught up in revolutionary events.

Le fonds documentaire qui est à la source de cet ouvrage est conservé dans le Fondazione Maria Cosway à Lodi, en Italie. Il comprend essentiellement un corpus de cent vingt-trois lettres et billets datant de 1782 à 1803, qui constitue la correspondance active du chef corse Pascal Paoli (1725-1807) à Maria Cosway (1760-1838), l'épouse du célèbre peintre miniaturiste Richard Cosway. Chaque document, dont l'original est en italien, est retranscrit, traduit et annoté; l'édition comporte en outre une chronologie historique, une chronologie des lettres et un index. Cette correspondance éclaire sous un jour nouveau la biographie de Pascal Paoli au temps de son séjour en Angleterre, période qui constituait une lacune importante dans ce domaine. Elle précise la nature des liens entre le chef corse et la famille Bonaparte. Envers sa correspondante, l'auteur se révèle malicieux, spirituel, affectueusement ironique, moralisateur, ferme sur le décorum qu'il croit devoir maintenir, mais aussi traversé parfois par le doute, la tristesse et le découragement, voire l'angoisse métaphysique. Le portrait moral qui en ressort est celui d'un personnage amateur de littérature, de peinture et de musique, plus sensible, plus vivant, moins figé que l'image littéraire héroïsée et 'monumentale' du 'champion de la liberté' que James Boswell a laissé à la postérité dans son Account of Corsica and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli. On perçoit aussi la riche et attachante personnalité de la destinaire de ces lettres. Le seul fait que Maria Cosway ait eu le souci de conserver ces documents témoigne moins de sa vanité que de son intelligence. Un autre intérêt, et non des moindres, est la toile de fond, esquissée par les nombreuses allusions à la pléiade de célébrités du monde des lettres et des arts que Paoli côtoyait. Cette évocation illustre à quel point Londres était alors un ardent et brillant foyer de culture.

This articles collected in this volume explore aspects of Andre Morellet's productive and representative career in the republic of letters before, during, and after the French Revolution. The collection also includes additions and corrections to the recently published edition of Morellet's letters to friends, relatives, colleagues, and patrons.

It was not only in his histories that Voltaire thought, worried and wrote about history.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

Qui dit Diderot dit philosophe par excellence, encyclopédiste en chef, prôneur d'un matérialisme absolu, prosateur ludique et parfois cocasse. Pourtant, au cours des cinquante dernières années, la critique nous a dévoilé l'autre visage de Diderot - celui d'un théoricien de la politique qui s'oppose à ses contemporains en évitant les traités et en favorisant les vifs échanges et contre-attaques intellectuelles. Dans Sens et fonction de l'utopie tahitienne dans l'oeuvre politique de Diderot, Bernard Papin replace le Supplément au voyage de Bougainville dans son contexte historique et nous propose de le découvrir en tant que tournant décisif dans la pensée politique de celui qui a démenti vouloir écrire 'un de ces traités du bonheur, qui ne sont jamais que l'histoire du bonheur de chacun de ceux qui les ont faits'. S'inscrivant dans une longue tradition de textes utopiques, Le Supplément déjoue les attentes et semble aller à l'encontre des méthodes habituelles de Diderot. A mi-chemin entre réalisme et onirisme, ce traité aux allures de rêverie et teinté de provocation représente pour Papin le moment où Diderot devient père de la Révolution, préférant 'les vociférations des peuples en colère aux conversations feutrées des alcôves princières'.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

Fontanes: poète, journaliste, politicien, éducateur. A l'aube du dix-neuvième siècle, Louis de Fontanes est reconnu par ses contemporains comme un écrivain de premier ordre. Sa poésie fait époque; on l'admire comme orateur; personne ne l'égale comme critique; ses jugements font autorité, sa manière d'écrire et de parler en public est érigée en modèle. Ainsi exposer ce qu'ont été pour Fontanes la poésie et la fonction du poète, l'éloquence et le rôle de l'orateur ou celui du journaliste, c'est faire revivre à la fois un littérateur important et tout une culture rhétorique et scolaire. L'auteur fait le bilan de l'ensemble de l'oeuvre de poète, de journaliste, de professeur et d'orateur qu'a produit Fontanes avant d'accéder aux plus hautes responsabilités. Il retrace ce qu'a mené le jeune collégien des Oratoriens de Niort, poète désargenté, ami des Lumières et admirateur des philosophes, à travers les vicissitudes de la Révolution à se faire législateur, adjoint de Bonaparte et un des architectes du programme d'enseignement national qui vit le jour aux premières années du dix-neuvième siècle. En la compagnie de Fontanes on peut apercevoir ce qu'étaient les belles-lettres à la fin du dix-huitième siècle, ressentir le choc de la Révolution et discerner comment s'est construite la 'réaction' contre les misères de l'an II et de la Terreur. Le jacobinisme rejeté, on accepte le progrès scientifique des Lumières, tout en valorisant les lettres et les arts, l'Antiquité de la siècle de Louis XIV, pour conjuguer la modernité et l'héritage de l'Ancien Régime. Pour tracer le chemin tortueux des belles-lettres à l'épreuve de la liberté, Louis de Fontanes - poète des Lumières, journaliste engagé de la Révolution, proscrit et exil du Directoire, homme politique et critique acerbe du Consulat - est un guide sans pair.

The Entresol has been described as the most significant intellectual organisation in France in the first half of the eighteenth century. Its meetings in the 1720s were attented by some of the most important political thinkers in the country, among them Montesquieu, the marquis d'Argenson, the abbé de Saint-Pierre and the exiled lord Bolingbroke. The Entresol was a meeting of minds between older men who wished to keep in touch with current events, and younger men on their way up, who were eager to prove their suitability for high office in the French governing élite. Members came to meetings because they enjoyed talking about politics, especially foreign affais, and while the Entresol remained in favour, to be a member was a recommendation to those in government. In this book, the first to be published on the Entresol, Nick Childs examines the political thought and social background of the academy's members, and the reason why their meetings were eventually banned.