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In a speech delivered in 1794, roughly one year after the execution
of Louis XVI, Robespierre boldly declared Terror to be an
'emanation of virtue'. In adapting the concept of virtue to
Republican ends, Robespierre was drawing on traditions associated
with ancient Greece and Rome. But Republican tradition formed only
one of many strands in debates concerning virtue in France and
elsewhere in Europe, from 1680 to the Revolution. This collection
focuses on moral-philosophical and classical-republican uses of
'virtue' in this period - one that is often associated with a
'crisis of the European mind'. It also considers in what ways
debates concerning virtue involved gendered perspectives. The texts
discussed are drawn from a range of genres, from plays and novels
to treatises, memoirs, and libertine literature. They include texts
by authors such as Diderot, Laclos, and Madame de Stael, plus
other, lesser-known texts that broaden the volume's perspective.
Collectively, the contributors to the volume highlight the central
importance of virtue for an understanding of an era in which, as
Daniel Brewer argues in the closing chapter, 'the political could
not be thought outside its moral dimension, and morality could not
be separated from inevitable political consequences'.
In the age of Enlightenment the concept of night evolved from being
a time of dread to a time for pleasure. Between the start of the
Regence (1715-1723) and the French Revolution the nocturnal and the
erotic became intrinsically connected: shadows and darkness were
reconfigured as the object of the philosophes' fascination, while
night was increasingly experienced as the realm of the self.
Nowhere is this paradigmatic shift better recorded than in French
libertine literature of the long eighteenth century. Marine
Ganofsky delves into the night scenes of libertine fiction to
analyse how the idea of night was reimagined and represented by
writers ranging from Crebillon to Sade. Her original analysis of
erotic encounters in pornographic novels, gallant stories and
sensual fairy tales reveals how they capture the period's
emancipation from superstitions and traditions. The nocturnal
settings of these libertine narratives were the primary means of
staging men and women's hitherto hidden sexual encounters and
innermost fantasies, and ultimately illustrate the conquest of
night-time terrors in favour of social encounters and amorous
intimacy. Libertine nocturnal scenes reflect above all the
Enlightenment's re-invention of shadows less as an obstacle than an
incentive to discover the mysteries they harbour. Through her
innovative research Marine Ganofsky presents the erotic nights of
libertine fiction as a sign that the siecle des Lumieres, free to
enjoy the charms to be found in, or under, the cover of darkness,
was also the siecle de la nuit.
Candide, or the Optimist is Voltaire's hilarious and deeply
scathing satire on the Age of Enlightenment. Part of the Macmillan
Collector's Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized
classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful
books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This
edition features an introduction by Dr Marine Ganofsky. Young
nobleman Candide lives a sheltered and comfortable life under the
tutorship of the ridiculous Dr Pangloss who espouses the prevailing
18th-century philosophy of Optimism. Following an indiscretion,
Candide is cast out into the world which according to Pangloss is
'the best of all possible worlds'. But this is not so, Candide and
his companions encounter nothing but ludicrous calamities in their
madcap travels around the world - war crimes, earthquakes,
inquisitions and chain gangs - all based with horrible closeness on
real events of the 18th century. Voltaire's searing critique of
church, state and human nature was a bestseller from the moment it
was published.
La France est une nation legere - ce lieu commun antique est
abondamment repris tout au long du XVIIIe siecle, temoignant de
profonds bouleversements axiologiques, scientifiques et ethiques,
dont ce volume collectif cherche a mesurer l'importance et les
enjeux, en racontant l'histoire d'un autre siecle des Lumieres :
celle d'un siecle de la Legerete. Propre aux representations que le
XVIIIe siecle francais construit de lui-meme, tant par rapport aux
siecles qui l'ont precede que dans une logique de parallele entre
les nations europeennes, la legerete du XVIIIe siecle est un
important paradigme de l'historiographie qui s'est constituee sitot
apres la Revolution. Les heritiers du XVIIIe siecle ne
reconnaissent pas seulement en lui l'age de la raison et du
progres, des Lumieres et des droits du citoyen, mais eprouvent
aussi tantot du mepris, tantot de la nostalgie pour la pretendue
legerete de ses moeurs, la futilite de ses gouts ou la frivolite de
ses enfantillages. Entre la bourgeoisie industrieuse du XIXe siecle
tirant profit des representations voluptueuses des fetes galantes
et l'interet de notre epoque celebrant l'aimable frivolite du
siecle de Marie-Antoinette, le XVIIIe siecle en sa legerete n'a
jamais cesse de seduire certes, mais aussi de questionner le recit
progressiste de la raison et de l'utilite dans la definition des
valeurs qui fondent notre communaute. Aussi importe-t-il
d'interroger les conceptions et les valeurs qui sont associees a la
notion de legerete au XVIIIe siecle, de maniere a mieux comprendre
dans quelle mesure elle a pu etre associee a la fois au caractere
de la nation francaise en general et au XVIIIe siecle en
particulier. --- The age-old cliche that France is a light-hearted
nation is echoed repeatedly throughout the eighteenth century and
bears witness to the deep axiological, scientific and ethical
upheavals which this volume explores. By analysing the importance
of, and issues at stake in, these transformations, the articles
gathered here tell the story of another age of Enlightenment: the
story of an age of lightness. Lightness is at the crux of how the
French eighteenth century represents itself both in contrast with
previous centuries and through parallels between European nations.
The concept of lightness therefore constitutes an essential
paradigm of the historiography that developed immediately after the
French Revolution. The intellectual heirs of the eighteenth century
do not only find in this period an age of reason, progress,
Enlightenment and citizens' rights; they also feel, at times,
contempt, at other times, nostalgia for the alleged lightness of
its mores, the futility of its taste or the frivolity of its
childish ways. Between the industrious bourgeoisie of the 19th
century exploiting the voluptuous representations of fetes galantes
and the fascination of our own 21st century for the delightful
frivolity of Marie-Antoinette's era, the 18th century in its
lightness has never lost its charm. Yet, crucially, it also
challenges the progressive narrative of the history of reason and
usefulness in the definition of the very values on which our
community is built. It is therefore essential to analyse the
concepts and values associated to the notion of lightness in the
18th century. Such an approach yields breakthroughs in
understanding why, and to what extent, this idea of lightness has
been related to the French national character in general as well
as, more particularly, to its 18th century.
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