© 2007 University of Nebraska–Lincoln. All Rights Reserved.
Sonoma State University |
Modern Language Association |
UNL Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
1996 Number 44
CARR, THOMAS M. JR. ed. Réflexions sur l'éloquence des prédicateurs (1695). Philippe Goibaut du Bois, Avertissement en tête des Sermons de Saint Augustin. Geneva: Droz, 1992.
Review: Charles Teisseyre in RHEF 81 (1995), 338–39: Welcomes the publication of the Du Bois text with Arnauld's. An ample historical introduction sets the context ably. The editing "offre toutes les garanties de rigueur textuelle."
KREMER, LEMAR J., ed. Interpreting Arnauld. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.
MOREAU, DENIS. "Arnauld, les idées et les vérités éternelles." EP 51.1–2 (1996), 131–156.
In his acceptance of the thesis called "creation of eternal truths" and in his refusal of the univocity of knowledge between God and man, and the univocity of being, we should see Arnauld's loyalty to Descartes, and the theologian's unique position in the history of cartesianism. The author asks if scholars should not find in his works an authentic "cartesian theology."
DEBAISEUX, MARTINE. "Les Egarements du Récit ou le Récit des Egarements: 'La Pourmenade de l'Ame Dévote de Jean Auvray'." CdDs 6.1 (1992) 139–61.
At the beginning of her article, D. states "le but de mon analyse est de montrer le côté traditionel de ce texte par rapport à la poésie religieuse de son époque, mais aussi la distance que l'auteur prend par rapport à ses modèles dans cette suite de mises en scène d'une grande variété ayant pour objet commun la contemplation du Christ." D. associates the "dramatisation" of Auvray's work with the phases of Ignatian meditation, and discusses how the three parts of the Pourmenade are linked through what she calls a "lecture analogique qui se base sur la mise en oeuvre de correspondances ou de contrastes significatifs."
JEHASSE, JEAN and BERNARD YON, eds. Guez de Balzac, Epistolae selectae 1650. Saint-Etienne: U de Saint-Etienne, 1990.
Review: M. Mund-Dopchie in LR 48 (1994), 379: A fine contribution to Balzac studies and to neo-Latin studies as well, this edition includes a French translation, notes, index and introduction. M.-D. appreciates the situation of the 35 unedited and 20 re-edited letters in the context of the period with all its humanistic themes. J. and Y. "font surgir avec science et finesse . . . tout le milieu du libertinage érudit."
FUMAROLI, MARC. "A Scottish Voltaire: John Barclay and the Character of Nations." Trans.Maya Slater. TLS 4842 (19 Jan. 1996), 16–17:
Densely suggestive presentation of B.'s Icon animorum (1612), dedicated to Louis XIII (Trans. L'Examen des esprits, 1617, 1624) as a hybrid text—memory book and prudential manual as well as anthropology and sociology summing up the traditions of Castiglione, Huarte, Bodin, and foreshadowing the moralistes. Stresses the harmony lying beyond the diversity of natural types; his Francophilia; observation of the French nobility and participation in the nobility of "lettres." A bedside book of Richelieu (as was the Argentis), B.'s views offer an educational and reforming model of a kind of "European education"... "in essence waiting to be discovered."
BOST, HUBERT. Un "intellectuel" avant la lettre: le journaliste Pierre Bayle (1647–1706). L'actualité religieuse dans les Nouvelles de la République des Lettres (1684–1687). Amsterdam/Maarssen: Holland Univ. Press, 1994.
Review: Roger Zuber in BSHPF 140 (1994), 650–51: Extremely useful listing of authors and books reviewed by Bayle. The critic is, as a young man, yet in the Erasmian mold, an "homme orchestre," whose vast readings and correspondence are detailed here with precision. The editor may be seen as a minister (not a priest) and the republic of letters as his church. Good analysis of irony as a means of polemic against the Revocation.
PIVA, FRANCO, éd. Catherine Bernard: Oeuvres. Tome I: Romans et nouvelles. Fasano/Paris: Schena-Nizet, 1993.
Review: J.-P. Collinet in RF 107 (1995), 217–18: Rejoices in this publication which will hopefully soon be followed by B.'s theatre and poetry. Judged opportune and very fine, P.'s edition includes an excellently documented introduction.
Review: Simone Dosmond in IL 48.1 (1996), 37: D. commends this edition of Bernard's novels and "nouvelles," which, she says, will help "mieux . . . connaître et apprécier un auteur qui gagnerait à être redécouvert." Among the works mentioned in the edition are Frédéric de Sicile, Eléonor d'Yvrée, Le Comte d'Amboise and Inès de Cordoue. D. praises P.'s attention to editorial detail, mentioning "d'abondantes notes infrapaginales [qui] font ressortir de variantes parfois infimes et [qui] dégagent avec une remarquable minutie les sources littéraires ou historiques auxquelles la romancière a puisé." From a thematic standpoint, the volume highlights B.'s pessimism, which, D. argues, "contraste avec l'optimisme de Madeleine de Scudéry, [et qui] correspond bien à l'esprit fin de siècle."
Review: Nina Eckstein in FR 69 (1996), 482–83: Contains the youthful Frédéric de Sicile and the four novels included under the heading "Les malheurs de l'amour" (1687–96). A copiously documented introduction maintains B.'s sole authorship and with a skillful comparison with Mme de Lafayette's techniques demonstrates B.'s significant place in the development of prose fiction. Notes on sources, glossary, and index are carefully prepared and may contribute to a deserved wider readership for these "sparse, polished gems, tracing the ineluctable defeat of love."
Review: M. Grevlund in RevR 30 (1995), 148–150: "Une heureuse initiative franco-italienne remet sur le marché les oeuvres en prose de Catherine Bernard. Un second tome comprendra ses poésies et les deux tragédies Laodamie et Brutus.
Review: M. Hall in MLR 90 (1995), 1002: ". . . it is clear that the editor has successfully launched a project that will introduce an important and neglected author to a wider range of readers. All Bernard's narrative fiction is contained in this volume, in particular, the three 'nouvelles historiques' (Eléonor d'Yvrée, Le Comte d'Amboise, and Inès de Cordoue) on which any assessment of her worth and historical importance as a novelist must rest."
Review: Roger Zuber in BSHPF 140 (1994), 484: Welcomes this first collective edition.
LEWIS, PHILIP. "Fragmented Text and Continuous Reading: A Longinian Text and Some of its Implications." FLS 21 (1994), 25–33.
Examines Boileau's translation of Sapho. His "honnête liberté" there, as in the larger issue of the gaps in Longinus' text, is not simply a desire for continual/organic shape; it represents from inside the creative act the movement of the sublime. Fine close reading and a very striking characterization of the "sublime."
WOOD, ALLEN G. "Boileau, the 'Croix Blanche,' and 'Satire I'." OeC 20.3 (1995), 263–272.
"It is important, therefore, to examine further this critical period surrounding the publication of the Satires in 1666 as it relates to Boileau's involvement with the Croix Blanche in order to comprehend better the initial reception of his texts and to examine moral isues raised in the satires and the polemics surrounding their publication. Since Boileau was identified as a débauché, the significance of the term and the details of Boileau's life at this time call for greater clarification."
WYGANT, AMY. "Boileau and the Sound of Satire." FMLS 31 (1995), 128–39.
Compellingly argues that B's Prologue d'opéra is not a failed opera prologue but rather a small gem of satire." Special attention is paid to B.'s rhyming ideal; the poet's practice here of a " 'meta-rime-sécurité' . . . is, itself, satiric."
COUTON, GEORGES. La Chair et l'âme. Louis XIV entre ses maîtresses et Bossuet. Grenoble: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1995.
Review: Boris Donné in RHL 96.2 (1996) 324–25: D. states that in this work, "il s'agit d'une chronique des amours de Louis XIV entre 1661 et 1685." The originality of the volume, however, lies in Bossuet's reaction to the king's extra-marital relationships. B. describes C.'s approach as that of a "décryptage des sermons et des oraisons prononcés par Bossuet tout au long de ces années." The focus is on Bossuet's "langage figuré," and his use of "figures bibliques" in which the orator invites the king to "faire retour sur lui-même, à se repentir."
FLASCHE, HANS. "Bossuet und Pascal: Zum Nachleben der Lehre von Erfahrung des Herzens." RJ 45 (1994), 117–41.
Dense, eloquent and suggestive, examination of Bossuet's panegyrics and sermons comparing and contrasting the "ordre du coeur." Builds on insights of Strowski but substantially renews earlier treatments. Sustained use of Saint François de Sales.
LOCKWOOD, RICHARD. "Figures of Power: Rhetoric and Political Theory in Bossuet." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 125–37.
L. examines the manner in which Bossuet tries to reconcile humanity's fall with the divine right of kings. For L., the central question is "[h]ow does this abyss of emptiness [that is human depravity] relate to the plenitude and presence which, in Bossuet's political theory, make kings the ultimate example of Godly authority on Earth?" Studying Bossuet's funeral orations for the Henriettas of France and England, L. states that this seemingly political problem is a rhetorical one, and concludes that the ultimate answer lies "not [in] preachers, but [in] the listener, who must insure that the preacher's words have effect," when arguing the legitimacy of divine right.
MEYER, JEAN. Bossuet. Paris: Plon, 1993.
Review: Georges Asselineau and Therese Goyet in RHEF 81 (1995), 476–77: Reviewers give a substantial number of corrections of fact and in some cases interpretation. General reservations prevail concerning a certain rhetorical drift that takes Meyer, despite understanding for B.'s "passions créatrices," away from the shaping vocation, business, and actions of his life.
NELLEN, HENK J.M. Ismael Bouillau (1605–1694): Astronome, épistolier, nouvelliste et intermédiaire scientifique: ses rapports avec les milieux du 'libertinage erudit'. Amsterdam: APA, 1994.
Review: Robert A. Hatch in Isis 86 (1995), 645–46: Massive undertaking displaying remarkable archival skills in tracing the life in greater detail than has previously been done, even while omitting work as astronomer and mathematician. Part II focuses on five representative correspondents and interchanges with them (Jacques Dupuy, Heinsius, J.-A. Portner, Stanislas Lubienietzki, Johannes Hevelius) and is of interest for discussion of epistolary genres. Pintard's characterization of B. is now superseded: B. was in no way a freethinker or non-conformist. The reviewer is preparing a calendar of the B. correspondence.
Review: Jacques Solé in RHEF 81 (1995), 477–78: Appreciative summary of the newly detailed life, stressing travel, disappointments in terms of official recognition, respectful distancing from power and conservatism ("conformiste et pusillanime"). The choice of correspondence is seen as revealing of overall intellectual concerns. This study, "très probe, très fouillée, et bien informée," nonetheless leaves open matters of future research on the network of correspondents, his functions as "informateur politique," the forms of his curiosity. Agrees that Pintard's characterization has been superseded.
CORMIER, JACQUES et MICHELE WEIL, éds. Continuation de l'histoire de l'admirable Don Quichotte de La Manche. Genève: Droz, 1994.
Review: R. Howells in MLR 90 (1995), 1004–1005: Critical edition by two of Frédéric Deloffre's collaborators clearly sets out "the wider bibliographical complexities" of the work's history. The editors argue persuasively through stylistic evidence that Challe is the author of the 1713 Volume VI, the Continuation.
Review: H. Klüppelholz in RF 107 (1995), 224–26: Welcome edition fills a genuine need as it treats historical and literary approaches to the text, presents the 1713 version of the Continuation and includes significant critical apparatus (bibliography, textual variants, grammar, indices of name and theme).
JOUHAUD, CHRISTIAN. "Sur le statut d'homme de lettres au XVIIe siècle." Annales 49 (1994), 311–47.
Examines primarily the 809 letters to some 109 correspondents written from 1632 to 1640. A welcome renewel of material clarifying C.'s self-image as a man of letters. Important section on "Amicus amico: Guez de Balzac."
LEIBACHER-OUVRARD, LISE. "Transtextualité et construction de la sexualité: la Satyra sotadica de Chorier." ECr 35 (1995), 51–66.
L.-O. establishes numerous classical references as she analyzes the "jeux transtextuels" and demonstrates that the Satyre is a "roman philosophique et libertin" as well as an erotic novel.
TURNER, JAMES GRANTHAM. ''Aloisia Sigea' in France and England: Female Authorship and the Reception of Chorier's Erotica." OeC 20.3 (1995), 281–294.
"This paper argues that what separates Chorier's Satyra from the other erotic fictions, and ensures it a privileged place in the illicit canon, is its fabrication of a "female erudite voice," reduplicated in the speakers of the dialogue and the supposed author.
BLACK, MOISHE. "Don Diègue manipulateur." PFSCL 23 (1996), 539–560.
Argues that the character is much more complex than the monument of virtue that he has traditionally been considered to be.
BOUVIER, MICHEL. "Cinna ou la disgrâce critique." PFSCL 23 (1996), 219–228.
Studies Auguste's decision before the beginning of Act V to pardon Cinna's crime: "Sans le savoir, Auguste est entré dans la logique du pardon quand il a décidé de garder le pouvoir à la fin de la scène 1 de l'acte II en s'en remettant à son coeur magnanime qui aime Rome."
DEYRES, MARCEL. "Suréna, précédent tragique de Chatterton." RHT 187 (1995), 213–226.
A close study of the last act of Suréna shows that Vigny's Chatterton was, by far, more influenced by Corneille than by Racine. The author asserts that "les parentés entre ces deux pièces sont trop étroites pour les priver d'un lien peut-être essentiel dans l'évolution du théâtre français," and examines how Vigny's theatrical aesthetics were indebted to those of Cornelian tragedy.
FORESTIER, GEORGES, ed. Le Cid, 1637–1660. Paris: Société des Textes Français Modernes, 1992.
Review: Charles Mazouer in RHT 47 (1995), 182: G. Forestier publishes the 1637 version as edited by Maurice Cauchie for the S.T.F.M. in 1946 with "à la suite, avec les variantes postérieures à 1660, le texte de l'édition collective de 1660." This "heureuse initiative" gives this critical edition its "originalité" since the reader will easily be able to compare the baroque and classical versions.
FORESTIER, GEORGES. Essai de génétique théâtrale. Corneille à l'oeuvre. Paris: Klincksieck, 1996.
Review: Pierre Pasquier in IL 48.2 (1996), 46–47: P. calls F.'s study "parfaitement réussie." Quoting the author, P. describes F.'s project to "mettre au jour la démarche créatrice de Corneille, c'est-à-dire de reconstituer le processus d'élaboration de la tragédie cornélienne." Of note in P.'s review is his explanation of F.'s analysis of Corneille's "composition régressive," where the dramaturge "tire d'abord de l'histoire un élément fondamental destiné à lui servir de dénouement[,] puis édifie à rebours une intrigue cohérente en dotant ses personnages de comportements adaptés aux exigences de l'action ainsi tramée." Praising the work's "rare intelligence," P. concludes his review calling for similar studies on Racine, Boyer, and Rotrou.
FORESTIER, GEORGES, ed. Suréna, géneral de Parthes. Paris: Livre de Poche, 1993.
Review: Milorad R. Margitic in CdDS 6.1 (1992) 241–42. A "very well done" edition according to the reviwer. In a general sense, Margitic praises Forestier for producing an edition of a text rich in meaning, but overlooked by critics. Among the most useful aspects of the edition are Forestier's notes, his "Repères chronologiques," and a relatively thorough bibliography.
GEORGES, ANDRE. "L'appel de Polyeucte et de Néarque au martyre." RHL 96.2 (1996), 192–211.
G. asks the general question of whether or not one should approve of Polyeucte's zeal to reveal his Christian faith during a pagan ceremony. Answering this question, H. examines Church doctrine, which, while in some cases condemns "les excès de zèle," also "inscrivit à son martyrologe des chrétiens qui se sont volontairement offerts au persécuteur." G. applies this ambiguity to the play itself, asking why Polyeucte would want to declare his faith at a pagan temple when he has only been a Christian for two hours. For G., one line of argument is found in Polyeucte's dialogue with Néarque in scenes 5 and 6 of Act II. The dialogue in question reaches a level of "rencherisssement" where God "se sert de Néarque" to increase Polyeucte's religious fervor.
LICHTENSTEIN, JACQUELINE. "The Representation of Power and the Power of Representation." Trans.Paul Joseph Young. SubStance 25.2 (1996), 81–92.
"Corneille's theater is a political theater, or rather, it is a theater of the political." L. explains: it "is not so much in the service of politics, nor the expression of political ideas, as much as it is the staging of a thinking about the political." C., whom L. calls "no doubt the most important political thinker of the seventeenth century . . . , is constantly raising questions about the nature of power, the foundations of its legitimacy, about the relationships between ethics and politics, about the legitimacy of force, or about state interests (raison d'état), in short, taking up all of Machiavelli's writings. But what is interesting," says L., "is that this political thought, this response to M., is not enunciated in the form of a theoretical treatise, but rather in a theatrical form." L. discusses Horace, Cinna, and La Mort de Pompée. There are also references to Le Cid.
LOUVAT, BENEDICTE, ed. Corneille, Oedipe. Toulouse: Société de Littératures Classiques (Klincksieck), 1995.
Review: J. Emelina in PFSCL 23 (1996), 692–693: Reviewer calls this an excellent edition of a work that is a "borne milliaire" in the history of 17th-century tragedy and a decisive turning point in C.'s career.
NORMAN, LARRY F. "Pour une approche dynamique de la magnanimité chez Corneille." RR 87.2 (1996), 178–94:
N. begins his study of "magnanimité" in Corneille by making a paradoxical link between La Rochefoucauld's definition of "magnanimité" as "un noble effort de l'orgueil par lequel il rend l'homme maître de lui-même pour le rendre maître de toutes choses," and Auguste's pardoning of the title character in Cinna. He argues that the link between C. and La R. occurs in the "ambiguïté éthique des termes tels que 'l'ambition' et 'l'orgueil'." These terms are closely asssociated with C.'s concept of "magnanimité," and it is their inherent vagueness which leads to "une complexité dramatique" upon which much of C.'s dramaturgy is founded. The article presents an Aristotelian approach to "magnanimité," and examines this theme in plays such as Suréna and Nicomède.
POIRIER, GERMAIN. Corneille, témoin de son temps, II. Le Cid. PFSCL/Biblio 17 84 (1994).
Review: D. Clarke in MLR 90 (1995), 1001–1002: Negative review of this allegorical reading of the play "as a figurative representation of the post-Tridentine Catholic Church's difficulties in reconciling authority with empirical science and the new rationalism." Reviewer notes that "nearly a tenth of the quotations offered as evidence of a hidden relationship to events in the 1630s are alterations published in 1660, and occasionally even later. No less important than a careful regard for chronology is a full presentation of supporting references, but these too are lacking. Such disregard for the demands of careful scholarship means that this study must be dismissed as fatally flawed."
Review: Georges Forestier in RHL 96.3 (1996), 505: Unfavorable review in which F. finds untenable P.'s thesis that Le Cid stands as a Jesuit allegory in which "Rodrigue est l'incarnation du soldat du Christ, don Diègue celle de l'Institutuion catholique [et] l'arrogant comte de Gormas figure l'Humanisme gallican." In his conclusion, F. surmises "[O]n jugera cette entreprise à la fois méthodologiquement affligeante et intellectuellement dangereuse."
RATHE, ALICE. La Reine se marie. Variations sur un thème dans l'oeuvre de Corneille. Geneva: Droz, 1990.
Review: Charles Mazouer in RHT 46 (1994), 375–376: Alice Rathe's approach "s'apparente à celle des expériences scientifiques": she analyzes "les diverses combinaisons possibles d'une thématique," in this case, the marriage of the queen in ten plays. The author, in her conclusion, defines a global solution: "ou bien la reine se trouvera un partenaire égal, ou bien elle gouvernera seule." The bibliographical data is accurate but the typography is not impeccable. In short, it is a study "ni centrale ni fondamentale, mais utile et éclairante".
SWEETSER, MARIE-ODILE. "Refus de la culpabilité: Médée et Corneille." TL 8 (1995), 113–23.
Inspired development of a "refus de la culpabilité" on the part of the dramatist, corresponding to that of Médée and Cléopâtre. Building on an allegorical reading of Marc Fumaroli, S. interprets C's "refus . . . à travers les initiales du dédicataire [PTNG] . . . de l'Epître de Médée," as "Pratique d'un théâtre d'un nouveau genre." Insightful remarks on "droit positif" and "droit naturel" chez Médée.
ALCOVER, MADELEINE. "Sisyphe au parnasse: La réception des oeuvres de Cyrano aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles." OeC 20.3 (1995), 219–250.
"L'histoire de la réception de Cyrano est scandée par un évènement, celui du Romantisme, et un événement, celui de la publication des manuscrits de L'Autre Monde, du Pedant Joué, et des Lettres. Le premier apporta à Cyrano de brillants thuriféraires (Nodier, Gautier), le second relança entièrement le débat: il dure encore." Alcover n'examine que la première et plus hostile phase de la réception de son oeuvre.
BAKER, SUSAN READ. "Visions of the Baroque: Cyrano de Bergerac's 'La Mort d'Aggripine'." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 37–54.
B. states that she will "focus specifically on the role of enargeia (pictorial vividness) in Cyrano's dramaturgy, arguing that it is the vigor and frequency of this rhetorical practice that confers a recognizable baroque quality upon the tragedy." Among the themes B. highlights are those of hallucination and delirium, where she states "visual, olfactory, gustatory and auditory images merge in a kind of baroque synesthesia."
GAUTHIER, PATRICIA. "A propos de l'idee de fragmentation dans L'Autre monde de Cyrano de Bergerac." FLS 21 (1994), 45–53.
Contradiction and ludic moments signal a failure to systematize (including the utopian fiction that will preserve the complexity of life).
MAZAHERI, HOMAYOUN. "La conception matérialiste de la mort dans La Mort d'Aggripine de Cyrano de Bergerac." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 37–54.
H. argues that the character of Séjanus is Cyrano's "porte-parole" with respect to ideas of death. For H., Séjanus represents a materialistic, atheistic figure whose concept of death corresponds to Cyrano's because this idea "est précédée de considérations socio-politiques, et qu'elle est suivie de remarques sur la métaphysique." Specifically, these considerations emphasize a "démystifi[cation] de toute morale aristocratique." After analyzing key passages of Act II, scene iv, H. summarizes his argument stating that "la vision matérialiste de la mort . . . rejoint en quelque sorte la pensée bourgoise, dans sa double critique de la religion et de la noblesse."
MONCOND'HUY, DOMINIQUE, ed. La mort d'Aggripine. Paris: La Table Ronde, 1995.
Review: Jacques Prévot in IL 48.2 (1996), 45: Favorable review where P. gives special praise to the preface, which he notes is "vive et intelligente, [et qui] définit en quelques pages l'esprit de l'oeuvre: pessimisme historique et politique, peinture d'un monde de violence, de mensonge et de fausseté, rupture critique de l'illusion théâtrale." Reviewer cites some infelicities, but in general describes the edition as "très bienvenue."
MURATORE, M.J. "Narratives Unbound: Drycona's Quest for Textual Liberation in L'Autre Monde." SCFS 16 (1994), 93–103.
Examines narrative uniqueness as a plea for artistic freedom and a repudiation of convention and its implication that narrative always valorizes diegesis over mimesis. A well-informed and fresh reading that refocuses some previous claims for the text.
SANKEY, MARGARET, ed. L'Autre monde ou les Empires et Estats de la Lune. Ed. Diplomatique d'un manuscrit inedit. Paris: Lettres modernes, 1995.
DUCHENE, JACQUELINE. Henriette d'Angleterre. Paris: Fayard, 1995.
Review: P. Constant in RDM (novembre 1995), 142–46: Belle biographie d'Henriette d'Angleterre dans laquelle D. "analyse des années 'entre parenthèses' que représente le temps de l'éducation des filles, de cette princesse en particulier."
BAILBE, JACQUES, éd. Agrippa d'Aubigné. Paris: Champion, 1995.
Review: G. Banderier in BHR 58 (1996), 293–95: Recueil de dix articles qui forme "le second volet du diptyque inauguré par la thèse de J. Bailbé sur Agrippa d'Aubigné poète des 'Tragiques' (1968)."
BANDERIER, GILLES. "'Le poème de la 'Création' et le problème de son attribution à Agrippa d'Aubigné." BHR 57 (1993), 585–98.
L'auteur trouve que "la 'Création' n'est pas de d'Aubigné, ni de l'un des siens; le manuscrit unique a été inclus par hasard dans le fonds Tronchin, sa provenance est inconnue. Les toponymes relevés semblent indiquer que l'auteur est venue de l'Ouest de la France . . . . La place importante dévolue à la médecine peut accréditer l'hypothèse selon laquelle nous avons affaire à un homme de l'art. Les chants XI–XIII sont les seuls où l'auteur consente à rompre avec la monotonie elliptique qui caractérise les autres passages. Sans doute s'agissait-il d'un de ces médecins-poètes, comme notre littérature en a connu des centaines, tels l'obscur Charles Bouvart (c. 1572–24 octobre 1658), qui devait commettre des vers dignes, dans leur médiocrité, de la 'Création'."
DESCHODT, ERIC. Agrippa d'Aubigné, le guerrier inspiré. Paris: Robert Laffont éd, 1995.
Review: Nicole Casanova in QL (16–29 février 1996), 16–17: Neither simply evoking nor recounting d'A.'s life, the author of this book "monte en croupe sur le même cheval et suit. Le résultat est un torrent d'images effrayantes, sous entendues par une méditation religieuse ininterrompue et fervente, éclairées par des passions amoureuses d'une violente sincérité, tout cela étant finalement dit par un génie poétique noir et incandescent comme les bûchers de l'époque. On parvient difficilement à retrouver la suite logique des étapes. C'est qu'il n'y en avait pas. . . . Une chronologie, à la fin de l'ouvrage, permet de s'y retrouver, si l'on y tient. Le biographe a choisi la voie la plus difficile, mais la plus vivante et expressive, et donc, le héros étant ce qu'il est, la meilleure."
LESTRINGANT, FRANK, éd. Agrippa D'Aubigné. Les Tragiques. Paris: Gallimard-N.R.F., 1995.
Review: G. Banderier in BHR 57 (1995), 775: ". . . une édition maniable, commode, à jour, qui, sans se substituer à Garnier-Plattard et à la Pléïade, devrait demeurer sur nos tables de travail de nombreuses années."
LESTRINGANT, FRANK. "De l'autorité des 'Tragiques': d'Aubigné auteur, d'Aubigné commentateur." RSH 238 (1995), 13–23.
"Il se trouve qu'en s'insinuant dans l'intertexte biblique, Les Tragiques rejoignent cette strate fondatrice, ce sous sol de la pensée religieuse, et acquièrent du même coup le statut de livre sacré." "D'A. a t il jamais été l'auteur véritable des Tragiques? Il le dit et le répète tout au long de son poème, c'est une oeuvre qui s'est faite en dépit de lui, contre lui, comme venue du dehors, dictée par l'Esprit." "Comme avec la Bible, d'A. entretient avec son poème une relation ambiguë, d'intimité jalouse et de distance intimidée." "Si la proposition n'était hérétique," says L., "on pourrait dire que Les Tragiques sont un livre de plus ajouté à l'Ecriture sainte, à l'intersection de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testament, pour dire et annoncer la nouvelle Nouvelle Alliance conclue entre Dieu et les élus du dernier âge."
SCHRENCK, GILBERT. La Réception d'Agrippa d'Aubigné (XVIe–XXe siècles). Contribution à l'étude du mythe personnel. Paris: Champion, 1995.
Review: Y. Le Hir in BHR 57 (1995), 769–70: "G. S. a eu raison de rassembler diverses études, bien informés et mises à jour, sur la fortune d'A. d'A., dont la trajectoire se montre curieuse au fil des siècles." Bibliographie et Index des noms utiles.
BANDERIER, GILLES. "Un Texte inédit de Constant d'Aubigné." BHR 58 (1996), 97–104.
"Le volume no. 160 du fonds Tronchin (Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Geneve) contient, à la suite de la fameuse 'Lettre à Madame sur la douceur des afflictions,' un petit texte manuscrit de trois feuillets qui semble autographe, intitulé 'Harangue du fils aîné de Monsieur d'Aubigné à l'anterrement de Monsieur de Rohan'." Constant d'Aubigné composa sa harangue en 1599, au moment où le corps de René II de Rohan, héros du parti huguenot, fut transféré à Blain, fief des Rohan.
DEFRANCE, ANNE. "Écriture féminine et dénégation de l'autorité: les Contes de fées de Madame d'Aulnoy et leurs récits cadres." RSH 238 (1995), 111–26.
"A qui s'intéresse aux contes de fées, la question de l'auteur se pose de façon complexe." In this article D. offers "un aperçu de ce que pouvait être le rapport d'un écrivain féminin à l'autorité, dans les dernières années du XVIIe siècle. Les 25 contes de Mme d'A. représentent le tiers de la production de cette décennie," says D., "production essentiellement féminine. Certains d'entre eux sont encadrés par des nouvelles qui proposent une mise en scène des conteurs et des auteurs au milieu de leur public. . . . Ces nouvelles nous renseignent sur l'identité et le rôle de l'auteur des contes de fées, tels que pouvait les revendiquer ou les rêver à l'époque une femme écrivain. C'est à ce titre qu'on se propose ici d'explorer ces textes."
WELCH, MARCELLE MAISTRE. "La satire du rococo dans les contes de fées de Madame d'Aulnoy." RevR 28 (1993), 75–85.
". . . les vingt-quatre contes de fée que Mme d'Aulnoy a publiés en 1697, offrent à l'étude du genre l'échantillonage le plus complet de thèmes d'inspiration et de motifs ornementaux correspondant à l'émergence du style rococo." W. trouve que Mme d'Aulnoy "a démasqué les efforts de l'élite régnante qui se créait une existence en marge du réel. Pourtant, il faut remarquer qu'elle-même a limité sa critique au domaine de l'observation et de la satire des moeurs, en bonne moraliste classique, consciente des travers des hommes, mais silencieuse, ou indifférente, à la question sociale implicite. En cela, elle appartient encore au siècle de Louis XIV."
ARIEW, ROGER, and MARJORIE GRENE, eds. Descartes and His Contemporaries: Meditations, Objections, and Replies. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995.
Review: W. F. Desmond in Choice 33 (1996), 1146: "Too many people today read D.'s Meditations in isolation," says the reviewer. "The premise of this volume is that the Meditations is already a set of objections and replies to D.'s previously published Discourse on Method and that to fully understand the Meditations one must read the Objections and Replies as well. This volume takes a critical look at who the objectors are and the philosophical presuppositions that motivate their work. Given this historical and philosophical background, D.'s work is seen in its entirety, which in turn helps explain D.'s impact on his contemporaries and vice versa. This is evidenced by citations of many of the correspondences between D., his objectors, and Mersenne. This collection," says W. F. D., "constitutes an astounding piece of philosophy and philosophical history . . . . For those who are interested in furthering their understanding of D., Hobbes, Gassendi, and Arnauld, or the philosophical underpinnings of Scholasticism, occasionalism, and the geometrical method of philosophy, this book is invaluable," states the reviewer, who "[h]ighly recommend[s]" the volume "at all levels."
AUCANTE, VINCENT. "La thérapeutique de Descartes dans les Remedia et vires medicamentorum." EP 51.1–2 (1996), 71–87.
The author gives a series of excerpts from Descartes's writings on therapeutics taken from Leibniz's manuscripts. He concludes that "la thérapeutique cartésienne se révèle indissociable d'une étiologie où l'union de l'âme et du corps devient la clé ouvrant le chemin de la guérison."
BARDOUT, JEAN-CHRISTOPHE. "Descartes et la fortune." EP 51.1–2 (1996), 89–99.
Descartes uses the word "fortune" very often without ever defining its meaning. However, this term should not be interpreted as a non critical use of a term borrowed from Antiquity. The author concludes that "la fortune n'est plus tant référable à la struture métaphysique —et physique— du monde qu'à notre pouvoir de connaître. Si elle n'est plus rien dans les choses, elle naît dans notre esprit et traduit la finitude de nos facultés cognitives (...) la fortune s'avère, dès lors, une notion 'critique' en désignant ce qui s'avère inobjectivable."
BEDOUELLE, THIERRY. "L'unité de la science et son objet. Descartes et Gassendi: deux critiques de l'aristotélisme." EP 51. 1–2 (1996), 49–69.
Both Descartes and Gassendi wrote their first major work against aristetolian philosophy. Descartes distorts Aristotle's thought in a coherent manner, and elaborates a new understanding of science, whereas the latter severs all links between subject and object, and negates the very principles of Aristotelian philosophy. However, if Descartes frees himself from the Greek master, Gassendi remains dependant. In the end, the 1640 dialogue between the two French philosophers will confirm this difference in the treatment of the collapse of Aristotelian philosophy.
BOURIAU, CHRISTOPHE. "Descartes est-il un penseur 'critique'? Quelques réflexions." EP 51.1–2 (1996), 177–187.
The author tries to show a "critical" side of Descartes's philosophy. The philosopher's queries on the problems linked to the size of the world and the number of its components make him a forerunner of Kant.
CAVAILLE, J.-P. "Le Plus éloquent philosophe des derniers temps." Annales 49 (1994), 349–67.
Begins with Chapelain's 1637 praise of Descartes and seeks to define the ways in which D. destined his own contemporary readership by imposing his self-image as the creator of a new philosophy: on the one hand the learned and scholars who would certify his institutional standing; on the other the cultivated general public, readers of Balzac and admirers of Corneille, of which Chapelain is the spokesman. His intervention in 1628 into the polemics over Balzac's eloquence is a significant indicator of the latter.
COTTINGHAM, JOHN, ed. Reason, Will, and Sensation: Studies in Descartes' Metaphysics. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1994.
Review: Abraham Anderson in PhQ 46 (1996), 547–50: Reviewed with Essays on the Philosophy and Science of René Descartes, ed. Stephen Voss (Oxford UP, 1993). The Cottingham volume includes essays by Bernard Williams ("D. and the Historiography of Philosophy"), Tom Sorell ("D.'s Modernity"), Stephen Gaukroger ("The Sources of D.'s Procedure of Deductive Demonstration in Metaphysics and Natural Philosophy"), Peter Markie ("D.'s Concepts of Substance"), Carol Rovane ("God without Cause"), Howard Wickes ("D.'s Denial of the Autonomy of Reason"), Donald Cress ("Truth, Error, and the Order of Reasons: D.'s Puzzling Synopsis of the Fourth Meditation"), Peter Schouls ("Human Nature, Reason, and Will in the Argument of D.'s Meditations"), Vere Chappell ("D.'s Compatibilism"), Michelle Beyssade ("D.'s Doctrine of Freedom: Differences between the French and Latin Texts of the Fourth Meditation"), Margaret Wilson ("D. on Sense and 'Resemblance'" "a very important paper and the strongest in the volume," in A.'s opinion), Lilli Alanen ("Sensory Ideas, Objective Reality, and Material Falsity"), Ann McKenzie ("The Reconfiguration of Sensory Experience"), and Stephen Voss ("D.: [T]he End of Anthropology").
DAUVOIS, DANIEL. "Idée, peinture et substance." EP 51.1–2 (1996), 157–175.
The author attempts to follow and explain the pictorial metaphor through which the cartesian idea is sometimes defined.
DEPRE, OLIVIER. "De la liberté absolue. A propos de la théorie cartésienne de la création des vérités éternelles." RPL 94.2 (1996), 216–242.
The author comments upon the passages in Descartes's works in which the doctrine of eternal truths is expounded. He confronts Descartes's theory with earlier metaphysical systems, and to the critiques by Spinoza and Leibniz.
DE RAYMOND, JEAN-FRANÇOIS. La Reine et le philosophe: Descartes et Christine de Suède. Paris: Lettres modernes-Minard, 1993.
Review: G. Jucquois in LR 48 (1994), 381–82: Judged "suggestive," this volume with preface by Stig Stromholm, illuminates D's role as an "éveilleur" who helps Christine de Suède recognize her vocation in its religious and philosophical ramifications. Treats D. and C's meeting, the successive dialogue in the epistolary exchanges, the queen's political choices, and D.'s influence.
DUPUIS, MICHEL. "Le cogito ébloui ou la noèse sans noème. Levinas et Descartes." RPL 94.2 (1996), 294–310.
The author attempts to demonstrate that Levinas's phenomenological theory was inspired by a close reading of Descartes.
GAJANO, ALBERTO. "Enseigner et apprendre chez Descartes: la connaissance des principes dans les 'Regulae ad directionem ingenii' et la 'recherche de la vérité'." RPFE 116. 2 (1995), 165–190.
The author makes a systematic comparison between two unfinished works by Descartes: the Regulae, left incomplete after 1628, and la Recherche, also uncompleted and unfinished. Both treatises tried to establish the fundamental rules of teaching and learning, of 'doctrina' and 'disciplina'. The similarities are compelling, and both works put emphasis on the 'cogito' and the foundation of metaphysical and scientific rules expounded in the Méditations. Their conclusions on the validity of judgement and knowledge stress "la nécessité de chercher la science à l'intérieur de soi."
GAUKROGER, STEPHEN. Descartes: An Intellectual Biography. Oxford-N.Y.: OUP, 1995.
Review: William Shea in Isis 87 (1996), 544–45: Unqualified praise for this attempt to see D. "in the whole and to show the interplay between his philosophy and science." Explains his education in greater detail than is usually the case and offers insights into odd behavior toward fellow scientists. Shows repeatedly that what passes for scholarship is a "caricature of D.'s real intentions." Chronological table and appended biographical sketches are both valuable.
JAMART, GERALDINE. "Logique, mathématique et ontologie: La Ramée, précurseur de Descartes." EP 51.1–2 (1996), 17–28.
The author tries to substantiate Heidegger's view that the Regulae have an ontologial significance, and outlines the similarities between La Ramée's and Descartes's main theses on mathematics and knowledge. Both La Ramée's dialectics and Descartes's mathesis universalis have strong "ontological" bearings "close to mathematics".
KAMBOUCHNER, DENIS. L'Homme des passions: Commentaires sur Descartes. 2 vols. Paris: Albin Michel, 1995.
Review: Jean Lacoste in QL (1er 15 décembre 1995), 21–22: Reviewed with Geneviève Rodis Lewis, Descartes: Biographie (Calmann Lévy éd.). "C'est ce Traité des passions de 1649, où la thèse dogmatique du dualisme de l'âme et du corps se modifie pour étayer une morale de la générosité, 'remède général contre tous les dérèglements des passions,' que D. K. étudie article après article dans les deux volumes de L'Homme des passions . . . , un ouvrage monumental dans la lignée de Martial Guéroult . . . ." "Il ne m'appartient pas ici de choisir entre le D. historique de G. R. L., qui reste fidèle au catholicisme de son enfance et qui tempère par la 'générosité' ce que le libre arbitre a d'absolu au regard de Dieu, et le D. plus problématique, déjà spinoziste? , de D. K., qui considère que les dogmes de l'immortalité de l'âme et de la Providence ne font pas partie des principes qui fondent l'éthique."
LARRADE, PHILIPPE. "Le tournant 'discursif:' de la vérité métaphysique à la vérité dans l'ordre du discours." EP 51.1–2 (1996), 223–239.
The author examines how the "linguistic turn" is making contemporary thinkers appear as anticartesian. By studying Heidegger's radical criticism of cartesian modernity and discussing some recent commentators's reappraisal of the cartesian cogito —Marion, Apel, and Habermas—, he establishes distinctions between "cartésianisme naïf," "cartésianisme profond" and "néocartésianisme" in postmodern philosophy.
LORIES, DANIELLE. "Du bon sens le mieux partagé." RPL 94.2 (1996), 243–270.
The author contrasts cartesian generosity with the phronesis of the Nicomachean Ethics. "L'enjeu" of such a comparison is to "faire apparaître à même les textes relatifs à la générosité les raisons que l'on a de voir en Descartes un moderne champion de la liberté."
MARCOS, JEAN-PIERRE. "Gouvernement de soi et contentement." EP 51.1–2 (1996), 101–129.
Cartesian moral theory is not egocentric since it tries to make compatible a thesis on free will and a thesis on divine Providence. To undertake reasonably and accept much of what happens to us are the two keys to Descartes's formula of contentment. By being able to distinguish between what is self-dependant and what definitely exceeds its capacities, the ego will be content.
OLIVO, GILLES. "L'évidence en règle: Descartes, Husserl et la question de la mathesis universelle." EP 51.1–2 (1996), 189–221.
Basing his analysis on a review of Husserl's interpretation of Descartes, the author examines how the French philosopher, from the Discours de la méthode to the Meditations, kept asserting the constitutive primacy of method over sciences, metaphysics included, in keeping with his project of mathesis universalis.
QUILIEN, PHILIPPE-JEAN. Dictionnaire politique de Descartes. Lille: Pubs. De l'Universite de Lille, 1994.
Review: Simone Goyard-Fabre in RMM 101 (1996), 283–84: Reviewer doubts whether either the two essays prefacing the entries, or the entries themselves, are really the matter for political philosophy except in a much extended sense of "politique." What does fall under that looks very familiar.
RENAULT, LAURENCE. "La philosophie cartésienne et l'hypothèse de la pure nature." EP 51.1–2 (1996), 29–47.
The author argues that the "théorie de la pure nature," as defined in Descartes's writings, first appeared in Cajetan's and Suarez's commentaries on the Summa theologica by Thomas Aquinas, and that the French philosopher's conception of human knowledge was influenced by the ethical theory put forward by Thomas of Aquinas's commentators.
ROBINET, ANDRE. "Le référent 'dialectique' dans les Regulae." EP 51.1–2 (1996), 3–15.
Descartes's Regulae should be studied in the light of Renaissance dialectics (1520–1630) which was heavily influenced by the Dialectique of La Ramée (1555). The author shows that Descartes's conception of "dialectics," which finds its basis in the intuition of single natures, and puts forward its development in mathesis universalis, could be interpreted as a result of a century-old philosophical tradition.
RODIS LEWIS, GENEVIÈVE. Descartes: Biographie. Paris: Calmann Lévy éd, 1995.
Review: Jean Lacoste in QL (1er 15 décembre 1995), 21–22: Reviewed with Denis Kambouchner, L'Homme des passions: Commentaires sur Descartes (Albin Michel). "Cette biographie [de R. L.] vaut en particulier par l'exploitation habile qui est faite de l'ample correspondance publiée jadis par Adam et Milhaud et par l'évocation des multiples amis et correspondants de l'auteur des Principes . . . ." "En même temps, le portrait qui nous est présenté nous donne l'image d'un homme qui recherche la solitude, la retraite et la paix ce qu'on appelait au XVIIe siècle le 'désert' et qui aspire à la 'félicité d'une vie tranquille', loin des 'soins et des passions', pour mener à sa guise ses réflexions." "En même temps," says the reviewer, "G. R. L. montre fort bien, par l'analyse minutieuse des années de jeunesse, ce que ce goût du repos, qui est en fait l'expression d'une extraordinaire contention d'esprit, peut avoir de libre, d'impatient, de rebelle même."
SEPPER, DENNIS L. Descartes's Imagination: Proportion, Images, and the Activity of Thinking. Berkeley: Univ. Of California Press, 1996.
TIMMERMANS, BENOIT. "L'analyse cartésienne et la construction de l'ordre des raisons." RPL 94.2 (1996), 205–215.
According to the author, Descartes's method is related in some ways to the architectural model of analysis as developed by Galen. He rejects Vuillemin's objection based on the asymmetrical nature of cartesian order, and concludes that Descartes only uses analysis when a given order is confused and troubled and hence it is necessary to discover and construct it.
VAN WYMEERSCH, BRIGITTE. "L'esthétique musicale de Descartes et le cartésianisme." RPL 94.2 (1996), 271–293.
"La musique a (...) été le moteur de la réflexion esthétique chez Descartes." However, Cartesians, including Rameau, did not grasp the evolution of Descartes's philosophy of art. In his later works, he developed a more subjective aesthetics in which the beauty of a piece of music becomes relative to the emotion felt: "l'émotion musicale appartient au monde des passions, dont la raison ne pourra rendre compte dans sa complexité. Aussi Descartes sépare-t-il strictement beauté et perfection en musique."
VOSS, STEPHEN, ed. Essays on the Philosophy and Science of René Descartes. New York: Oxford UP, 1993.
Review: Abraham Anderson in PhQ 46 (1996), 547–50: Reviewed with Reason, Will, and Sensation: Studies in Descartes' Metaphysics (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1994). "The essays [in V.'s collection] range from the phenomenological reflections of Michel Henry on the Cartesian soul to close studies of D. on scientific method. . . . Most striking," in the reviewer's opinion, "are Dennis Sepper's careful 'Ingenium, Memory, Art, and the Unity of Imaginative Knowing in Early D.' . . . ; Margaret Wilson's paper on 'D. on the Perception of Primary Qualities' . . . ; Evert van Leeuwen's 'Method, Discourse, and the Act of Knowing' . . . ; Genevieve Rodis Lewis' learned and allusive survey, in 'From Metaphysics to Physics,' of the paradoxes involved in that transition; and Alan Gabbey's learned and lucid 'D.'s Physics and D.'s Mechanics: Chicken and Egg?' . . . ." "Marjorie Grene's 'The Heart and Blood: D., Plemp, and Harvey' is graceful and enlightening," says A. "Daniel Garber's 'D. and Experiment in the Discourse and Essays' offers useful remarks on the relation between reason and observation in the analysis of the rainbow." According to A., ". . . the most powerful and important single paper in this volume, and one of the most important contributions to D. studies known to [him], is Gary Hatfield's 'Reason, Nature, and God in D.' H. explains Cartesian doubt as motivated not, in the first instance, by the quest for certainty about God or the world of the senses but by D.'s ambition to destroy hylomorphism. . . . H. reveals the barriers presented by Aristotelian realism about essences to D.'s ambitions for a mathematical physics."
WACHBRIT, ROBERT. "Cartesian Skepticism from Bare Possibility." JHI 57 (1996), 109–129:
Argues that Descartes' "evil demon" did not represent a skeptical argument. Reevaluates the traditional view of the philosopher's skepticism.
WOLF-DEVINE,C. Descartes on Seeing: Epistemology and Visual Perception. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1993.
Review: A Mark Smith in Isis 87 (1996), 169–70: Sharply focused and precise overview of D.'s theory of perceptions and its immediate historical and philosophical grounding. Chs. 1–3 evaluate D.'s theory of light and vision in reaction to the Aristotelian paradigm and his intention to de-animate the perceptual process. Ch. 4 focuses on the diffiuculties of judgment on purely mechanist grounds, since judgment is mediate. Traces theory as it develops through the Dioptique, Les Météores, Le Monde, and Le Traité de l'homme.
ZAVRIEW, ANDRE. "Descartes au miroir." RDM (mai 1996), 134–41.
Z. souhaite "évoquer l'auteur du Discours en cette année anniversaire de sa naissance." Il propose "un retour sur les textes que deux grands écrivains [Péguy et Valéry], dont l'acuité intellectuelle est notable, ont consacré à Descartes, au début et au milieu de ce siècle. Plus que les divergences d'analyse, on le verra, les concordances sont singulières."
TOMLINSON, PHILIP, ed. Jean Desmarets (de Saint-Sorlin), Aspasie, Comédie, Texte établi et commenté. Genève: Droz, 1992.
Review: V. Mecking in ZRP 111 (1995), 450–52: Praised for its ample introduction, carefully edited text is based on the 1636 version and contains an index of affective and moral terms in the form of a concordance, and a short bibliography. Reviewer finds D.'s vocabulary of great philological interest and offers elucidations.
GOLDWYN, HENRIETTE. "Les Mémoires d'une 'affranchie': Mme du Noyer." OeC 20.3 (1995), 272–280.
Selon Goldwyn, Mme du Noyer " s'affranchit de conventions sociales non pour savourer égoïstement des plaisirs défendus mais pour assumer pleinement son rôle de protestante qui garde la foi, de mère qui protège sa progéniture féminine, de témoin de sa fin de siècle et de ses nombreux déboires. C'est moins une libertine qu'un esprit libre qui crée ses propres lois et leurs statuts."
GREGORIO, LAURENCE A. The Pastoral Masquerade: Disguise and Identity in L'Astrée. Saratoga: Anma Libri, 1992.
Review: D. Chouinard in SYM 50.1 (1996), 69–70: ". . . quelques articles brillants ont déjà soulevé la question du travestissement et des avatars de l'identité chez les personnages du roman, mais, à notre connaissance, les études d'ensemble sur le sujet n'existent guère. Or, ce livre vient combler une lacune évidente, et il le fait de manière rigoureuse et stimulante."
Review: G. Penzkofer in RF 106 (1994), 354–55: Semiotic approach to various forms of masquerade treats sexual and social identities. Reviewer takes issue with certain interpretations and what he terms "subjectivism."
RENDALL, STEVEN,trans. Astrea. Part one. Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1995.
Review: C. E. Campbell in Choice 33 (1995), 625: "Of almost more interest than the translation of part 1 of . . . L'Astrée are the introductory remarks by the translator. R. places Astrea . . . in its historical context and relates it to the development of the novel in France." "R. sees [the repeated telling and retelling of stories in the novel] as 'a general commentary on the power of narratorial authority in reported speech'."
SANCIER-CHATEAU, ANNE. Une esthétique nouvelle: Honoré d'Urfé correcteur de l'Astrée (1607–1625). Genève: Droz, 1995.
Review: E. Henein in PFSCL 23 (1996), 416–418: Despite the reviewer's reservations about S.-C.'s estimate of D'Urfé's contribution to French prose, the study is called "un ouvrage de référence qui pourrait transformer la fortune de l'Astrée."
GAINES, JAMES F. et PERRY GETHNER, eds. Pierre Du Ryer: Lucrèce. Genève: Droz, 1994.
Review: D. Clarke in MLR 91 (1996), 217–18: Welcome critical edition in which "the text is admirably presented and the editorial introduction appropriately examines the play's exceptional regularity. Less convincing is the discussion of a dramatic language that varies from lofty political argument to familiar domesticity."
CUCHE, FRANÇOIS-XAVIER. "'Felix culpa,' culpabilité et remords dans la pensée de Fénelon." TL 8 (1995), 171–81.
Remorse in Fénelon is only a step towards divine mercy. Convincing demonstration of Fénelon's optimistic Augustinism: "si la culpabilité enfante le remords, celui-ci peut, paradoxalement, conduire à la liberté et à la béatitude." So, in Télémaque, "le philosophe infatué de lui-même est ainsi châtié dans les enfers."
LE BRUN, JACQUES, ed. Les Aventures de Télémaque. Paris: Gallimard, 1995.
Review: Marc Escola in RHL 96.3 (1996), 504: E. compliments the edition in which, "J. Le Brun interroge avec finesse le traitement de la tradition dans cette fable écrite pour le petit-fils de Louis XIV par l'archévêque de Cambrai." Reviewer states that "the relation pedagogique" outlined in the work describes "non une utopie du pouvoir, mais la possibilité d'une politique de désintéressement."
GAUTHIER, PATRICIA. "Exaltation et captation de l'altérité dans La République des Philosophes ou Histoire des Ajaoiens de Fontenelle." FLS 23 (1996), 39–50.
G. approaches F.'s text as a study in ethnography. She focuses on the point of view of the narrator Van Doelvelt, whom, she argues, describes the fictional "Ajaoiens" as if he were an ethnographer. Focusing on the utopian nature of the text, G. describes how the narrator "prend fait et cause pour les Ajaoiens," while at times demonstrating a marked form of ethnocentrism. G. concludes that the overall goal of Fontenelle's essay is to "intégre[r] une vision dont le but ultime est de faire réfléchir le lecteur aux dysfonctionnements de sa propre société."
BORDES, HELENE, et JACQUES HENNEQUIN, éds. L'Univers salésien. Saint François de Sales hier et aujourd'hui. Actes du colloque international de Metz. (septembre 1992). Paris: Champion-Slatkine, 1994.
Review: Boris Donné in RHL 96.2 (1996) 320–21: D. states that the volume is useful, not only in terms of the "spiritualité," but of "la culture et la littérature du grand siècle." Summarizing the volume, D. gives the following synopsis, ". . . ce recueil [est] organisé en quatre sections. La première, 'Sources et situations,' aborde quelques questions théologiques. La deuxième section s'intéressse au détail de quelques textes peu connus . . . La troisième section, 'Les Thèmes,' se concentre sur les notions de plaisir et de bonheur, et la dernière section, 'Influence et réception,' présente François de Sales vu par le jésuite Nicolas Caussin, par Bossuet, [et] Bourdaloue." D. recommends the work for giving the "état présent" of Salesian studies, while suggesting further avenues of exploration.
DORING, ULRICH. Antoine Furetière. Rezeption und Werk. Frankfurt am Main/Berlin/Bonn/New York/Paris/Wien: Peter Lang, 1995.
Review: J. Marmier in PFSCL 23 (1996), 676–679: A study of the author's complete works. Reviewer deems the study an "acquisition capitale, [which] ne pèche que par un défaut sympathique . . . ."
OSLER, MARGARET J. Divine Will and the Mechanical Philosophy: Gassendi and Descartes on Contingency and Necessity in the Created World. Cambridge: CUP, 1994.
Review: Thomas M. Lennon in Isis 87 (1996), 168–69: Descartes's intellectualism and G.'s voluntarism are traced to the medieval positions of Acquinas and Ockham. Lennon finds a number of problems with this account, which may be reduced to the conceptual differences between what is done according to laws and what not, and suggests Malebranche as a better contrast wtih G. Exemplary clarity and fullness of description recommend this especially as a general introduction to G.
CHAPLIN, P. E., éd. L'Art de régner. Exeter: University of Exeter, 1993.
Review: D. Shaw in MLR 90 (1995), 1000–1001: Reviewer notes lack of attempt to relate the play to the motif of the "play within the play" recurrent in contemporary theater, but finds that "this is a competent and well-researched critical edition of a curious play which deserves to be better known."
BERTAUD, MADELEINE. "Pourquoi Polexandre voyage-t-il? Note sur un procédé romanesque." SFr 38.3 (1994), 491–502.
Many scholars have tried to explain why in Gomberville's novel, Polexandre, the hero travels "à l'échelle des continents". There have been many relevant thematic explanations, but an analysis of narrative technique could offer better results. For Bertaud, "Gomberville a (...) utilisé le procédé du voyage, non seulement pour tisser l'intrigue complexe (...) mais aussi pour orner ce roman de descriptions toujours renouvelées (...) véritables invitations à cet autre voyage qu'est le rêve" and also "pour donner à ses personnages favoris une dimension héroïque, et rapprocher ainsi son oeuvre de l'épopée." Thus "on ne peut concevoir accord plus complet, plus réussi, entre technique romanesque, conception du roman, et contenu thématique."
WARD, PATRICIA A. "Madame Guyon and the Democratization of Spirituality." PFSCL 23 (1996), 501–508.
In a reading of the Moyen court W. contends that the mystic was a figure within both orthodox and heterodox Catholic spirituality, a figure of her time who responded to the Counter-Reformation, and a figure for the future whose faith in experiential knowledge predated religious movements of the 18th and 19th centuries: ". . . Madame Guyon's sensitivity to language in the various structures and patterns of her discourse reveals a self-awareness, an intentionality, and a focus which indeed permit her to be called a 'free-thinker'."
HOWE, ALAIN, éd. Didon se sacrifiant. Genève: Droz, 1994.
Review: Ahman Gunny in ZFSL 106 (1996), 76–77: Impeccably edited. Variants of 1624. Complements Christian Delmas' 1992 collection of Dido plays. Replaces Stengel's faulty ed. Proposes new dating of before 1620–21. Introduction pays special attention to the promotion here of the Aeneas hero.
Review: K. Heitmann in Archiv 232 (1995), 458–60: Valuable and painstaking edition of H.'s play whose subject matter has been so prevalent. Critical apparatus includes comprehensive introduction with contributions on dating of the play, and a close analysis.
Review: J. Mallinson in BHR 58 (1996), 261–62: "Une édition de Didon se sacrifiant s'imposait, puisque la dernière en date, celle du Théâtre due aux soins de Stengel, remonte maintenant à plus de cent ans. Cette pièce mérite, à coup sur, d'être imprimée et commentée. L'ayant placée en tête du premier tome de son Théâtre (1624–1628), le dramaturge a lancé en quelque sorte un défi, invitant le lecteur à comparer son adaptation d'un thème maintes fois repris au seizième siècle avec 'celle des autres'. Hardy se veut innovateur; Howe examine la justesse de cette prétention."
HERB, KARL FRIEDRICH. "Le Fondement de la philosophie de l'Etat dans le De cive." RMM 101 (1996), 189–211.
Careful systematizing of the principal points of H.'s first articulation of contractualism and examination of its place in the overall organization of his thought at the moment of its publication.
SKINNER, QUINTIN. Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes. Cambridge: CUP, 1996.
Review: Brian Vickers in TLS 4872 (16 Aug. 1996), 27–28: 5 chapters reconstruct essentially the entire Latin rhetorical tradition consolidated by Tudor rhetoricians and is especially interesting on the figure of paradiastole; Part II examines the break with rhetoric after the 1640 self-exile and rejection of its ethos in favor of the new science of politics, then the volte-face from 1650 in Leviathan with its reflected influences by Davenant and by French debates on self-interest— "less a triumphant recovery of humanism than a programatic compromise." The account is perhaps a "little too clean-cut" but is an "important book that will introduce many readers to large and neglected issues, including the powers/danger of rhetoric in civil life.
GUELLOUZ, SUZANNE, ed. Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630–1721). Actes du colloque de Caen (12–13 novembre 1993). PFSCL/Biblio 17 83 (1994).
Review: A. McKenna in PFSCL 23 (1996), 389–391: 18 studies and a chronological bibliography of critical literature on Huet. Volume provides "le profil d'un homme pris dans toutes les querelles de son siècle, un véritable citoyen de la République des Lettres."
MALL, LAWRENCE. "Rhétorique et pouvoir dans le chapitre 'De la cour' des Caractères." RR 87.1 (1996) 35–58.
M. states his goal as follows, "On se propose ici de suivre précisément les stratégies rhétoriques par lesquelles La Bruyère renouvelle le thème rebattu de la cour, par quels traits spécifiques de composition et de style il donne un sens nouveau à cet objet découpé du réel." For M., La Bruyère's "originality" is found "dans cette tension entre excès et défaut." With respect to the textual coherence of La Bruyère's rhetoric, M. remarks, "Alors même qu'il détruit l'unité totalitaire du texte dans son usage du fragment, il démontre en ce même geste le désordre de la cour et son propre pouvoir de réconstruction." Drawing a parallel between rhetoric and and the political circumstances of the court, M. contends that "La Bruyère transpose franchement et ironiquement le pouvoir politique en pouvoir rhétorique."
MAZAHERI, HOMAYOUN. "La Bruyère et le mythe royal." RevR 29 (1994), 249–260.
Lecture détaillée du chapitre "Du Souverain ou de la République" selon un ordre chronologique: l'auteur examine les fragments des éditions I–III et traite rapidement des cinq éditions suivantes. "En conclusion, dans ses pages sur le Souverain, La Bruyère met l'accent sur un gouvernement fait pour le peuple, et par le peuple, à travers le Roi. Il condamne, à cet effet, la tyrannie, la guerre, les privilèges des grands . . . . L'ironie constitue la figure fondamentale de ce chapitre: elle seule permet de saisir la pensée politique de ce moraliste humaniste, située à mi-chemin entre un patriarcat primitif idéalisé et un socialisme utopique moderne."
MONTADON, A., éd. Du Goût, de la Conversation & des Femmes. Clermont-Ferrnad: Association des Publications de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 1991.
Review: Marc Escola in RHL 96.1 (janvier-février 1996), 141: E. summarizes the volume by saying that it "rassemble plusieurs des communications tenues à l'Université Blaise Pascal dans le cadre du programme d'étude des traités de savoir-vivre en Europe: le triple titre veut souligner le lien que les trois notions entretiennent historiquement entre elles—et (donc) rappeler les sections des Caractères. The chapter on "la Conversation" discusses La Bruyère as well as Mlle de Scudéry, while the chapter "Du Goût, analyse la naissance du concept en Espagne [et] sa promotion en France [par] Saint-Evremond." Completing the trio, the chapter "Des Femmes" deals with the courtly model, the "jeu des dames," and the ideal of the donna gentile in Italy.
BEN SALEM, MAHIDA. "Louise Labé, Marguerite de Navarre and Madame de La Fayette: Three Recaptured Feminine Voices and Feminine Spaces." (University of Tennessee 1995) DAI (May 1996, 4391).
Author states that "[t]his research addressed questions of gender and genres, silence [and] space lost and found. The three women are considered "prefeminist" because of the "textual techniques of language and subversion used to offer the reader a new way to look at and consider women." With respect to La Fayette, the author examines the heroine's "freedom of space and speech, [and] the pursuit of happiness in a countryside retreat."
GREGOIRE, VINCENT. "La Princesse de Clèves ou le roman de la méprise." PFSCL 23 (1996), 249–262.
Views the theme of misunderstanding as being at the center of the novel.
HENRY, PATRICK, ed. An Inimitable Example. The Case For The Princesse de Clèves. Washington DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1992.
Review: Eglal Henein in EMF 2 (1996), 175–81: H. outlines the various articles of this collection of essays, which include contributions from scholars such as Joan de Jean, Donna Kuizenga, Ralph Albanese and Philippe Desan. Having great appreciation for the work, H. nonetheless views the various critical perspectives as somewhat limited. The reviewer concludes " . . . cet ouvrage enrichit notablement notre connaissance de la Princesse. On regrettra seulement que tout se passe entre gens de bonne compagnie qui ne veulent pas se contredire les uns les autres explicitement. La juxtaposition de théories différentes aurait trouvé sa justification et sa meilleure raison d'être dans la controverse."
KREITER, JANINE ANSEAUME. "Fonctions dialogiques des personnages de Zaïde." RR 87.1 (1996) 21–33.
R. examines the issue of dialogue from the perspective of culture and character. From a cultural standpoint, K. explores the similarities and differences between "l'Espagne monarchique chrétienne" and the "mileux aristocratiques islamiques," and relates them to the intrigues of the French court under Louis XIII. With respect to character, K. studies the manner in which "des liens dialogiques s'établissent entre des instances de discours à travers le miroitement de la fonction d'un ou de plusieurs personnages dans un certain complexe narratif." These "fonctions" are typified by character traits such as the "courage" of Alamir and Consalve, the "caractère noble" of Belasère and Nunga Bella, as well as the "rang" of Zaïde. Focusing on the love conflicts in the work, K. draws a Pascalian conclusion arguing that the characters opt for "un pari pour le coeur" which, given cultural and personal friction, allows for some measure of "bonheur."
LEVILLIAN, HENRIETTE. La Princesse de Clèves de Madame de La Fayette. Paris: Gallimard.
Review: Bénédicte Louvat in RHL 96.1 (1996) 144–45: L. states that this "petit ouvrage" is "conçu pour un usage scolaire." Among the "problématiques" studied are those of genre, the relationship between history and fiction, and that of "l'écriture de la passion." The work contains biographical information, as well as a summary of critical works on the Princesse.
LYONS, JOHN D., ed. and THOMAS S. PERRY,trans. The Princess of Cleves. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.
Review: Donna Kuizenga in CdDS 6.1 (1992) 253–55: A quite favorable review, which opens with the comment, "The arrival of this Norton critical edition of La Princesse de Clèves, perceptively and intelligently edited by John D. Lyons, should be cause for rejoicing for all of those of us who have had occasion to teach the novel in English translation." Of special note is Lyons's essay following the text, where L. discusses the historical contextualization of the work, while emphasizing "the transition from romance to novel." Reviewer finds some "infelicities" remaining in this new edition of Perry's 1892 original, but concludes that "in the main the translation does justice to La Fayette's prose," and considers Lyons's editorial work to be exemplary.
POSFAY, EVA. "L'architecture du pouvoir féminin dans La Princesse de Clèves. PFSCL 23 (1996), 527–538.
P. contends that "si Zaïde et La Princesse de Montpensier présentent des cadres qui condamnent l'hégémonie masculine sur l'espace, La Princesse de Clèves met aussi en scène des structures architecturales qui racontent l'histoire d'un défi féminin."
RACEVSKIS, ROLAND. "Solitary Pleasures: Creative Avoidance of Court and Convent in La Princesse de Clèves." FR 70 (1996), 24–34.
Skillfully argued thematic and stylistic examination that attractively argues for a final subjective self-identification in the heroine, from the aesthetic fashioning described by the narrator's closural view of her time. Juxtapositions with earlier scenes show that eroticism continues to circulate, "between the lines," in imagination's revery, enriching and fulfillling in a subtle way the seemingly sufficient (but really co-existing) empty site of duty/obedience. An interesting new aspection of narrative (especially in the heroine's gaze).
ALLOTT, TERENCE. "John Ogilby, the British Fabulist—A Precursor of La Fontaine ... And his Model?" PFSCL 23 (1996), 105–114.
Argues that Ogilby may have cleared the way for La Fontaine: ". . . the way forward for the vernacular fable was not via the standardised brevity of the traditional prose fable or the verses of Phaedrus but rather via a more imaginative and free-wheeling reinterpretation of the Aesopic material."
BABRIOLLE, FRANÇOIS DE. "Krylov lecteur de La Fontaine." RLC 70 No. Spécial (1996), 133–146.
While K. had clearly read La Fontaine, he developped his own style, writing more than 200 fables from 1806 to 1834, 31 of which are more or less adapted from La Fontaine.
BASSY, ALAIN-MARIE and YVES LE PESTIPON, eds. Fables. Paris: Flammarion, 1995.
Review: Marie-Odile Sweetser in FR 69 (1996), 1011–12: "Refonte totale" of A. Adam's 1966 edition using as basic text the 1692 and 1693 versions (for Book XII). Bassy's introduction and chronology are praised for their esthetic situation of LF, his individual and subversive poetics, rapprochements with Dutch and Flemish painters, pact with the reader. Biblio. and copious notes by Pestipon are "tout à fait à jour."
BECHER, ANNE G. "Un de 'ces grands hommes'-Phaedrus, a Precursor of La Fontaine." PFSCL 23 (1996), 115–122.
Re-evaluates Phaedrus' influence on the fabulist: ". . . La Fontaine's response to Phaedrus' fables went beyond admiration for Phaedrus' economy and elegance of language: that La Fontaine truly understood Phaedrus' satirical strategies, his innovative use of verse form for dramatic purposes, his use of contextualisation and juxtaposition and his use of Aesop's name to conceal a subtle, potentially subversive subtext."
BEYNEL, MURIEL. "La Fontaine et les fabulistes ibériques du XVIIIe siècle: le texte et l'image." RLC 70 No. Spécial (1996), 99–118.
Comparative study of fables by La Fontaine, Samaniego and Iriarte demonstrating that Iriarte's are more original. Also studies relations between illustrations and texts.
BIRBERICK, ANNE L. "L'écriture circulaire: La Fontaine and the Sovereign Reader." PFSCL 23 (1996), 47–56.
Biberick examines the relationship between the "sovereign reader"—in a courtly milieu, readers of high social and political status—and the author-figure in three fables: La Fontaine practices "a kind of discourse that employs diverse and multiple techniques, a discourse that will allow him to divert, at times to subvert, the sovereign reader's authority."
BIRBERICK, ANNE L., ed. "From World to Text: The Figure of the Nun in La Fontaine's Contes." in Refiguring La Fontaine: Tercentenary Essays. Ed. Anne Birberick. Charlottesville: EMF Monographs, 1996, 181–201.
B. reads the six tales in which nuns figure as a "separate corpus," where La Fontaine first equates the nuns' sexuality with "social issues," then with metafictional problems." She summarizes her argument saying, "[a]ccompanying this change in emphasis is a movement away from an architectural code (the figure of "la grille"), toward a vestimentary code (the figure of "le voile)." Finally, La Fontaine's shifts in theme and metaphor open up a new representation of the nun as an image of the text." Among the tales studied are "Mazet de Lamporechio," "L'Abbesse," and "Le Psautier." B. emphasizes the movement in La Fontaine's depiction of the nun in both the Contes and the Nouveaux contes. She states that the poet "invests her [the nun] with ever-increasing metaphysical importance . . . first with the exemplum, then with the reading of licentious texts, and finally with the writing of erotic discourse itself."
BRODY, JULES. Lectures de la Fontaine. (EMF Monographs, I). Charlottesville, Virginia: Rookwood Press, 1994.
Review: T. Allott in MLR 91 (1996), 724–25: Citing Spitzer's article on La Fontaine's art of transition in the Fables, Brody "aims to go beyond a stylistic analysis of surface structures down into deep structures signalled by some incongruity or overdetermination. The central idea of a fable, in his view, is not to be found in overt argumentation or thematic development but instead in the apparently incidental occurrence of some verbal pattern."
Review: Boris Donné in RHL 96.2 (1996), 322–23: Highly appreciative review of a volume that brings together B.'s work on La Fontaine. Especially commendable are B.'s approaches to La Fontaine, described by D. as "des enquêtes subtiles, fondées sur de minitieuses analyses lexicales, stylistiques, rhétoriques, et des rapprochements intertextuels avec les Anciens." The study concentrates on five fables as well as on Adonis. D. concludes the review saying, "Ces études constituent une contribution remarquable aux publications liées au tricentenaire de la mort de La Fontaine."
Review: K. Wolfe in PFSCL 23 (1996), 670–671: Reviewer terms this study a "véritable bijou." Brody shows "comment un texte de La F. produit son sens": "La F. ne parle ni de, ni sur tel ou tel sujet; il me paraît bien plus pertinent de dire qu'il tisse sa parole autour et qu'il l'entrelace au travers des questions qu'il lui arrive de 'traiter'."
BRODY, JULES. "Lire La Fontaine: la méthode de Leo Spitzer." PFSCL 23 (1996), 15–21.
Following Spitzer, Brody studies the esthetic qualities of the fables: "La nonchalance et la naïveté" de La Fontaine, sa "méthode aisée et familière," parce qu'elle est, justement, hyperboliquement soutenue, finissent par être senties comme une marque de déviance, pour ne pas dire un défi."
BRUNEL, PIERRE. "De La Fontaine à Leonardo Sciascia: les 'Fables de la dictature'." RLC 70 No. Spécial (1996), 165–184.
The first published collection by this Sicilian (Favole della dittatura - 1950) should be read in light of the influence of Phaedrus and La Fontaine. S. denounces every form of dictatorship.
COLLINET, JEAN-PIERRE. "Un peu d'aconit sur la langue, ou La Fontaine et la tentation du suicide." PFSCL 23 (1996), 173–187.
After studying a theme that appears more often that one would expect, Collinet concludes that in La Fontaine one finds ". . .une acceptation sereine de notre condition doublée d'un consentement à ses limites . . . ."
DANDREY, PATRICK. "Le cordeau et le hasard: réflexions sur l'agencement du recueil des Fables." PFSCL 23 (1996), 73–85.
Looking at the ordering of the fables, D. proposes placing the question itself in the historical and esthetic context in which the work was written. He advocates paying attention to "des effets de plaisir, de découverte et d'intuition appropriés à son époque, au genre qu'il pratiquait en le transfigurant, et au public qu'il visait. . . .il nous faut apprendre à préférer des formes d'association plus souplement déambulatoires, relevant des modèles de la promenade, de la guirlande, de l'esthétique paysagère et du 'devis' de société oisive."
DANDREY, PATRICK. La fabrique des fables: essai sur la poétique de La Fontaine. Paris: Klincksieck, 1991.
Review: Anne L. Birberick in EMF 2 (1996). 206–10: B. welcomes this study, which proposes "to analyze the conditions underlying La Fontaine's creation of the apologue, in particular, and the fable, in general." Quoting D., B. states that the author explores "la manière du poète, la manière du fabuliste, [et] l'effet visé par les Fables." Among the issues D. raises are those of aesthetics, La Fontaine's classicism, and the scientific nature of certain fables. While B. suggests D.'s definition of French Classicism is incomplete, she remarks that "the analyses of individual fables and the exploration of La Fontaine's "fabrication" of the apologue represent a major new contribution to La Fontaine studies."
DANDREY, PATRICK et PIERRE BRUNEL, éds. "La Fontaine et la fable." RLC 70 No. Spécial (1996).
All articles entered separately by author in this volume of French 17.
DANDREY, PATRICK et ALAIN GENETIOT, éds. Actes du colloque La Fontaine, de château-Thierry à Vaux-le-Vicomte: Deuxième partie: La Fontaine et les nymphes de Vaux.(Le Fablier: Revue des Amis de Jean de La Fontaine, 6). Château-Thierry: Société des Amis de Jean de La Fontaine, 1994.
Review: A. Baccar in PFSCL 23 (1996), 374–375: Six studies: on Le Songe de Vaux, La F.'s paradoxical view of Molière's Facheux, the impact of the Fête de Vaux on the creation of Versailles, La F.'s life at the Oratoire, and the parallel between Le Songe de Vaux and Les Amours de Psychée. Reviewer calls this a "précieux instrument de travail" especially of interest to literary scholars and art historians.
Review: M. Slater in MLR 91 (1996), 723: "This is the sixth number of this handsomely-produced journal. It contains the second part of the proceedings of the Society's 1992 La Fontaine conference . . . . The present volume is an interesting exploration of aspects of La Fontaine's early life and works, and his links with some important contemporaries."
DANNER, RICHARD. "La Fontaine's Dialogic World: A Bakhtinian Approach to Two Fables." in Refiguring La Fontaine: Tercentenary Essays. Ed. Anne L. Birberick. Charlottesville: EMF Monographs, 1996, 71–100.
D. applies reader-response theory to "Les Animaux malades de la peste," and "Les Obsèques de la lionne." Emphasizing close reading, D. states that his goal is to "underscore the importance of studying their [the fables'] language as it unfolds in time—that is, as the reader discovers and assesses the words emerging in the text from line to line." D. adopts a "Bakhtinian approach" because of the latter's concept of heteroglossia, which can be defined as the plurality of voices, contexts and signs operating in any given utterance. For D., heteroglossia partially subverts notions of the fable genre, especially the fable's presumed didacticism. He concludes by saying "[t]he centripetal tug of genre, building momentum . . . always tries to draw the Fables into a compact and thematically stable sphere. But this force is constantly opposed by the centrifugal pull of dialogism, adamantly refusing to let any word, any phrase or any poem have its final say."
DEBAISIEUX, MARTINE. "Le retour des cigales: images du poète dans les premières fables de La Fontaine." in Refiguring La Fontaine: Tercentenary Essays. Ed. Anne L. Birberick. Charlottesville: EMF Monographs, 1996, 47–69.
D.'s goal is to establish "[des] rapprochements entre les textes liminaires et les trois premières fables." The "textes liminaires" refer to La Fontaine's "Préface," and his "La Vie d'Esope," while the fables in question are the first three in Book I. Examining what she terms the "confusion" between text and paratext, D. studies La Fontaine's depiction of the poet in these initial passages. Much of her analysis deals with the relationship between La Fontaine and his Classical antecedents. In her conclusion, she treats the issue of "appréciation" in terms of a "crise de la poésie" and a "dilemme de l'écrivain," which La Fontaine announces and endures at the outset of his work. What these liminal texts and first three fables accomplish is to "impliqu[er] la question de la raison d'être poète (classique) sous le déguisement des Cigale, Renard, Grenouille, Geai ou Singe."
DUBU, JEAN. "La Fontaine mélode, ou narration et prosodie d'Adonis aux Contes." PFSCL 23 (1996), 123–133.
In studying the fabulist's evolution, D. concludes that La Fontaine "est conscient des modifications de ton que le genre adopté impose à sa technique de poète."
DUCHENE, ROGER. "Un exemple de lettres galantes: la Relation d'un voyage de Paris en Limousin de La Fontaine." PFSCL 23 (1996), 57–71.
La Fontaine taps into a fashionable trend, the travel account: "L'originalité de La Fontaine n'est pas d'avoir écrit un récit de voyage, mais de lui avoir donnée la forme de lettres égrenées au fil des étapes. . . . Pour lester de réalité les histoires racontées dans La Princesse de Montpensier et bientôt dans La Princesse de Clèves, Mme de La Fayette puise largement dans les récits des historiens. La Fontaine, lui, puise dans des guides et des livres de géographie. Tous deux concourent ainsi, dans des oeuvres plus parallèles qu'on ne l'aurait cru, à fonder une nouvelle relation du lecteur (et des auteurs) avec la vérité."
GALLARDO, JEAN-LUC. "De la discorde à la discordance: La Fontaine, Fables, VI 20." Poétique 102 (1995), 215–29.
Close reading with an eye to reflexivity at every level, including "vers" as "versus," within an "esthétique de la discordance."
GANIM, RUSSELL. "Scientific Verses: Subversion of Cartesian Theory and Practice in the Discours à Madame de La Sablière." in Refiguring Lafontaine: Tercentenary Essays. Ed. Anne L. Birberick. Charlottesville: EMF Monographs, 1996. 101–25.
G. views La Fontaine's "Discours à Madame de La Sablière" as a response to Descartes's Discours de la méthode. After focusing on the meaning of the term "discours," G. discusses the role of Iris as the narratee. The oculocentrism inherent in the portrayal of Iris becomes important to the "subversion of Cartesian theory and practice" because La Fontaine "pass[es] Descartes's method through a different lens, thereby creating a new means by which to view the philosopher's theories." The "theories" in question deal with animal intelligence. Descartes's theory of machine-like, non-thinking animals is challenged by La Fontaine's observations in his "Discours." La Fontaine uses the Cartesian concepts of the "cogito," "bon sens" and experience to undermine Descartes, but partially undermines his own argument through his inability to portray animals as sentient without anthropomorphizing them.
GRIMM, JURGEN. Le "dire sans dire" et le dit. Etudes lafontainiennes II. PFSCL/Biblio 17 93 (1996).
Collected studies of the author.
GRIMM, JURGEN. "'Comment on traite les pervers:' La satire anticléricale dans les Contes." PFSCL 23 (1996), 159–172.
Studies the three anticlerical tales to dismiss the myth of La Fontaine as a "narrateur pur" whose motivation was only to "play" by writing mere "stylistic exercises." Concludes that contemporary reality was the real motivating force behind the tales. La Fontaine's purpose was the "volonté de ruiner les pervers," en l'espèce certains représentants du parti dévot qui, par une symbiose de "luxure et d'hypocrisie," abusent d'un pouvoir spirituel et entravent la liberté de l'individu et le libre épanouissement de la société."
GRIMM, JURGEN. Le pouvoir des fables. Etudes lafontainiennes I. PFSCL/ Biblio 17 85 (1994).
Review: T. Alliott in MLR 91 (1996), 724–25: "In his collection of seventeen articles focused on the Fables, Grimm sets his face against any distortion by modern critics of the formula plaire et instruire, which would highlight the first element to the exclusion of the second. . . . For him, the fabulist, perhaps more than any other of the major figures of French classicism, reflects and expresses and comments on a series of precise historical circumstances."
Review: J.-P. Collinet in RF 107 (1995), 222–24: First of a two volume set renders accessible G.'s excellent articles of which two were previously unpublished. Though C. would take issue with G.'s condemnation of the "courant esthétique" or "anhistorique", he notes the pertinence of his interpretations and awaits with great interest the second volume. Reviewer cites sensitive analysis of poetic material. Extensive bibliography and indexes.
Review: Boris Donné in RHL 96.2 (1996) 323–24: The volume brings together "l'essentiel des articles que [Grimm] a consacrés à l'oeuvre du poète." G. follows a line of inquiry that is "strictement historique et sociocritique." Among the notable aspects of the volume are G.'s discussion of La Fontaine's "stratégie de désorientation," as well as "l'image du monarque, la cour, la guerre, le commerce." While D. sees G.'s approach as somewhat reductive, he nonetheless concludes that "J. Grimm aura en tout cas le mérite de relancer le débat sur l'interprétation allégorique et biographique des Fables."
Review: M. Slater in PFSCL 23 (1996), 386–388: 17 articles on the work that steer away from textual study in favor of the political dimensions of the work. Reviewer deems these very important studies of La F. the thinker.
GRISE, CATHERINE. "The Horns of Dilemma: the World of Cuckoldry in La Fontaine's Contes." PFSCL 23 (1996), 147–157.
Studies the theme of cuckoldry as the "most fertile topos for generating dilemmas and juggling discrepant states of knowledge . . . ." "Irony and ambiguity emerge from the portrayal of the latent narcissism and the voyeuristic penchant of the cocu."
GRISE, CATHERINE. "The Optics of Relativism in the Fables of La Fontaine." in Refiguring La Fontaine: Tercenenary Essays. Ed. Anne L. Birberick. Charlottesville: EMF Monographs, 1996, 126–56.
G. sets forth a concept of "cognitive relativism" which she defines as "simply a recognition that knowledge is dependent on the conditions and instruments of knowing, some of which are more reliable than others." From this notion, G. "distinguishes four major types of relativism in the Fables: perceptual relativism, egocentric relativism, categorial relativism and proportional relativism." She then gives detailed readings of fables such as "Un Animal dans la lune," "Le Coche et la mouche," and "L'Aigle et le hibou" as illustrations of these categories. After advancing additional categories of relativism, G., quoting Thomas Nagle, concludes that the Fables are in part an expression of the effort to "transcend interspecies barriers with the aid of the imagination." By trying to capture an animal perspective, La Fontaine "penetrat[es] into the equally opaque inner world of human subjectivity."
HOULE, MARTHE M. "'L'Heure du berger sonne': La casuistique au service du plaisir dans les Contes de La Fontaine." OeC 20.3 (1995), 251–262.
"Dans cet essai, mon propos sera double: de répondre à M. Wadsworth et à ses objections déjà vieilles de plus d'un siècle à l'aide d'une analyse d'un aspect de ce genre de poésie que La Fontaine a 'inventé', tout en imitant Boccace, L'Arétin et Machiavel, c'est-à-dire son usage de l'argument casuistique et sa valorisation du plaisir féminin. 'Diversité c'est ma devise', a écrit La Fontaine ('Pâte d'anguille'), et il est évident que les séductions dedans ces contes sont multiples, même qu'on a l'impression parfois qu'il s'agit des mêmes personnages. Le plaisir, après tout, se trouve aussi dans la répétition."
LARUE, ANNE. "La tradition plastique des Fables de La Fontaine par Gustave Moreau." RLC 70 No. Spécial (1996), 147–164.
60 of M.'s watercolors refer to La Fontaine's works, although M. may have drawn his inspiration from Eliphas Levi's version (Fables et Symboles), a copy of which M. owned. Interesting insights on how La Fontaine's works may have been read.
LEPLATRE, OLIVIER. "Le Pouvoir Absolu de la haine, la passion du politique dans les Fables de La Fontaine." RR 87.2 (1996) 195–208.
L. describes La F.'s concept of nature as quasi-Sadean, where violent, malicious forces seek to destroy and mutilate the weak. For L., the discourse of absolute power is one of hate, where language assumes the role of primary aggressor. Speaking of the fable "Le Loup et l'Agneau," L. states, "Le loup n'emporte pas sans délai sa victime: il prend le temps de parler, et, dans cette parole, laisse courir sa haine . . . la force accroît sa puissance aux signes du langage." Hate becomes linked to the exercise of royal power in which inflicting death renders the killer/monarch evermore absolute. In discussing "Les Obsèques de la lionne," L. remarks, "le lion construit sur la mort de l'autre l'éloge de sa valeur et se satisfait au miroir de l'expression de sa force passée dans la sphère symbolique du langage." Concluding his article, O. speaks of an "animalité dans la parole," in which "l'animal achève la représentation de l'homme."
LOSADA-GOYA, JOSE-MANUEL. "La réception de La Fontaine en Espagne. La poétique d'Iriarte." RLC 70 No. Spécial (1996), 85–98.
Examines fables written in Spain and shows how Samaniego's (1781) follow in the tradition of La Fontaine whereas those written by Iriarte (1782) are more formal and show greater attention to the literary tradition.
MEDING, TWYLA A. "La nuit vient sur un char conduit par le silence: Ellipse and Ellipsis in 'L'Amour de Psyché et de Cupidon'." in Refiguring La Fontaine: Tercentenary Essays. Ed. Anne L. Biberick. Charlottesville: EMF Monographs, 1996, 157–180.
M. summarizes her aim as follows, "I will show how commonplaces of the pastoral novel—delineated succinctly in the episode of Psyché's successful penetration of the barriers of the fountain of youth—are exploited and undermined." Among the subjects discussed in the essay are narrative structure, the motif of the locus amoenus and the myth of the Golden Age. Much of the article, however, rests on the idea that within the text's narrative structure are "preteritive gaps" that "take the form of narrative ellipsis or lack of which the reader must fill." Blending form and theme, M. concludes that "[I]n this blank space, ellipsis be comes the phantom of ellipse, a ubiquitous reminder of lovers' paradise lost."
RUBIN, DAVID LEE. "[Dis]solving Double Irony: La Fontaine, Marianne Moore, and Ulysses's Companions." PFSCL 23 (1996), 87–94.
Studies the way double irony ("immediately unresolved juxtaposition of viewpoints")has been handled in English translations, especially of fable XII 1. R. claims that "Moore's version dissolves La Fontaine's double irony, deproblematizes the text, and converts it into a long and elaborate fable of assertion."
RUBIN, DAVID LEE. "Refabulations." in Refiguring La Fontaine: Tercentenary Essays. Ed. Anne L. Birberick. Charlottesville: EMF Monographs, 1996, 202–222.
R. examines the translations of La Fontaine's Fables by Marianne Moore, Norman Shapiro and John Cairncross. Building upon a formalistic line of inquiry developed in his previous research, as well as the translation theory of André Lefevere, R. focuses on "poetics and ideology" in interpreting the "renderings" of La Fontaine's "Les Deux mulets" by the three translators. Beginning with a general discussion of the fables' "limited irony, formal incompleteness and post-reconstructive closure," R. then analyzes the three translations. Of Moore's poem, R. states that "Moore's gauche and eccentric translation casts "Les Deux mulets" as a failed modern poem and La Fontaine as . . . odd, elusive, and even a little dull." He describes Shapiro's version as "an unruly text, bring[ing] it [the fable] into line with the hallowed Greco-Roman standard." Cairncross's translation turns out to be the most impressive. R. suggests that "Cairncross's La Fontaine is a playful and ironic, if episodically heavy-handed narrator-philosophe who usually, but not always, follows through on his best shots." It is thus Cairncross's translation that best illustrates La Fontaine's "classicism."
SCHOETTKE, STEFAN. "De la 'source' à 'l'envol'. Esope, Socrate et La Fontaine dans le dispositif liminaire des Fables." RLC 70 No. Spécial (1996), 45–68.
"This article tries to assess the manner in which La Fontaine reconstructs elements of fable tradition and gives 'original' meanings to the legendary figures of Aesop and Socrates. Through this reconstruction, the poet invents the 'source' of his poetical speech."
SLATER, MAYA. "Reading La Fontaine's Titles." PFSCL 23 (1996), 23–33.
Views the titles as reinforcing the duality—an outcome that favors one character at the expense of the other—of the fable form. Suggests that study of both the characters mentioned and those not mentioned in titles should bear fruitful results.
SOARE, ANTOINE. "Lasse! cigale hélas! Fourmi: chant et cri dans la première fable de La Fontaine." PFSCL 23 (1996), 135–146.
A phonetic study of the fable in order to reveal La Fontaine's "clavier du désespoir à huit touches."
SWEETSER, MARIE-ODILE. "Conseils d'un vieux chat à une jeune souris: les leçons du livre XII." PFSCL 23 (1996), 95–103.
Views the didactic purpose of the last chapter, that of the education of the future king, the duc de Bourgogne, as the principal one: ". . . les rencontres significatives entre les conseils implicites du fabuliste et ceux, explicites, du précepteur: tous deux, par des voies différentes, avaient un but commun: la formation d'un futur monarque, le fabuliste désirant présenter ses leçons de façon agréable, suggérer, faire réfléchir."
SWEETSER, MARIE-ODILE. "La modernité de La Fontaine." in Refiguring La Fontaine: Tercentenary Essays. Ed. Anne L. Birberick. Charlottesville: EMF Monographs, 1996, 1–21.
S. looks at the issue of "modernity" in several of La Fontaine's texts such as the "Epître à Huet," the "Poème du Quinquana," the Contes and the Fables. Arguing that in some cases La Fontaine is as much a "Moderne" as he is an "Ancien," S. looks at La Fontaine's use of multiple genres, multiple voices and subversive themes. Bringing in much of the contemporary criticism on La Fontaine, S. concludes that the "modernity" of La Fontaine translates into a "pluralité," or a "liberté [qui] s'épanche dans le foisonnement des cent actes divers sur une scène qui embrasse l'univers, en une polyphone qui a recours à tous les genres, tous les tons, tous les styles, mais dont la fusion reflète le don de la mesure, de la discrétion, et de l'élégance."
SWEETSER, MARIE ODILE. "Pleasures and Pains, Lessons and Revelations of Travel in La Fontaine." Dalhousie French Studies, 36 (1996), 23–37.
VINCENT, MICHAEL. "Myth/Tragedy/Fable: Curing 'Les Animaux malades de la peste'." PFSCL 23 (1996), 35–46.
Studies the fable's refusal to address the lifting of the plague, "to come to a closure consistent with the expectations raised in the opening movements." Argues that the work, "as the foundational text for a new poetics of the fable, is La Fontaine's meditation on the foundations of civilization, . . . ." Vincent uses René Girard's theories on violence and sacrifice.
VINCENT, MICHAEL. Figures of the Text: Reading and Writing (in) La Fontaine. Purdue University Monographs. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1992.
Review: Anne L. Birberick in EMF 2 (1996), 206–10. B. states that V.'s "critical perspective owes much to post-structuralism . . . [especially] Barthes, Derrida and Foucault," but that V. avoids adhering to "a particular critical doctrine." After defining the term "figure," V. focuses on other things such as "the hieroglyphic, the Cartesian opposition between madness and common sense," and "the relation of the body to writing." V. also explores the "layering of two texts (one oral, one written) in La Fontaine's Psyché. B. concludes that V.'s work "offers a fresh approach to its subject matter, [and] will certainly have a strong influence on La Fontaine scholarship." Though questioning why V. examines only one of the Contes, B. warmly "welcomes the book for its exciting possibilities."
VINCENT, MICHAEL. "La Fontaine's Frame(d)works." in Refiguring La Fontaine: Tercentenary Essays. Ed. Anne L. Birberick. Charlottesville: EMF Monographs, 1996, 22–46.
V. looks at the problem of order and arrangement in the "books" of La Fontaine's Fables and Psyché. Arguing for "a textual, intertextual, [and] metatextual logic—for which the logic of imitatio and dispositio or early structuralist découpage and agencement cannot entirely account," V. presents his notions of "framing, deframing and reframing" that derive from "making books out of fragments." In advancing his idea of frames, V. concerns himself with questions of narrative, paratext, and "hierarchical order." Among V.'s conclusions is the idea that "Psyché, the Contes and the Fables are the results of similar intertextual movements. Psyché can be seen as La Fontaine's effort to resolve a set of aesthetic problems implied in the Fables. By constituting the author's story as a frame, Psyché attempts to resolve the conflict between authorial and narrative modes of legitimation . . . in the framing of the Fables."
MC BRIDE, ROBERT, ed. Lettre sur la comédie de l'Imposteur. Durham, UK: University of Durham Press, 1994.
Review: Harriet R. Allentuch in FR 69 (1996), 808–9: Considers attribution not decided or perhaps undecidable on the stylistic bases that lead the editor to certainty of attribution. Availability, notes, table of differences in versions of Le Tartuffe, however, constitute this edition as a useful research tool.
WOODBURY, JEFFREY ALLEN. "Bernard Lamy's Rhetoric and Perspective: Towards an Interdisciplinary Theory of Interpretation." (University of California, Los Angeles, 1995). DAI (March 1996), 3604.
W. gives the following summary, "Bernard Lamy's treatises on rhetoric (L'Art de parler, 1675) and on perpsective (Traité de perspective, 1701), demonstrate the fundamental role which the art of painting plays in discursive and interpretive practices at the time of French classicism. The particularity of Lamy's oeuvre lies in its combination of Cartesian rationalism and Augustinian religious thought."
BELLENGER, YVONNE, ed. Pierre de Larivey, Champenois, chanoine, traducteur, auteur de comédies et astrologue (1541–1619). Paris: Klincksieck, 1993.
Review: K. Schoell in RF 106 (1994), 356–57. B. believes this volume will stimulate interest in L. and his time. Contributions treat not only the comedies for which L. is famous, but also the dramatist's other activities such as translation.
BAKER, SUSAN READ. "Maxims, Moralists, and the Problematic of Discontinuity in Seventheenth-Century France." FLS 21 (1994), 35–43.
Beginning with Starobinski's reading of the nature of formal discontinuity, readers' responses are charted to the signification—of an anti-systematic stance. Important considerations of various resistances to the discontinuity.
BROOKS, THEO. La Rochefoucauld: 17th Century Wisdom for 21st Century Problems. Clifton, NJ: Akkad Press, 1995.
CLARK, HENRY C. La Rochefoucauld and the Language of Unmasking in Seventeenth-Century France. Genève: Droz, 1994.
Review: C. Daniélou in PFSCL 23 (1996), 365–366: Demonstrates that La R.'s "unmasking" "s'inscrit dans une lignée qui transcende les limites de la tradition moraliste." Traces the propensity back to Renaissance political motives and views La R.'s completely secular enterprise as that of redefining a nobility consumed by the Fronde. Reviewer deems this "une contribution intéressante et importante à l'histoire des idées en France."
Review: Marc Escola in RHL 96.3 (1996), 503: According to E., "L'ouvrage propose de lire les Maximes sous l'angle de la 'question herméneutique' qu'elles mettent en oeuvre." One goal of C.'s "psychologie démasquante" is to "démasquer la raison, la volonté et les conduites sociales." C.'s critical perspectives range from Machiavelianism to Jansenism, while "l'originalité de l'ouvrage tient ainsi dans une relecture du recueil sous l'angle d'une morale positive." E. praises C.'s treatment of La Rochefoucauld's reception in the eighteenth century, as well as the work's bibliography.
DANIELOU, CATHERINE F. "La Rochefoucauld ou l'impossible connaissance de soi." PFSCL 23 (1996), 635–649.
"Nous démontrerons que l'auteur des Maximes tend à soutenir l'impossibilité qu'a l'être humain à arriver à la connaissance de soi dans une société où l'être humain n'est qu'en fonction des autres et de leur regard."
HODGSON, RICHARD G. Falsehood Disguised: Unmasking the Truth in La Rochefoucauld. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue UP, 1995.
Review: D. A. Collins in Choice 33 (1995), 624: In this book (Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures, 7) the critic "does not completely 'unmask the truth' in LR.'s Maximes and Réflexions," says C., "but he makes a penetrating foray through the ambiguities and countervailing moral traits for which that author's contemporaries and subsequent readers both reproached and admired him." "More single mindedly than Louis van Delft, H. insists convincingly, albeit redundantly, on the paradoxical marriage of vice and virtue, sincerity and hypocrisy, appearance and reality that define LR.'s vision of morality. The author concludes by analyzing LR.'s influence on 19th and 20th century admirers: Lautréamont, Nietzsche, Lacan, and Barthes." The book is described as a "perceptive contribution to the understanding of LR."
HOLMAN, ROBYN and JACQUES BARCHILON, eds. Concordance to the Maximes of La Rochefoucauld. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press, 1996.
Based on the 5th 1678 edition, this thorough and carefully done work will facilitate more careful study of LR's use of language.
WATTS, DEREK. La Rochefoucauld: Maximes. Glasgow: U of Glasgow French and German Publications, 1993.
Review: Anon. in FMLS 31 (1995), 191–92: Judged "a good introduction" for the undergraduate, W.'s study examines La R.'s reflections in the light of the "pessimistic current" of late 17th c. and in relation to Christianity. Includes analysis of the maxim as a genre and a substantial bibliography.
WATTS, DEREK. "La Rochefoucauld Between Baroque and Classicism." SCFS 16 (1994), 65–81.
Systematic examination of theme and form, theme alone, rhetoric for the entire oeuvre with the "essential classicism" of the Maximes ("the author's patient search for the exactly appropriate word") fixed in revisions for the 1666 edition. Important synthesis with especially good treatment of the Réflexions diverses. Readers are sent for further elaboration of points to the author's recent study of La Rochefoucauld (Glasgow, 1993).
LAZARD, MADELEINE and GILBERT SCHRENCH, eds. Registre-Journal du règne de Henri III (1574–1575). Tome I. Geneva: Droz, 1992.
Review: Bernard Roussel in BSHPF 140 (1994), 471–73: High praise for introduction, editorial principles, and annotation. Reviewer lists the uses to which this unique work can serve, including use of the "ramas." First fully critical edition.
BOUQUIAUX, LAURENCE. L'harmonie et le chaos: le rationalisme leibnizien et la 'nouvelle science'. Louvain: Peeters, 1994.
Review: Roger Ariew in Isis 87 (1996), 359–60: Provocative analysis of mutually enlightening relationship of L.'s problematizing and contemporary discussions of 20th-century "new science." Part I outlines the main physical and mathematical concepts of the new science and its differences from the "classical;" II studies L.'s approaches to the natural world, including his reform of Cartesian mechanistic philosophy and indebtedness to Renaissance philosophy; III examines the principle of sufficient reason and its various forms; IV, finite/infinite. Discovers a rationalist philosopher conscious of reason's insufficiency; a mathematical one who knows mathematics not to be everything.
JOLLEY, NICHOLAS, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz. Cambridge/N.Y.: CUP, 1995.
Review: George Gale in Isis 86 (1995), 650–51: The best single compendium to recent developments in L. studies, with a rich up-to-date biblio. No better example of the genre than Roger Ariew's life and works overview. The essential essays, because of interdisciplinary connections are Christina Mercier and R.C. Sleigh Jr.'s on the later, Daniel Garder on physics and philosophy. Valuable also are the overviews of intellectual background (Stuart Brown) and 18th-century reception (Catherine Wilson). High-quality specialized articles also on language, ethics, theology. Cross-references and multiple viewpoints enrich the collection.
REVUE DE METAPHYSIQUE ET DE MORALE 100.1 (Janvier-Mars 1995). "La Metaphysique de Leibniz."
Articles by Louis Couturat, J.-B. Rauzy, Michel Fichant, Yves-Charles Zarka, Frederic de Buzon, François Duchesnau, André Robinet.
RUTHERFORD, DONALD. Leibniz and the Rational Order of Nature. Cambridge: CUP, 1995.
Review: Roger Ariew in Isis 87 (1996), 359–60: Carefully thought out systematic reconstruction of all parts of L.'s philosophy, in particular how theodicity, metaphysics, and metaphysical physics (each given one section) inform one another. Genuinely interesting and far from simplistic.
WIDMAIER, RITA, ed. Leibniz Korrespondiert mit China: Der Briefwechsel mit den Jesuitenmissionen (1689–1714). Frankfort am Main: Klostermann, 1990.
Review: Alberto Ranea in Isis 87 (1996), 172: Seventy-one letters and documents that constitute a sociological goldmine. L. shows himself the champion of rationality in science, philosophy, and theology; defender of external factors like institutionalization, official patronage, networks of power. Main arguments for western supremacy are presented here.
WOOLHOUSE, ROGER. G.W. Leibniz: Critical Assessments. 4 vols. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Review: Daniel Garber in Isis 86 (1995), 351–52: 94 reprinted articles (84 appearing since 1960) "skewed very heavily to what recent analytic philosophers find interesting," and short on comparative studies (13, of which 6 on Cartesians). Many seem only "workmanlike" and scarcely deserving of republication. Very brief general introduction and only slightly more for individual volumes that group metaphysics and its foundations (I); metaphysics (2); philosophy of science, logic, language (3); philosophy of mind, freewill, political philosophy, influences (4).
MC CLURE, KIRSTIE M. Judging Rights: Lockean Politics and the Limits of Consent. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1996.
PETITFILS, JEAN-CHRISTIAN. Louis XIV. Paris: Perrin, 1995.
Review: BCLF 565 (1995), 177: "L'auteur a consacré de nombreuses pages de son Louis XIV à la vie économique et sociale du royaume, tout en centrant son livre sur l'histoire politique du règne." Ouvrage solide et bien documenté.
SUPPLE, JAMES J., éd. René de Lucinge. Lettres de 1587. L'année des reîtres. Genève: Droz, 1994.
Review: J.-L. Bourgeon in BHR 58 (1996), 291–93: "Ce volume est le troisième d'une série, les deux précédents (édités par A. Dufour en 1964 et 1966) étant consacrés aux Lettres de Lucinge en 1585 et 1586." Lucinge (1553–1615) était "ambassadeur savoyard à la cour de France, fervent catholique, ami de la Ligue, mais trop lucide pour ne pas souligner les arrière-pensées des uns et des autres." Les Lettres de 1587 "constituent donc une source de première main sur la politique française sous la Ligue."
COUVREUR, MANUEL. Jean-Baptiste Lully. Musique et dramaturgie au service du Prince. Bruxelles: Marc Vokaer, 1992.
Review: François Moureau in RHT 45 (1993), 92–93: This "livre extrêmement original et fort" is different from recent studies on Lully, since it puts emphasis on "la perspective de la politique théâtrale du Roi-Soleil pour qui danse, musique, costumes et décoration étaient indissociables du jeu scénique ... et des enjeux du pouvoir". Versailles is seen as "un fascinant laboratoire où se fondent et s'harmonisent les règles de la nouvelle dramaturgie royale". The author sheds new light on the conflict between Lully and Molière by explaining how the latter's "sombre réalisme" is "contraire à l'esprit qui règne désormais à Versailles".
PENNAROLA, LEA CAMINITI, ed. Gilles Ménage, Lettres inédites à Pierre-Daniel Huet (1659–1692). Napoli: Liguori, 1993.
Review: B. Bray in PFSCL 23 (1996), 362–364: 233 letters: "Le contenu prédominant des lettres se rapporte au commentaire critique que chacun fait des vers que l'autre lui soumet, aux hypothèses d'interprétation des Anciens, aux réflexions sur la citation et le plagiat, aux suggestions étymologiques, aux observations relevant de la prononciation, de la grammaire ou de la métrique." Introduction, notes, bibliography, index of names. Reviewer calls this "un grand progrès à la connaissance de l'épistolier Gilles Ménage."
DEL PRETE, ANTONELLA. "L'univers infini: les interventions de Marin Mersenne et de Charles Sorel". RPFE 116.2 (1995), 145–164.
It appears that Giordano Bruno's vision of an infinite universe had a greater impact on French authors and philosophers than previously thought. If Gassendi felt sympathy for the Italian martyr, Mersenne tried to discredit his views in his 1624 treatise, L'Impiété des déistes: he condemned Copernic and Bruno mainly because the Catholic Church had done so, and his argumentation was not freed "du finalisme et de l'anthropocentrisme qui envahissent la majeure partie des traités d'astronomiques de vulgarisation de l'époque". As for Sorel, in his De la perfection de l'homme and his Science universelle, he developed a more complex attitude: "partisan de la pluralité des monde (...)" Sorel "propose une conception théologique du rapport entre Dieu et le monde proche de celle de Mersenne, mais critique âprement ce dernier en raison de son modèle cosmologique, et arrive jusqu'à défendre la réputation de Bruno."
ALBANESE, RALPH, JR. Molière à l'école républicaine. De la critique universitaire aux manuels scolaires (1870–1914). Saratoga, CA: Anma Libri, 1992.
Review: Marie-Madeleine Compère in Annales 51 (1996), 440–41: A successful combination of the methodologies of literary and educational history, well defined and covered; "riche d'analyses fines et précieuses, l'ouvrage approfondit bien les thèmes qu'il aborde: Part I, a long introduction on eduational reforms in which literature was to play a key role; II, literary critical judgements according a key place to Nisard that integrate M. into official culture; III, manuels with their particular censorships in the service of the "ideal bourgeois."
Review: J. Grimm in Archiv 232 (1995), 460–62. A. 's praiseworthy examination is valuable both as a history of M.'s reception and as a contribution to the socio-intellectual history of France after the Revolution. Part I treats the "critique universitaire" and part II the "manuels scolaires." G. lauds A.'s analyses of primary materials and rich bibliographies. Although A. makes a strong case for M.'s theatre as representative of an "idéal du progrès, de l'harmonie sociale . . . ," G. makes the case for similar investigations focusing on Corneille or La Fontaine.
ALBERT-GALTIER, ALEXANDRE. "L'itinéraire de Dom Juan: six décors pour une pièce à machines." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 1–22.
A-G. discusses the mise en scène of Molière's play as depicted in a notarized "devis" agreed upon by Molière, his troupe, and various set designers and painters. The author examines the six "décors" in the "devis" as they relate to the actual sets in the original play. The article then speculates on the original, physical portrayal of the grave and the statue of the Commander, and concludes with the argument that Dom Juan's various decors act as a metaphor for the four elements of water, air, earth, and fire.
BAMFORTH, STEPHEN, ed. Molière: Proceedings of the Nottingham Molière Conference (17–18 December 1993). Nottingham: University of Nottingham, 1994.
Review: M. Hawcroft in MLR 90 (1995), 999–1000: "This excellent collection of essays helpfully illustrates the current diversity of critical approaches to Moliére, all, here, characterized by sound scholarship and clear expression." Among the contributions, "three thematically based textual analyses break new ground. Jean Emelina examines animal imagery, Richard Maber sketches out a promising line of inquiry into Molière's bawdy, and David Shaw convincingly opposes the view that Molière expressed his opinions about medical practices and doctors in his plays."
BOSSIER, ULRICH. "Zur Aktualisierung von Dichtungsmoden. Hans Magnus Enzensbergers 'skrupulöse' Umgestaltung des Literaturstreits in Molières Misanthrope." Archiv 232 (1995), 335–49.
Detailed and well documented treatment focuses on Oronte's sonnet chez M. and in Enzensberger's translation. B. questions the latter's version from various angles, philological, aesthetic and dramatic.
CALDER, JOHN. Moliere. The Theory and Practice of Comedy. London: Athlone, 1993.
Review: Jean Emelina in SCFS 16 (1994), 155–60: A study of Molière's philosophy rather than of dramaturgy/theatricality. Chs. 1–3 trace the unique place of the comedy in the history of the genre; chs. 4–8, the centrality of the ridiculous; chs. 9–13, the subjects of satire of "real evil." Reviewer cautions on the tone of the "serious," as examined, and the necessity of according success to elements of spectacles.
CHARTIER, ROGER. "Georges Dandin, ou la leçon de civilité." RHL 96.3 (1996) 475–82.
Article is meant as a counter-response to Nicholas Paige's piece in RHL 95.5, which in turn was a response to an article Chartier wrote about Georges Dandin in Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales (94.2). C. contends that P.'s article is based on "une série de malentendus, de contresens et d'erreurs." His principal argument is that P. has not understood this assertion that "Georges Dandin n'est en rien une duplication de la société telle qu'elle est. La comédie, enchâssée dans la pastorale, et la fête de la cour, est une fiction qui désigne et met à nu les mécanismes par lesquels les identités sont affirmées et exhibés, acceptés ou récusées."
CHARTIER, ROGER. "Georges Dandin, ou le social en représentation." Annales- HSS 49 (1994), 277–309.
Examines exhaustively the paratexts of the Versailles production with the goal of identifying the production with the goal of identifying the double ("la cour et la ville") reception of the first spectators in terms of social relations. Contextualizes the royal commission of 1668 on the nobility of Champagne. Important article likely to be the site of much debate (cf. Nicholas Paige, RHLF 95 (1995), 690–708).
CORBELLARI, ALAIN. "Le séducteur par nature: le personnage d'Horace dans L'Ecole des femmes." PFSCL 23 (1996), 229–247.
Near the beginning of M's work the character Horace brings to light issues that were to be explored in the later plays: ". . . la recherche du moi ne serait-elle pas fatalement génératrice de désordres "chimériques" et totalitaires, tandis que l'abandon à l'instinct mènerait à la perte de toute assise personnelle?"
DOCK, STEPHEN VARICK. Costume and Fashion in the Plays of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière: A Seventeenth-Century Perspective. Geneva: Slatkine, 1992.
Review: Anon. in FMLS 31 (1995), 181: Recommended, with reservations to theater historians. Strength of this volume derives from "assembling of diverse archival detail." Extensive glossary and over one hundred reproductions of engravings and drawings.
FLECK, STEPHEN H. Music, Dance, and Laughter. Comic Creation in Molière's Comedy-Ballets. PFSCL/Biblio 17 88 (1995).
Review: Bénédicte Louvat in RHL 96.1 (1996), 143: L. states that "[L]e propos de S.H. Fleck est d'étudier les comédies-ballets sous l'angle du comique, et de montrer comment la collaboration avec Lully et Beauchamp, comment l'accueil de la musique et de la danse permettent à Molière de renouveler et d'approfondir sa vision comique." To accomplish this goal, F. bases his theory of the "comique" on the concepts of "paradoxe" and "jeu," then applies this approach to the Bourgeois gentilhomme and Le Malade imaginaire. L. concludes the review saying that "l'originalité de son travail provient alors de la manière dont il confronte des perspectives multiples, celles notamment de l'anthropologie et de la musicologie."
Review: B. Norman in PFSCL 23 (1996), 376–378: According to reviewer, "Fleck makes it even harder for readers, audiences, and critics to remain unaware—or unconvinced—that to strip Molière's comedy-ballets of their music and dance is not only to falsify them radically but also to miss out on the "finest comic musical theater before that of Mozart and Da Ponte." It is the only work I know that brings a serious treatment of comic theory and of music to bear on the crucial question of the pleasure we find in watching reality consistently called into question . . . ."
FORCE, PIERRE. Molière ou le prix des choses. Morale, économie et comédie. Paris: Nathan, 1994.
Review: L. Riggs in PFSCL 23 (1996), 379–381: Studies themes of involvement and exchange in the plays and, according to reviewer, "one of the book's most interesting and fertile aspects is its suggestion of an important relationship between the French moralists and theorists of liberal capitalism, most notably Adam Smith."
KYLANDER, BRITT-MARIE. Le vocabulaire de Molière dans les comédies en alexandrins. Goteborg: Acts Universitatis Gotoburgensis, 1995.
LALANDE, ROXANNE DECKER. Intruders in the Play World: The Dynamics of Gender in Molière's Comedies. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1996.
Review: E. R. Koch in Choice 34 (1996), 286: "In this seminal study, L. . . . promises to address a pressing need: an interpretation of M. from a feminist perspective. Inspired by the work of Johan Huizinga, the author frames gender issues within a theory of comedy as ludic activity. Here comedy becomes the site of a 'play world,' a retreat from social and ethical reality." According to K., "L. argues convincingly that this play world, like its empirical correlate, is patriarchal and based on the marginalization of threatening feminine Otherness. These observations ground the most impressive insights of the study. L.'s discussion of the stakes and dynamics of gender persuasively establish models of feminine exclusion/empowerment and a typology of feminine Otherness in M.'s comedy. She draws from currents in contemporary feminist thought that have resulted from an interrogation and displacement of major concepts of psychoanalytic theory. Regrettably," says K., "many of these are not explicitly presented, contextualized, and problematized: for example, some discussion of the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real concepts central to most of L.'s work would have helped situate and elucidate her argument. (Surprisingly, there is no bibliographic entry for Lacan.) But this is one minor flaw in a remarkable performance," according to the reviewer, who predicts that "L.'s study will undoubtedly find its place among the most important works on feminine alterity in M. and in the comic sphere."
MAZOUER, CHARLES. Molière et ses comédies-ballets. Paris: Klincksieck, 1993.
Review: François Moureau in RHT 47 (1995), 183–184: This book is "une défense et une illustration du génie multiforme de Molière." Divided in three parts and eleven chapters, it studies the aesthetics of "divertissement royal:" "tout l'art de la comédie-ballet est analysé dans ses formes diverses." Mazouer challenges our assumptions on Molière's "intermèdes" which have been ignored by 'metteurs en scène' and critics for three centuries, thus rehabilitating the importance of "jeu," one of the "composantes essentielles du génie de Molière." The "divertissement" enabled Molière to combine "diverses poétiques du spectacle" in a "langage polyphonique et unificateur." In the end, this work "pose quelques vraies questions sur l'esthétique totalisante de Molière.
MC BRIDE, ROBERT and NOEL PEACOCK, eds. Le Nouveau Moliériste. Vol. 1. Glasgow: Universities of Glasgow and Ulster, 1994.
Review: Bénédicte Louvat in RHL 96.1 (1996) 142–43: Favorable review of the successor to Georges Monval's nineteenth-century publication, Le Moliériste. This volume distinguishes itself from its predecessor in that its direction is "fondamentalement interprétive." In addition, the scope of the journal is "d'une envergure internationale et à tendance catholique." The volume deals with changes in Molière criticism from the first to the second Moliériste, as well as analyses of specific plaus. In addition to articles, Le Nouveau Moliériste also includes book reviews.
Review: Pierre Malandain in RSH 242 (1996), 164–66: P. M. refers to the original Moliériste (founded by G. Monval in 1879). ". . . [D]eux universitaires britanniques ont eu l'idée de lancer . . . sous le titre 'le Nouveau Moliériste' mais sur des bases scientifiques et critiques plus solides [than those of the earlier journal], une sorte de nouvelle série de la fameuse revue. On ne peut que se réjouir . . ." about this event, says P. M. "Il faut pourtant bien convenir que . . . le contenu de ce premier numéro est de valeur et d'intérêt fort inégaux." The reviewer points out, however, that ". . . l'idée d'offrir un panorama bien sûr partiel! des représentations de M. dans le monde pendant la saison 1993–94 est excellent . . . ."
MILLER, JUDITH G. "Tartuffe. Review of Performance at Théâtre du Soleil, Paris. 13 January 1996." TJ 48 (1996), 370–71:
"Ariane Mnouchkine and the Théâtre du Soleil continue to take issue, through an inimitable metaphoric thrust and mythic dimension, with the major oppressive forces of our time. For [A.] M.'s staging of M.'s Tartuffe . . . the director imagines [T.] as a religious fundamentalist. T. here is power crazed, soulless, and sexually obsessed with his simple physical presence enough to turn the prideful Orgon into a quivering mass of ferocious obedience. In a terrifying rendition of the famous 'under the table' scene, O. allows T. to commit a near rape before finally emerging to stop the assault on Elmire." "Passionate about interpreting the play as a critique of religious fanaticism, which is signaled expressly as Islamic in the detailed program notes and further suggested by the set and costume designs, [A.] M. does not choose to build suspense to the moment when the crazed and grotesque T. arrives in act 3. As a result, in the first half of the production the danger represented by T. stunningly reinforced in the second half by the numbing, chanting and fervent presence of a bearded, somber clothed, and blood spattered 'Tartuffian' brotherhood is curiously absent. Instead, a long two acts draw the battle lines within the family." "In the superb fifth act," says J. G. M., "a stepped up pace and beautifully framed stage pictures at last unite to make palpable the horrors of fanatic religious rule. No longer enmeshed in their own internal battles, the family members, necks bruised by guns and hands pinioned behind heads, look helplessly on as T. and what appear to be his military assistants appropriate everything that had been the family's. In this production, M.'s deus ex machina, the King's Officer arrests T. and restores order only after filling his own pockets with whatever loot he can find. A direct reference to the daily outrages perpetrated by both fundamentalists and government in . . . Algeria, these last scenes bring the production to an uneasy close, constructing in the final moments quite a different emotional and political universe than the caricatured quarrels of the first half." According to the reviewer, "[t]he production's divided focus may result from a disappointing blend of those very aspects of [A.] M.'s work which have garnered her acclaim in the past. In her highly formal, stylized productions, she has been able to underplay or even eliminate characters' psychological depth by depending on choral rhythms and the constant musical accompaniment of Jean Jacques Lemêtre to establish moods and transitions. In this Tartuffe, however, music and choral work have been given short shrift," says J. G. M. "Some of the best moments in [this production] speak . . . to [A.] M.'s joyous optimism and ebullient creativity. Her invented character of an Arab street vendor and boom box musician begins and ends the play and facilitates transitions by offering oranges, songs, labor, and commiseration to Orgon's family. He also establishes the sense of complicity with the Soleil's spectators which they have come to expect. Even in its imperfections," contends the reviewer, "this commitment to engage the public directly in an exploration of weighty contemporary questions makes [A.] M.'s Tartuffe a privileged moment of political theatre."
MURATORE, M.J. "Theatrical conversion in Molière's Dom Juan." NFS 34.2 (1995), 1–9.
According to the author, "the deeper significance of Molière's Dom Juan does not rest at the level of theological allegory." The play is not, like Tirso de Molina's original version, a didactial work with moral lessons but a "theatrical metaphor:" the last act "dramatizes not the swift and sure damnation of the unrepentant unbeliever but the more palpable power of dramatic art to make believers of us all."
NURSE, PETER HAMPSHIRE. Molière and the Comic Spirit. Genève: Droz: 1991.
Review: Michèle Vialet in EMF 2 (1996), 219–222: This book compiles N.'s previous work on Molière. In part, the critical approach is to discuss Molière's "esprit comique" with respect to an "esprit satirique." The work starts with a discussion of Molière's public, as well as his dramatic inspiration, then moves to a study of individual plays. V. praises N.'s analysis of L'Ecole des femmes, but suggests that plays such as L'Ecole des maris and Le Médecin malgré lui receive scant attention. In general, V. agrees with N.'s thesis that Molière's "structure comique" rests on the idea of the "trompeur trompé," but asks if another study of "la critique moliéresque humaniste" is truly necessary for specialists. Yet, V. recommends the volume, saying "[L]es non-specialistes, étudiants, amateurs de littérature ou curieux, trouveront . . . une introduction concise de la meilleure tradition critique humaniste."
PENSOM, ROGER. "Moliere et le théâtre dans le théâtre." Poétique 107 (1996), 321–32.
Engaging essay that articulates in L'Impromptu de Versailles a "théorie fonctionnelle molièresque du théâtre" presupposing that Dorante is in La Critique . . . the spokesman for Cartesian "bon sens."
POMMIER, RENE. "Sur une clef d'Amphitryon." RHL 96.2 (1996), 212–28.
P. examines the issue of whether or not Molière's plays, among them Amphitryon, can be read as commentaries on Louis XIV's extra-marital affairs, especially with Madame de Montespan. P. rejects this notion, saying "[S]i Molière aurait pu se permettre de faire allusion à la conduite du roi pour la justifier, il n'aurait absolument pas pu se permettre de le faire pour la critiquer." More important for P. is Amphitryon's conclusion, which he terms "insolite" because "on se sent que les tensions ne sont qu'en partie apaisées et qu'il subsiste toujours un réel et profond malaise." P. compares Plautus's and Rotrou's versions of the play to Molière's, and concludes that Molière's has greater comic import.
RIGGS, LARRY. "Molière, Paranoia and the Presence of Absence." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 195–211,
R. looks at Molière's ridicules from a post-structuralist perspective. Focusing on the idea advanced by Lacan and Shoshana Felman, R. contends that "modern knowledge is inherently paranoiac [and consonant] with the Cartesian Subject, for whom the purpose of knowledge is to make man the master and proprietor of the world." This delusion of power and knowledge is fundamental to Molière's comedy, as R. continues with a discussion of how plays such as L'Ecole des femmes and Les Femmes savantes "relentlessly expose and lampoon the quintessentially absolutist, modernist pretentions of [the] ridicules. R. concludes by linking the pretentions of knowledge, control and absolutism to canonicity, stating that the canon "is analogous to the self-serving order each of Molière's ridicules tries to impose."
RONZEAUD, PIERRE, ed. Les Femmes savantes et Le Malade imaginaire. Paris: Magnard, 1994.
Review: James F. Gaines in CdDS 6.1 (1992) 237–38: Favorable review in which G. praises the edition's scholarship and general readability. G. summarizes his comments by saying that the editions are "attractive, user-friendly and thorough." As a result, Ronzeaud's edition "makes an interesting alternative to the standard Larousse and Bordas versions of the plays."
RONZEAUD, PIERRE. "Molière des Fourberies de Scapin au Malade imaginaire." Littératures classiques Supplément annuel (janvier 1993).
Review: Marc Escola in IL 47.5 (1995) 39–40: The work consists of "les actes d'une journée d'étude consacrée aux quatre dernières nées de Molière." Among the "actes" listed is P. Dandrey's "réflexion à la fois anthropologique et poétique . . . sur la double postulation de l'esthétique comique vers le rire sans mesure (vis comica), et le vraisemblable mimétique (speculum vitae)." Also described are C. Mazouer's recent work on Molière's "comedies-ballets," and J. Emelina's study of the "fonction ludique du langage théâtral." E. concludes the review by mentioning J. Serroy's discussion of the body in Les Femmes savantes, Les Fourberies de Scapin and Le Malade imaginaire.
VENESOEN, CONSTANT. Quand Jean-Baptiste joue du Molière. Essai. PFSCL/Biblio 17 94 (1996).
A psychological study of the person J.-B. Poquelin covered by the mask of an actor named Molière.
VERNET, MAX. Molière: côté jardin, côté cour. Paris: Nizet, 1991.
Review: Larry Riggs in EMF 2 (1996), 214–18: R. agrees with V. that Molière's plays "constitut[e] an increasingly urgent contemplation of the emerging modern world." As outlined by V., and seconded by R., the "consequences of modernity" are "Cartesian individualism and semiological chaos." It is these aspects of modernity that Molière derides. R. praises V. for linking the study of Molière to the theory of Lacan, Girard, Serres and Kristeva. However, V.'s work is "lacking in recent Molière criticism, and particularly in works which argue for approaches similar to Vernet's own."
POSFAY, EVA. "Ecrire l'utopie féminine en 1660." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 221–34.
P. claims that the Lettres exchanged between Mlle de Montpensier and Françoise de Motteville have been generally excluded from anthologies dealing with the utopic genre in France. Concentrating on Montpensier's pastoral utopia, where "les femmes sont maîtresses d'elles-mêmes," P. argues that the Grande Mademoiselle's utopia is decidedly feminist, but still admits men in order to afford greater intellectual exchange. Of note also in P.'s article are the reasons why Montpensier omits mention of her cousin Louis XIV in the Lettres. According to P., the Grande Mademoiselle's vision of a "champêtre République" governed by a matriarch forcibly excludes the presence of a strong monarch such as the Roi-Soleil.
DANIELOU, CATHERINE F. "'C'est une étrange chose que la science dans une tête de fille.' Pierre Nicole et l'éducation des jeunes filles." SFr 113 (1994), 273–282.
Pierre Nicole's writings on education should be studied closely: he had views on this topic that were, by far, not as austere as those of his fellow Jansenists like Barcos. A comparison with Fénelon is even more enlightening for Nicole was against the total "domestication" of women, and their "retour au domaine privé et familial afin d'obvier aux dangers que pourrait constituer leur rôle grandissant dans la vie culturelle." He was nonetheless against certain "excès de comportement." Thus, "tout en soutenant l'infériorité de la femme, Nicole défend des principes égalitaires faisant valoir des théories nettement cartésienne."
GUILLOT, ROLAND, ed. Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement: Les Oeuvres poétiques. Livres I et II. Genève: Droz, 1994.
Review: V. Mecking in Archiv 232 (1995), 454–58: Praised as an exemplary critical edition, G.'s work presents the first two books of the humanist/alchemist N. Book one is a chronicle of the wars of religion, in stanzas, sonnets and odes; book two is a cycle of 101 sonnets in the Ronsardien tradition. Informative section on N.'s life and work, bibliography, index and glossary. Reviewer awaits G.'s edition of N.'s third book.
BROOKS, WILLIAM and P.J. YARROW. "What Madame Saw: Some Clues to the Theatrical Taste of the 'cour et le ville,' 1671–1722." SCFS 16 (1994), 167–78.
Chronological and generic listing of the plays seen at the court, the Palais Royal and other public theatres, and their frequency. Some unexpected findings in this index of court taste (as well as Madame's vigorous demands for performers), although none is startling. A book-length expansion of the study is forthcoming.
ASSAF, FRANCIS, ed. Les Aventures de Zeloïde et d'Amanzarifdine. PFSCL/Biblio 17 82 (1994).
Review: Catherine Bonfils in RHL 95.6 (1995) 1033–34: B. mentions that the first edition of this text "à décor oriental," appeared in 1715, and that the present edition follows the original, but contains modernized spelling and punctuation. In his introduction, A. speaks of M.'s "contes indiens," as well as of a "conte moral." The "contes indiens" represent the convergence of three genres: "le merveilleux, l'orientalisme, et l'histoire galante." While M.'s text has been overlooked by critics. B. agrees with A. by suggesting that the richness of the work merits further discussion.
ADAMSON, DONALD. Blaise Pascal: Mathematician, Physicist, and Thinker about God. N.Y./London: St. Martin's Press, 1995.
Review: Christian Licoppe in Isis 87 (1996), 545: An intellectual biography that aims to clarify and bring some coherence to the different aspects of P.'s perception of the world, the emerging picture being of a man singularly located at the crossroads of modern European spiritual and intellectual history. Cultural and historical contexts are secondary to this reconstruction. A useful introduction to complexity that will need supplementing.
BOUCHILLOUX, HELENE. "Du beau et du sublime chez Pascal". RPFE, 116. 2 (1995), 191–210.
Applying Kant's category of "sublime", Bouchilloux reconsiders Pascal's views on aesthetics and eloquence. Though Pascal's analysis of the literary art form remains personal and highly critical, his perception is defined by a religious context, and faithful to Plato's and Augustine's heritage: "le sublime pascalien constitue l'exaltation —dans le spectacle de l'immensité de la nature ou dans le sentiment de la menace d'engloutissement qu'elle représente— de la place de Dieu au coeur de l'homme." It can only be understood "dans le contexte d'une philosophie se dépassant dans ce qui la surpasse, à savoir la théologie."
COLE, JOHN R. Pascal: The Man and His Two Loves. New York: New York U P, 1995.
Review: P. K. Moser in Choice 33 (1996), 1323: In this study "C. . . . offers a psychological and historical account of . . . P.'s . . . intellectual and spiritual development. Parts 1 and 2 examine P.'s familial attachments and losses, giving special importance to the loss of his mother when he was three years old and to his relationship to his father. Part 3 examines P.'s Memorial . . . describing his intense religious experience of November 23, 1654. Drawing from Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, C. argues that this experience stemmed from P.'s unconscious preoccupation with attachment to his deceased parents, even though P. was committing himself to God. . . . Parts 4 and 5 examine P.'s religious writings with an eye toward evidence of psychological disorders. P., according to C., suffered from an affective disorder related to his familial losses. The 'two loves' of the book's title are the love of God and the love of one's neighbor. C.'s Freudian speculations about P. are novel but far from confirmed," says M.
DARRIULAT, JACQUES. L'Arithmetique de la grace: Pascal et les carées magiques. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994.
Review: Nicholas Maistrellis in Isis 86 (1995), 644: Relation between Pascal mathematician and apologist is developed here so interestingly and suggestively that a careful reading is merited. The appendix on the construction of magic squares to Arnauld's Nouveaux Eléments de géométrie (1667), although of not certain attribution—is viewed and discussed as an image of the crucial distinction of nature and grace central to Pascal's theological concerns.
EDMUNDS, BRUCE. "Rhetorical Transgressions: Pascal and his Adversaries." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 67–85.
E. discusses the theme of laziness in Pascal's Provinciales. For Pascal, Jesuit idleness, rather than doctrinal differences with the Jansensists, posed the chief threat to the Church. E. contends that the Jesuit aversion to work took many forms, but was particularly manifest on a social level, where the Jesuits sought "to establish a false community based on the specious appearance of accord." By ascribing to an exagerated notion of probabalism whereby "virtually all opinions were probable," the Jesuits rejected the precepts of doubt, and therefore the Cartesian method. As a result, this excessively accomodating philosophy "appear[ed] to eliminate any source of conflict, but [in reality led to] social disintegration, not harmony."
HAMMOND, NICHOLAS. Playing with Truth: Language and the Human Condition in Pascal's Pensées. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
Review: Anon. in FMLS 31 (1995), 372: Judged "a refreshingly new angle of reading . . . persuasively presented," H.'s study focuses on P.'s key words for the human condition. The words are not "stable containers of truth but shifting pawns in a dialectic of contradictory viewpoints."
Review: H. M. Davidson in FrF 20 (1995), 246–47: Judged "an unusually clear appreciation of P.'s resources and choices," H. analyzes seven terms: "inconstance, ennui, inquiétude, repos, bonheur/félicité, justice, and vérité" as a sort of matrix that has both semantic and structural implications." D. praises H.'s study as "well-conceived and well-executed . . . against . . . [a] very rich background of reflection both on source materials and in recent critical discussions."
Review: E. Moles in MLR 91 (1996), 219–220: "Drawing largely on period literary usage to illuminate key terms, Hammond argues that by playing with language and order, the dialectician Pascal alerts us to man's flawed state so as to involve the reader in a linguistic game."
HAMMOND, NICOLAS. "Pascal and Descartes inutile et incertain." SCFS 16 (1994), 59–63.
Following McKenna's general lines of tracing influence of Gassendi, situates L887 and L110 in relation to the Disquisitio metaphysica. The qualifiers, coupled, are finally directed via this intertext to Descartes's philosophy in which " 'sentiment de coeur' " plays no part.
HILL, ROBERT. "Pascal, de Man, and the Question of Allegory." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 89–112.
H. examines de Man's readings of Pascal's De l'esprit gémométrique de l'art de persuader. Studying the relationship between mathematics and language, which he roughly equates with the relationship between literal and figurative meaning. H. argues that de Man takes Pascal's "word problem" and makes a "word problem" of his own. For de Man, the concept of the "word problem" is "a rapid form of allegory." According to H., de Man differs from Pascal in that rather than posit a "homogeneous universe," de Man's "counterargument" uses "mathematical heterogeneity," and "leads him away from both mathematics and philosophy towards a mystified numerology."
LAZZERI, CHRISTIAN. Force et justice dans la politique de Pascal. Paris: PUF, 1993.
Review: F. Lagarde in PFSCL 23 (1996), 399–401. Reviewer deems this the definitive work on Pascal's political thought. Pascal's "Travaillons donc à bien penser" sums up well Lazerri's contention that for Pascal "la justice, c'est la logique."
LEDUC-FAYETTE, DENISE. "La catégorie pascalienne de l'hérésie". RPFE 116. 2 (1995), 211–228:
The notion of heresy is given, in Pascal's thought, "une portée méthodique": heresy has the rank of "catégorie logico-philosophique indépendamment en apparence de sa stricte connotation relative à 'l'orthodoxie' des propositions en matière théologique." Though heresy is diabolical in its essence (since it divides -diabellein: to divide), it remains a part of Truth, though truth is deformed and humiliated in the process; all heresies have a common denominator since they disrespect Christ as the Mediator "dans sa fonction doublement rédemptrice et déifiante."
MARINER, FRANÇOIS. "L'Entretien à Port-Royal et Pascal." SFr 39.1 (1995), 25–39.
A study of Nicolas Fontaine's Mémoires and his Entretien de M. de Pascal et de M. de Sacy (...). This 'entretien' is obviously a rhetorical reconstruction of Pascal and Sacy's relationship. However, "à l'encontre des premiers témoignages hagiographiques sur la vie de Pascal, Fontaine enregistre ses débuts difficiles," and his dialogue remains a first-hand testimony of Pascal's difficult rapport with Port-Royal: "quoique factice et seule invention de Fontaine, il laisse intacte l'autorité de Sacy et crée l'illusion de son influence dans la formation d'une vocation encore mal comprise par le nouveau converti."
MC DONALD, BRIDGET ANNE. "Pensée, Plagiary: Pascal and the Moderns." (The Johns Hopkins University, 1995) DAI, December 1995, 22–59.
Author states that "the first half of [the] dissertation treats Pascal's writings and various sources influential to them; the second half considers appropriations of his work by modern writers." Thesis deals with P.'s quoting of Scripture, interpretations of the body, and the "rewritings of Pascal by Lautréamont, Baudelaire, Valéry and Blanchot."
MENGOTTI-THOUVENIN, PASCALE AND JEAN MESNARD, eds. Pascal, Entretien avec M. de Sacy sur Epictète et Montaigne. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1994.
Review: A. McKenna in PFSCL 23 (1996), 402: A new and definitive edition of the text. Introduction.
MEURILLON, CHRISTIAN. "Ecriture et autorité dans les Pensées de Pascal." RSH 238 (1995), 65–84.
"L'autorité figure au centre des préoccupations de P., de ses écrits scientifiques comme de ses écrits religieux. . . . Se conjuguent . . . chez P. théorie et pratique de l'autorité, épistémologie et rhétorique, conceptualisation et écriture. Ce sont leurs interférences que j'étudierai ici dans la perspective des Pensées."
NATOLI, CHARLES, M. "Pascal mystique/anti-mystique." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 113–24.
N. asks why Pascal's description of his famous "nuit de feu" is so scanty. As a devotional experience, the "nuit de feu" is crucial to Pascal's belief in the "certitude" of God's existence. N. speculates that Pascal's mystical experience of 23 November 1654 goes virtually undescribed because even the language of mysticism is insufficient to relate an encounter with, as Pascal describes it, "le Dieu d'Abraham, d'Isaac et de Jacob." N. concludes "l'acte même de parler contredit tout effort de faire signifier le langage."
THIROUIN, LAURENT. Le hasard et les règles. Le modèle du jeu dans la pensée de Pascal. Paris: Vrin, 1991.
Review: François Lagarde in EMF 2 (1996), 201–05: A quite favorable review in which L. states "cet essai est remarquable: il reconstruit la pensée fragmentée de Pascal avec patience et rigueur, il est aussi en un sens une défense de Pascal. On sent l'auteur fasciné par une logique du système des Pensées, et le résultat est un Pascal très pointu et cependant très clair." While L. is "surprised" by T.'s interpretation of Pascal's views on civil law and utopianism, he enthusiastically recommends the book, especially the section on the "Pari." This particular analysis becomes the "joyau du livre," as its conclusions "montre[nt] que ce n'est pas la raison, ou son absence qui empêche de croire, mais bien les passions."
VIZIER, ALAIN. "Pascal et le problème de la fragmentation." FrF 20 (1995), 23–44.
Pascal situates the origin of the problem of fragmentation "dans le fonctionnement même de la pensée . . . non seulement dans les faits, mais aussi . . . dans sa 'nature'." V. admirably analyzes numerous texts where P. questions this process of fragmentation. Intriguing developments concerning knowledge and resistance or violence, " ce qui force à penser," the necessity of discovering laws of thought and abiding by them, the superiority of research and demonstration as against any citing of authorities. Rich and profound treatment offers insights as well into significance of "science" and "penser."
WETSEL, DAVID. Pascal and Disbelief. Catechesis and Conversion in the Pensées. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1994.
Review: B. Edmunds in PFSCL 23 (1996), 709–710: "One can hardly fail to admire David Wetsel's boldness, even if his reading of the Pensées does not always do what it claims," states the reviewer. W. goes too far, based on scanty internal evidence, in reconstructing one particular reading of the work. Despite this, "these are lavish, suggestive pages, full of historical and textual detail. . . . One emerges with a delightfully nuanced sense of Pascal, brillant in some ways, benighted in others, opposing his prodigious abilities to forces that could not fail to overwhelm him."
BRESSON, AGNES, éd. Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, Lettres à Claude Saumaise et à son entourage (1620–1637). Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1992.
Review: A. Vernet in CRa (avril-juin 1993), 519–21: "Dossier de la correspondance adressée par Peiresc à Claude Saumaise et à divers savants en relation avec eux. Selon Raymond Lebègue, l'auteur de l'Avant-propos, cette impeccable édition représente "une contribution de premier ordre à l'histoire de l'orientalisme."
MAIRESSE-LANDES, ANNE. "En hommage à Louis Marin: travail de l'écriture et la part du jeu." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 213–20.
M-L.'s tribute to Marin focuses on the latter's work on Perrault's Contes. Partially summarizing Marin's philosophy that literary criticism concerned itself with "le travail de l'écriture et la part du jeu," M-L. discusses this "jeu" in terms of Marin's study of power relationships in the Contes. She takes the example of Le chat botté, where Marin asserts that the cat's guile and success is meant to ridicule humanity in its quest for power. Paraphrasing Marin, M-L. states that the cat "sert à mettre en évidence la sottise humaine dont il se joue." Marin's "entreglose" underscores "l'humilité de sa tâche" as a researcher, where "Il se fait le porte-parole de l'événement représenté, [et] témoin de la vanité du pouvoir une fois autorisé."
SIMONSEN, MICHELE. Perrault Contes. Paris: P.U.F., 1992.
Review: J. Pedersen in RevR 28 (1993), 318: S. "présente au lecteur les problèmes que posent respectivement l'état des textes, le conte de fées littéraire et la tradition orale. La partie de loin la plus importante embrasse les analyses très précises que nous offre M.S. des onze textes: une nouvelle en vers, Grisélidis, deux contes en vers, Les souhaits ridicules et Peau d'Ane et les huit contes en prose, La Belle au bois dormant, Le Petit Chaperon rouge, La Barbe-Bleue, Le Chat botté, Les Fées, Cendrillon, Riquet a la houppe et Le Petit Poucet."
LEROY, PIERRE, ed. L'Infidèle Confidente, tragi-comédie (1631). Geneva: Droz, 1991.
Review: James F. Gaines in CdDS 6.1 (1992) 239–40: G. finds the volume quite valuable, saying "we owe thanks to Leroy for making . . . available a well-crafted edition." While much of the review focuses on the baroque character of the play, G. mentions certain features of the edition such as sections dealing with "the unities," "the notion of heroism," and, "its tragicomic context." G. also notes the editor's "substantial bibliography," "ample glossary," and "numerous explicative footnotes."
Review: Charles Mazouer in RHT 46 (1994), 383: The reviewer has only praises for "la tâche bienvenue de faire connaître les oeuvres dramatiques de Pichou:" a "transcription impeccable," a "solide introduction," an "annotation infrapaginale (...) aussi judicieuse qu'utile" with "références précises" do justice to this "exemple représentatif de la tragi-comédie romanesque du temps." All in all, "du bon travail!"
NAVAILLES, LOUISETTE, ed. La Hollande malade. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1995.
Review: Catherine Bonfils in RHL 96.3 (1996), 498. Work deals with P,'s representation of Louis XIV's war against Holland in the early 1670s. B. cites several passages from the text which, she states, is "versifié, non sans brio." In general, B. recommends the volume, concluding, "l'introduction de Louisette Navailles, principalement historique et agrémentée de quatre gravures satiriques, éclaire utilement les allusions à l'acutalité."
Review: W. Brooks in PFSCL 23 (1996), 405–407: A political satire probably performed in 1672 at the beginning of the Franco-Dutch war. Reviewer states that "despite the confusion, errors, and omissions [of the edition], it is good to have the text of this curiosity, but was the volume approved, copy-edited, or proof-read?"
CLAYTON, MARTIN. Poussin: Works on Paper: Drawings from the Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1995.
Review: F. W. Robinson in Choice 33 (1996), 777: "This handsome volume accompanies a traveling exhibition of 65 drawings from Windsor Castle, all by Nicolas P. There are brief introductory essays on each major phase of P.'s career, followed by long scholarly entries on each drawing. The entries helpfully outline the mythological sources P. used and discuss other scholars' opinions on dating, authenticity, other versions, and related issues." R. considers this volume to be "a superb set of reproductions of much of this great artist's graphic production, accompanied by a text that will be of real interest and use for scholars rather than the casual reader."
CROPPER, ELIZABETH, and CHARLES DEMPSEY. Nicolas Poussin: Friendship and the Love of Painting. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1996.
Review: F. W. Robinson in Choice 33 (1996), 1630: The authors "have written an important book that is a significant step forward in understanding the intellectual milieu and assumptions of" N. P. The book is "an exploration of the intellectual and social context of this highly literate, sophisticated artist. It is replete with references to and comparisons with contemporary artists, such as Rubens, and extended discussion of 17th century poets and collectors friendly with P., as well as a careful evocation of his attitudes toward ancient Greek and Roman literature and sculpture and his place within various iconographic traditions." The authors, "widely recognized authorities in Italian art, . . . write in an easy, accessible style," says R. "The book includes 165 good black and white and 12 full color reproductions, and full scholarly apparatus . . . ."
VERDI, RICHARD. Nicolas Poussin, 1594–1665. London: Zwemmer/Royal Academy of Arts, 1995.
Review: A. L. Palmer in Choice 33 (1995), 608: "In this catalog, published in conjunction with the 1994 95 Paris and London exhibit of P., the most comprehensive to date, V. gives a stylistic overview of P.'s career, offering a new chronology for his early oeuvre." "Although V.'s stylistic reasoning is not," in the reviewer's opinion, "compelling enough to revise P.'s traditional chronology and expand his oeuvre, the inclusive catalog does allow a comprehensive study of P." ". . . Pierre Rosenberg contributes a useful discussion of P.'s relationship to French art patrons as reflected in the Louvre collection." This volume by V. is judged "valuable for its use of excellent color plates and a complete catalog that will help scholars continue to better understand P.'s artistic development."
TANS, J.A.G. and H. SCHMITZ DU MOULIN. La Correspondance de Pasquier Quesnel. Inventaire et index analytique. II. Index analytique. 2 vols. Louvain: Bureau de la RHE/Brussels: Ed. Nauwelaerts, 1993.
Review: René Tavenaux in RHEF 81 (1995), 339–41: Monumental reference source allowing for the first time a systematic use of the large but dispersed correspondance. Completes the inventory published in 1989 and is complementable by the Lexicon pseudonymorum jansenisticorum . . . (Louvain, 1989: "Instrumenta theologica," no. 4).
BASSINET, STEPHANE, ed. Atys. Geneva: Droz, 1992.
Review: Charles Mazouer in RHT 47 (1995), 187–188: Mazouer thinks it was an excellent idea to present Quinault's libretto as a "pièce dramatique." If "sur la langue même du livret, l'annotation reste pauvre, à peine complétée par un très court glossaire," there are, however, insightful remarks on "l'articulation du livret et de la musique." Though the introduction is solid, "on se prend à regretter que rien ne soit proposé sur la musique de Lully." In short, "S. Bassinet a rempli son contrat, qui était de faire prendre en considération un livret en tant que tel."
BROOKS, WILLIAM, BUFORD NORMAN and JEANNE MORGAN ZARUCCHI, eds. Alceste suivi de La Querelle d'Alceste. Anciens et Modernes avant 1680. Geneva: Droz, 1994.
Review: Bénédicte Louvat in RHL 96.1 (1996) 143–44: L. describes the general presentation of the volume which includes the "livret" of Quinault and Lully's 1674 opera, as well as the texts concerning the "querelle d'Alceste." Key in this debate are Charles Perrault's Critique de l'opéra and Racine's response in the preface of Iphigénie. The work emphasizes that the querelle over Alceste is "exclusivement littéraire; la qualité musicale de l'opéra n'est jamais questionnée." L. commends the authors for their fidelity to the original edition, and for their general effort to "faire entendre l'oeuvre" and the controversy surrounding it.
Review: D. Shaw in MLR 91 (1996), 473–74: Scholarly, focused study with excellent introduction and useful notes. "It brings together for the first time in a single volume the Quinault libretto and the four polemical tracts that make up the Querelle d'Alceste of 1673–75. As this Querelle represents the first skirmish in the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes, it marks a defining moment in the evolution of seventeenth-century theatrical taste." The volume also contains a valuable juxtaposition of "the Critique d'Alceste by Charles Perrault, Racine's feisty reply in his preface to Iphigénie, Perrault's Lettre à Monsieur Charpentier, and Pierre Perrault's Critique des deux Tragédies d'Iphigénie."
CARILE, P., ed. Voyage et aventures de François Leguat et de ses compagnons en deux îles désertes des Indes orientales 1690–1698, suivi de Recueil de quelques mémoires servant d'instruction pour l'établissement de l'île d'Eden par Henri Duquesne (1689). Paris: Editions de Paris, 1995.
Review: Marc Escola in RHL 96.3 (1996), 503–04: E. welcomes the volume, praising its revival of "un classique oublié dans la littérature du voyage." Reviewer describes the original work as "pénétré d'idéologie religieuse et soucieux de décrire une faune et une flore alors inconnues." The first part of the work "est consacrée à un tableau de l'existence arcadienne," in which the protagonists (Hugenot exiles) find themselves . By contrast, the second part describes the "exacte contre-épreuve," whereby "les hugenots, déportés par les authorités hollandaises, retrouvent dans ce nouveau monde le despotisme européen." In his conclusion, E. praises the "introduction riche d'informations historiques," as well as the reproduction of twenty-eight engravings from the original edition.
BAMFORTH, STEPHEN. "A Second Missing Scene in Racine's Phedre." SCFS 16 (1994), 161–66.
Brief but thorough analysis of the dramatic effects of the scene of Phedre's confrontation of Oenone.
BENGUIGUI, LUCIEN-GILLES. Racine et les sources juives d'Esther et Athalie. Paris: Editions L'Harmatten/Les Editions du Pavillon, 1995.
Review: J. Dubu in PFSCL 23 (1996), 661–663: In an essay on the relations between Jews and non-Jews, B. seeks to read the two tragedies in the context of the present. Reviewer fills in a few gaps in the information presented.
DELMAS, CHRISTIAN, ed. Bajazet. Paris: Gallimard, 1995.
DELMAS, CHRISTIAN and GEORGES FORESTIER, eds. Phèdre. Paris: Gallimard, 1995.
DOSMOND, SIMONE. "Racine et la tragédie à sujet romain." IL 47.5 (1995), 22–26.
Article explains R.'s change from Greek to Roman themes. D. suggests that the switch comes in part from R.'s desire to equal and surpass Corneille. Yet, the gist of the argument rests on the analysis of similarities and differences between the plays that constitute R.'s "trilogie romaine:" Britinnicus, Bérénice, and Mithridate. Among the similarities between Britannicus and Bérénice are the political setting of the imperial palace, which represents "un pôle dramatique où tout converge et tout rayonne." By contrast, Mithridate takes place in the provinces, thus suggesting an "anti-imperialistic" dimension. Thus, while Britannicus and Bérénice at least superficially evoke Rome's glory, Mithridate views Rome as a "puissance arrogante et dominatrice."
ERNEST, GILLES, ed. Athalie. Paris: Librairie Générale française, 1992.
Review: Harriet Allentuch in FR 69 (1996), 480–81: Provides a full chronology of Biblical events and index of lines that directly or indirectly inspire R. Lengthy glossary and grammatical notes. Of special interest to advanced students.
FORESTIER, GEORGES, ed. Bajazet. Paris: Librairie Générale française, 1992.
Review: Harriet Allentuch in FR 69 (1996), 480–81: For both advanced students and specialists, a richly informative introduction. Includes R.'s two prefaces, an excellent resume of R.'s oeuvre, a chronology and biblio. Stresses R.'s complex relationships with his audience.
FORESTIER, GEORGES, ed. Britannicus. Paris: Gallimard, 1995.
Review: R. Tobin in PFSCL 23 (1996), 674–675: Each edition in the "Folio" collection includes a preface, the text, a chronology followed by a "notice," a review of the noteworthy productions, a bibliography, notes, and an act-by-act summary of the play. According to the reviewer,these editions bring the best of recent scholarship to bear on the texts, with each volume of the collection referring profitably to the other volumes.
GILLE, CATHERINE CHAUDRON. "Dramatic Recognition in the Tragedies of Jean Racine." (Emory University, 1995) DAI (January 1996), 2709.
G. discusses R.'s use of the "traditional recognition scene in Athalie, Iphigénie, and Britannicus." Thesis deals with "issues such as the relationship of an individual character to the society as a whole, the role of the recognition scene in establishing political and religious authority, as well as the public and ritual nature of the act of recognition itself."
GREGOIRE, VINCENT. "Esther, une pièce biblique au caractère didactique ambigu." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 177–94.
G. reads Esther in light of Racine's desire to support the efforts of Madame de Maintenon's Saint-Cyr, where young women were educated to uphold a certain moral orthodoxy. Yet, at the same time, Racine sought to give these newly-educated women a voice which, to a limited extent, marked a "transgression . . . de l'ordre patriarchal." This apparent paradox in Esther is temporarily reconciled by the fact that the protagonist, when forced to chose between God and king, chooses God. Such a choice shows that a political order may be violated in favor of a higher moral order. Despite this seeming resolution, both play and dramaturge come under attack from the Church, which argued that Esther advanced too many contradictory ideas, and gave "trop [de] confiance à ces jeunes filles en quête d'elles-mêmes." As a result, the young women of Saint-Cyr, some of whom perfomed in Esther, and other plays such as Andromaque and Iphigénie, were subjected to a "politique de musèlement" that ended the attempt to "libéralis[er] . . . [le] discours féminin par l'entreprise théâtrale."
GUENOUN, SOLANGE. "Mélancolie, hystérie ou le refus classique de la division dans Phèdre de Racine." FLS 21 (1994), 55–65.
Complex inquiry setting the birth of the modern subject, the crisis of representation of sovereignty, and the culture of division as the contexts for the fragmentation of both Phedre and Hippolyte.
HAWCROFT, MICHAEL and VALERIE WORTH, eds. Alexandre le Grand. Exeter: University of Exeter, 1990.
Review: Charles Mazouer in RHT 46 (1994), 376–377: The authors try to rehabilitate a play that has somewhat fallen into disrepute. To do so, they base their edition on the original version published in 1666, completing it with notes referring to all other subsequent editions. Their introduction is also an attempt at rehabiliting Alexandre le Grand: they propose "une lecture un peu neuve de la tragédie" that contradicts Jasinski's views on Racine's politics, and a study on "les qualités théâtrales de l'oeuvre." Even though there are typographical mistakes, "il faut recommander vivement cette édition nouvelle."
JAMES, EDWARD D. and GILLIAN JONDORF, eds. Racine: Phèdre. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1994.
Review: D. Maskell in MLR 91 (1996), 725–26: "The bulk of the book gives a traditional account of Phèdre: structure, language, protagonists, ending, and meaning. . . . This is a safe and useful introduction to Racine for the general reader and undergraduate."
PHILLIPS, HENRY. Racine: Language and Theatre. Durham: University of Durham, 1994.
Review: Anon. in FMLS 31 (1995), 379: Examines features of Racine's tragedy from the "angle of speech." Since speech is physical action, a consideration of "shared discourse" is essential.
Review: D. Maskell in MLR 91 (1996), 725–26: "Henry Phillips establishes the importance of the thematics of speech in Racine and argues that 'the tension of utterance' is an integral part of the tragic action." This contribution to Racinian studies is "original and stimulating" despite several drawbacks: an index of examples would provide the reader a sense of how they relate to one another; closer integration of rhetorical dimension of analyses with existing rhetorical studies would be welcome.
POMMIER, RENE. Etudes sur Britannicus. Paris: SEDES, 1995.
Review: J. Dubu in PFSCL 23 (1996), 700–702: A response to Barthes, Goldmann, and Mauron: "ce livre nous apporte des vues pénétrantes sur l'une des tragédies les plus classiques du théâtre français sans rien ignorer des apports récents de la critique, pourvu qu'ils soient fondés."
POT, OLIVIER. "Racine: théâtre de la culpabilité ou culpabilité du théâtre." TL 8 (1995), 125–49.
Investigates "la culpabilité" as transforming force in Racine's theatre: "la réalité de la culpabilité est indissociable dans l'esprit du dramaturge, de la problématique de l'imaginaire théâtral." Discriminating discussion of culpability from historical, theological and etymological perspectives. Reviews numerous critics and concludes that, in Racinian strategy, rhetoric serves the very goals of art: "cette rhétorique perverse qui émerge d'une façon nouvelle dans le théâtre racinien à travers la culpabilité est tout simplement déjà . . . la littérature."
POT, OLIVIER. "La mort d'Hippolyte ou la défiguration silencieuse du langage." PFSCL 23 (1996), 599–633.
Sees in the play the passage from tragedy proper to lyrical tragedy: ". . . ce qui s'entend n'est plus guère le sens intellectuel des mots . . .mais les mots eux-mêmes perçus dans leur magie incantatoire, matérialisés dans les inflexions et les modulations sensibles du chant."
SCHRODER, VOLKER. "Junie, Auguste et le feu de Vesta: étude intertextuelle du dénouement de Britannicus. PFSCL 23 (1996), 575–598.
Contends that Vesta is not the Christian God and that the tragedy is Roman and political rather than Christian. The political order that is reestablished at the end of the play is threatened by the reign of furor that has just begun.
SELLIER, PHILIPPE, ed. Racine, Théâtre complet. Paris: Imprimerie nationale Editions, 1995.
Review: J. Dubu in PFSCL 23 (1996), 422–423: A beautiful, well-done edition based on the 1697 text that includes a general introduction, notes, bibliography, and introduction to each play. The question "Comment se fait-il que l'innocence puisse tant souffrir?" represents the central thrust of the edition.
VAN DER SCHUEREN, ERIC. "A la frontière de l'art et de la religion dans la France du XVIIe siècle: les Cantiques spirituels de Jean Racine." PFSCL 23 (1996), 329–352.
Critic concludes that R. succeeded in creating a "convergence de l'expression littéraire de la piété et la théorie classique de la littérature . . . ."
VUILLEMIN, JEAN-CLAUDE. "Transgression et subversion de l'éthique amoureuse dans Andromaque." Poétique 105 (1996), 88–100.
Following the contemporary and later responses to the character of Pyrrhus, the dialectic of love and power is seen to break away from the pastoral and baroque in the denouement of Racine's revised version. The break with the past supposed by Barthes (et al.) is not accomplished. Builds neatly on earlier article: "Trois/Buthrote . . . " AJFS 27 (1990).
MAZOUER, CHARLES, ed. Le Légataire universel, suivi de La Critique du Légataire. Geneva: Droz, 1994.
Review: Catherine Bonfils in RHL 95.6 (1995), 1033: B. welcomes this edition which "montre les aspects essentiels de la dramaturgie de Regnard." From an editorial perpsective, B. mentions that M. uses the original 1708 edition as his "texte de base," while adding notes and variants from posthumous editions. Of note also are the index, the introduction and the "rappel bibliographique" of Regnard.
LAZZERI, CHRISTIAN, éd. De l'intérêt des princes et des états de la chrétienté. Paris: PUF, 1995.
Review: Solange Deyon in QL (16–31 janvier 1996), 25: "Proscrit depuis 1629, lorsque l'Edit de grâce d'Alès mit fin à la dernière guerre protestante, dont il avait été le chef militaire et politique, le duc de R. était, en mai 1634 convoqué à Paris par Louis XIII et Richelieu. Dans ses bagages, il apportait un petit traité qu'il allait offrir au ministre, intitulé 'De l'intérêt des Princes et Etats de la chrétienté', publié seulement en 1638, quelques mois après la mort de son auteur." "De ce court traité, rédigé dans une langue concise et imagée, C. L. nous offre une édition élégante, rigoureusement annotée, précédée d'une riche introduction qui veut surtout en révéler la frappante originalité."
RANDALL, CATHARINE. "Poetic License, Censorship and the Unrestrained Self: Ronsard's Livret de folastres." PFSCL 23 (1996), 449–462.
Studies the "fascinating tension between public and private poetic personae" in the work. Concludes that R.'s poetry is not "lawless verses" "because through their very avoidance of the implicit norm for speech and writing, they observe those conventions in a hyperactive way." Contrasts R. and La Fontaine.
BOLD, STEPHEN C. "Ma(s)king a Name: Onomastics in Rotrou's Theater." FrF 20 (1995), 279–97.
Ambitious attempt to "reintroduce the problem of literary omnastics into the vocabulary of criticism on classical French tragedy. Analyzes strategies involving names in Les Sosies and Le Véritable saint Genest, B. underscores R.'s "fluid vision of identity and its mutations." Claims that R. has "dismantled the Cornelian hero from the name up and . . . set the stage for the Racinian 'demolition of the hero'."
KITE, BARRY, ed. La Soeur. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1994.
Review: Jean-Marc Civardi in IL 48.1 (1996) 29–30: Review deals more with the plot history and reception of the play than with K.'s edition. Yet, C. welcomes K.'s contribution, saying "[O]n ne peut que se féliciter de la réédition de cette comédie écrite par le quatrième classique en quelque sorte du théâtre français du Grand Siècle." Citing the lack of availability of the Classiques Larousse and Classiques Garnier editions, C. commends K.'s edition, stating that "[L]'étudiant ou le spécialiste a maintenant en mains un outil de travail fiable (avec introduction, bibliographie, notes et glossaire) qui prend pour base l'édition de 1647."
SANCHEZ, JOSE, ed. Le Véritable Saint Genest. Mont-de Marsan: Ed. José Feijoo, 1991.
Review: Jean-Claude Vuillemin in RHT 46 (1994), 95–96: This is a substantial updated version of the 1988 edition that coincided with the first staging of the play at "la Comédie-Française." Based on the original edition of 1647 published by Toussaint Quinet, the author provides the reader with "une chronologie claire et précise," a "bibliographie thématique qui (...) recense 239 ouvrages," a study on Rotrou's sources and various useful appendices: it is "un outil de travail extrêmement précieux" on a play that is "loin de posséder les vertus soporifiques de la tisane!"
VUILLEMIN, JEAN-CLAUDE. Baroquisme et théàtralité: le théâtre de Jean Rotrou. PFSCL/Biblio 17 81 (1994).
Review: W. Brooks in MLR 90 (1995), 998–99: "Vuillemin's argument, which propounds the self-conscioius theatricality of Rotrou's theatre, revolves around Saint Genest, and although he knowledgeably discusses other plays, he is uncomfortable with Venceslas and Cosroès, which do not fit his model."
Review: Edmund Campion in FR 69 (1996), 478–79: Four chapters of thoughtful analysis of R.'s major plays are a "significant contribution to scholarship" of 17th-century theatrical history, enriching our understanding of the diverse theatricality and representation of love in R.'s plays. The introductory chapter, charting definitions of the baroque and descriptions of recent performance history are of lesser interest.
Review: Bernard Chedozeau in IL 48.1 (1996), 29: C. praises the work, calling it "Un livre intelligent et suggestif, appuyé à la fois sur l'histoire des idées et sur la sémiologie théâtrale, et qui répond bien aux affirmations de son titre en étudiant jusqu'à quel point l'obscure notion de baroque et le théâtre de Rotrou, mis en écho, permettent de se définir l'un l'autre avec pertinence et élégance." Among the basic principles of V.'s argument is the thesis that "[L]a représentation de l'amour . . . se trouve en définitive subordonnée à l'amour de la représentation."
Review: Guy Spielman in CdDs 6.2 (1992) 245–47: S. praises V. for making the baroque and theatricality the focal point of the work. Among the highlights of the book are V.'s concept of the baroque, which, S. states "ne serait ni un style, moins encore une école ou un mouvement, mais une épistémé nouvelle qu'occasionne une "cassure" survenue à la fin du XVIe siècle." S. also mentions V.'s insistence on the relationship between Eros and theatricality, suggesting that "[L]e héros rotrouesque—contrairement à son homologue cornélien—est livré à une passion toute puissante à travers la fascination du regard." S. underscores the usefulness of the notes and bibliography, but regrets the absence of plot summaries in the appendix.
VUILLEMIN, JEAN-CLAUDE. "Du texte dramatique au texte spectaculaire: Rotrou dramaturge baroque." SCFS 16 (1994), 135–53.
Skillful exposition of the principal ways the "théâtralité inhérente" in Rotrou's plays points to "theatre within theatre" (contrary to Forestier's judgment). Interesting commentary on recent productions and the relation of the baroque to music.
AULOTTE, ROBERT, CLAUDE BLUM, NICOLE CAZAURAN et FRANÇOISE JOUKOVSKY, eds. Saint-Amant et la Normandie littéraire. Etudes réunies à la mémoire de Jacques Bailbé. Paris: Champion, 1995.
Review: Boris Donné in RHL 96.2 (1996) 321: Appreciative review of a posthumous volume of B.'s work on Saint-Amant. D. praises the "multiplicité des points de vue et des approches [qui] dessinent un portrait littéraire de Saint-Amant rendant justice à la complexité d'une oeuvre partagée entre . . . [le] grotesque et [le] marinisme." The work deals with Saint-Amant's esthetics, his relationship to his contemporaries, the baroque character of the work, and his "Norman" influences.
FROIDEFOND, DOMINIQUE. "Visions et métamorphoses dans 'La Crevaille' de Saint-Amant." CdDS 6.1 (1992) 163–75.
F. examines this poem, part of Saint-Amant's "poèmes gastronomiques et bachiques," which she claims has been overlooked. According to F., the poem describes a bacchic ritual, involving complete loss of "maîtrise de soi." The bacchic allusions are reinforced as the poet becomes a priest preparing a sacrifice. F. also discusses the poet's invitation that those gathered to "s'enivrer," and alludes to the hallucinatory aspect of the poem, where the poet mistakes a pig for a wild boar. Linking the poem's images to Ovid's Metamorphoses, F. argues that in this poem, "Saint-Amant chante son appétit et sa soif gargantuesques pour la poésie, et s'il y a ivresse, elle est toute littéraire." She concludes by saying that the dyonisian/apollonian dialiectic in the poem is reconciled by the work's final image, "où le poète se voit la flûte à la main et à cheval sur Pégase."
LAGARDE, FRANÇOIS. "La réhabilitation de Saint-Amant." OeC 20.3 (1995), 205–218.
Article consacré à la réhabilitation artistique et morale du poète accusé "d'une concaténation de brillants caprices, nonobstant une riche invention et des descriptions fameuses, et surtout une incomplétude morale: libertinage, ivrognerie, flagornerie . . . ."
SCHOLL, DOROTHEE. "Moyse sauvé." Poétique et originalité de l'idylle héroïque de Saint-Amant. PFSCL/Biblio 17 90 (1995).
Review: J.-P. Chauveau in PFSCL 23 (1996), 419–421: Reviewer praises study which reopens the question of the value of the work.
RUDELIC-FERNANDEZ, DANA. "Saint-Réal's Don Carlos: Tragic End or Narrative Denouement?" RF 107 (1995), 136–44.
Close reading of this 1672 novella illuminates its "dramatic affiliation" and the concept of a "narrative denouement."
RAVIEZ, FRANÇOIS. "Monseigneur à l'écritoire: Saint Simon ou l'autorité du silence." RSH 238 (1995), 127–36.
"L'attitude de S. S. vis à vis de l'écriture est . . . des plus complexes. Elle se fonde tout d'abord sur la volonté de ne pas se compromettre par la publication et la diffusion d'une oeuvre élaborée dans le secret du cabinet . . . . Mais elle témoigne aussi d'une dynamique intérieure qui le pousse à recopier, à annoter, finalement à inventer un matériau susceptible d'apporter aux lecteurs de l'avenir un enseignement historique: sous couvert de quelque édification politique, c'est le désir qui mène ici la plume. Enfin, les Mémoires achevés, ne pourrait on y déceler le fantasme de n'être lu et reconnu qu'après plusieurs décennies, c'est à dire une vocation d'auteur, mais d'auteur posthume? Son ambition ne serait elle pas d'outre tombe?" R describes S. S. as "un maître, maître à écrire plus que maître à penser, un grand seigneur du langage."
MERRY, BARBARA L. Minnepean Elements in Paul Scarron's Roman comique. New York: Peter Lang, 1991.
Review: Jonathan Carson in CdDS 6.1 (1992) 249–52: C. finds the work valuable, but criticizes M. for trying "to reinvent the wheel by redefining burlesque dissonance as rupture and making this the guiding principle of all that is Menippean." A better approach, according to C., would have been to concentrate more fully on a "discussion of narrative and narrator(s)." While stating that M.'s argument provides "a fair quantity of sound criticism," C. finds significant intellectual and technical errors that "lead the reader to become occasionally confused and often frustrated."
MONTET, ELISABETH, ed. Paul Scarron. Le Gardien de soy-mesme (1655); Thomas Corneille. Le Geôlier de soy-mesme (1656). Toulouse: Société de littératures classiques, 1995.
Review: W. Brooks in PFSCL 23 (1996), 698–699: A valuable edition especially for the light it sheds on French comedy of the 1650s and its Spanish sources.
Review: Bénédicte Louvat in RHL 96.1 (1996), 142: Montet's edition looks at the reasons for the failure of Scarron's play and the success of Corneille's. Both versions are based on Calderón's work. Yet, the originality of C.'s rendition "est due à l'alternance de tons et de personnages opposés dont [il] pousse les caractéstiques à l'extrême." L. commends the volume for its historical accuracy as well as the precision of the glossary and notes.
PARISH, RICHARD. "Scarron's Roman comique: Contradictions and Terms." SCFS 16 (1994), 105–19.
Identifies as sources of contradictions the author's "non-omniscience topos," lack of symmetry in overall structure, the aleatory nature of the narrative combination of clarity and chaos, complexity of narrative levels. Reviews earlier descriptions ("burlesque," "anti-novel . . . ") and adds that of a text "pure in its single-minded concentration on the business of narration, as in its refusal to address metaphysical, political or moral issues."
WARMAN, Stephen A., "Deux adaptations de Marino dans le théâtre de Scudéry." SFr 114 (1994), 445–456.
It is a known fact that Scudéry borrowed heavily from Marino's imagery and concetti. However there are still elements that need to be examined. For example, his first plays, since they are filled with lyrical but non-dramatic scenes, show an impressive number of 'emprunts'. On the one hand, "la fidélité de Scudéry à Marino est révélatrice d'une véritable affinité entre l'esthétique de ces deux poètes", but, in fact, Scudéry "fut (...) un plagiaire habile".
HANNON, PATRICIA. "Desire and Writing in Scudéry's 'Histoire de Sapho.'" ECr 35 (1995), 37–50.
H. stresses the role of "inclination" as she examines the important erotic dimension of the tenth volume of Artamène. Concludes that "the important erotic component in 'Histoire de Sapho' consists of the journey to 'Permesse'; the voyage (of writing desire) is in itself the destination."
HINDS, LEONARD. "Literary and Political Collaboration: The Prefatory Letter of Madeleine de Scudéry's Artamène, ou le Grand Cyrus." PFSCL 23 (1996), 491–500.
Argues that in the work "in their passage between multiple positions of subjectivity, between "je," "nous," and "on," the figures of authorship manage to construct a portrait of the frondeuse [the Duchesse de Longueville] that celebrates her personal, moral worth and correspondingly promotes her eligibility to reign." Concludes that ". . . it is the very arena of preciosity in the mid-seventeenth century where malleable manifestations of authorship and their accompanying contradictory pronouncements subtend the figurative representation of models of political authority to come."
KRAJEWSKA, BARBARA. Du coeur à l'esprit. Mademoiselle de Scudéry et ses samedis. Paris: Editions Kimé, 1993.
Review: E. Dutertre in PFSCL 23 (1996), 397–398: A history of the salon based on letters written by contemporaries: ". . . un des intérêts essentiels de cette étude, c'est d'avoir dépassé l'image déformée et stéréotypée de précieuse ridicule . . . ."
Review: Robert Horville in RSH 242 (1996), 163–64: ". . . [L']auteur se propose de tracer les grandes lignes du paysage intellectuel de Madeleine de S. à travers l'histoire de son salon littéraire. Pour ce faire, elle s'appuie essentiellement sur les témoignages apportés par la correspondance de l'époque et adopte une double perspective. Elle s'efforce, d'une part, de rendre compte de l'évolution de ce salon et, par là même, de l'esprit précieux . . . . Elle adopte, d'autre part, un parti synthétique, en entreprenant de dégager les caractères fondamentaux qui marquent le cercle de Madeleine de S. C'est le contenu factuel, parfois anecdotique, de ces données qui l'intéresse, mais dans la mesure où elles fournissent des indications sur la mentalité profonde de l'époque." "Rédigé avec une grande justesse et un grand bonheur d'expression, ce travail . . . apporte incontestablement," according to H., "une importante contribution à l'approche de la préciosité et, plus généralement, du contexte intellectuel du XVIIe siècle."
Review: François Lagarde in FR 69 (1996), 481–82: "Sans être faux, ce portrait de Mlle de Scudéry est un peu une projection, et les vignettes d'histoire litteraire ne sauraient le justifier." To be read "avec prudence et detachement."
KROLL, RENATE. Madeleine de Scudery und die "poesie précieuse." Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1996.
MORLET-CHANTALAT, CHANTAL. La Clélie de Mademoiselle de Scudéry. De l'épopée à la gazette: un discours féminin de la gloire. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1994.
Review: Alain Génétiot in RHL 96.3 (1996), 497–98: G. calls the work a "[V]éritable mode d'emploi d'un roman peut-être illisible aujourd'hui dans sa continuité." Of note are M.'s treatment of the "passage de l'éthique héroique à la morale galante," as well as her study of "petits genres mondains . . . tels que la question galante, le portrait, [et] l'entretien." While G. claims the work is somewhat incomplete in its analysis of esthetics, he recommends the book, citing its summary of the plot, its discussion of the "histoires intercalées," and its bibliography and double index.
Review: P. Hourcade in PFSCL 23 (1996), 403–404: Study is notable in concentrating only on the one novel in order to determine its originality: ". . . on voit bien désormais dans Clélie la survivance et l'exténuation du genre et de la mentalité épiques, . . . ."
Review: G. Penzkofer in RF 107 (1995), 219–20: S.'s novel is less like the modern novel than like a kind of "entretien moral," "caractère," or "recueil de portraits." M.-C. analyzes Clélie as a système unifié stable, moralement significatif." P. notes M.-C.'s neglect of excellent German criticism on the subject (Margot Kruse, Renate Baader), but judges her study indispensable to scholarship on the 17th c. novel.
NIDEREST, ALAIN, ed. Les Trois Scudéry: Actes du colloque du Havre (1–5 oct. 1991). Paris: Klicksieck, 1993.
Review: Edmund Campion in FR 69 (1995), 329: Colloquium with fifty participants set to the task of revaluation of Madeleine, Georges, and Marie-Madeleine. Information on the last of the three, with its information on Bussy and Sévigné, is perhaps the most significant contribution of the book. Valuable contributions on Georges' neglected verse and plays. Stress on Madeleine is on the feminist; but her influence in Holland, England, and Germany are also made more precise.
ARNAUD, CLAUDE. "Madame de Sévigné en toutes lettres." Le Point (20 juillet 1996), 76–80:
In this cover story C. A. discusses the life and work of S., who "avait l'art d'accommoder tous les aspects de l'existence, à l'égal des cuisinières d'autrefois. . . . Pourquoi voir des contradictions là où sa nature goulue ne voit que variété? Le monde plaît à Mme de S. tel qu'il est, et personne n'aurait pu le lui faire changer."
ARNAUD, CLAUDE. "Une mère ou un écrivain?" Le Point (20 juillet 1996), 80–83.
"Mme de S. était elle consciente de faire une oeuvre littéraire? Le débat reste ouvert. En tout cas, elle fut une styliste exigeante. Et une chroniqueuse prodigieusement douée." This article includes two inserts: (1) "Le Nerf d'une correspondance": "Si les lettres de Mme de S. restent passionnantes, c'est, au delà des vues cavalières qu'elles offrent sur le Grand Siècle, grâce à leur style incroyablement gourmand. C'est un rythme, un souffle, presque une syncope. Les mots dansent, glissent et s'envolent . . . ." (2) A brief interview with Roger Duchêne, who says of S., "Ses lettres étaient des allumettes qui ne devaient servir qu'une fois. Il a fallu que le goût change en faveur de la spontanéité pour qu'elles soient hissées au rang de littérature, quand seule l'épopée ou la tragédie y avaient alors droit."
BRAY, BERNARD. "Le cousin Rabutin." RHL 96.3 (1996), 366–77:
B. begins his argument by saying "[O]n n'a pas jusqu'ici, me semble-t-il, porté une attention suffisante à la correspondance qu'échangea la marquise de Sévigné avec son cousin le comte de Bussy." One advantage to studying B.-R.'s correspondence with his cousin is that readers can "observer directement et avec précision l'art de la 'réponse' chez l'un comme chez l'autre." B. claims that the corpus consists of 310 letters which, unlike S.'s letters to her daughter, illustrate "un aspect symétrique et équilibré." Concluding the article, B. discusses the various compliments the two cousins paid to one another, with Bussy praising his cousin's sense of the "naturel," while S. herself admires the "qualités masculines" of her B.-R.'s writing, especially in his correspondence to the king.
BURY, EMMANUEL. "Madame de Sévigné face aux critiques du XIXe siècle: Sainte-Beuve et consorts." RHL 96.3 (1996), 446–60:
B.'s fundamental question is the following: "[Q]uelle place pouvait donc prendre l'épistolière dans le cadre d'une histoire de la littérature classique, telle qu'elle était conçue par un siècle qui avait besoin de ce classicisme pour combattre la nouveauté d'un romantisme." With respect to Sévigné's "place" in this discussion, B. claims that three articles written by Sainte-Beuve in the early-to-mid nineteenth century help to define her role. The articles appeared in 1829, 1849, and 1861. In this first article, S. B. speaks of Sévigné as "le fruit naturel d'un contexte et d'une société." This society prized "l'entente du monde et des hommes," as well as "la politesse achevée du langage." The second article suggests a "familiarité amicale" between Sévigné and the French public, in which S-.B. maintains that Sévigné's popularity comes from "la sincérité de son amour pour sa fille." In the 1860's S.-B. called Sévigné "la spirituelle et l'éblouissante railleuse," linking the verve of her work to that of Molière.
DUCHENE, ROGER. "Madame de Sévigné. Personnage de roman dans l'oeuvre de Proust." RHL 96.3 (1996), 461–74.
D. states that "Tous ceux qui traitent, en passant ou dans un article spécialement consacré à la question de 'Proust ou de Mme de Sévigné,' partent d'une idée reçue: Proust doit à sa grand-mère, qui en était une lectrice passionnée et assidue, une parfaite connaissance de l'oeuvre de l'épistolière." Madame de Sévigné becomes a character in Proust's Recherche because "l'auteur associe à plusieurs reprises les Lettres bien réelles, de la marquise, personnage historique, et les Mémoires tout imaginaires de la fictive Mme de Beausergent. La grand-mère a toujours avec elle les unes et les autres, ce qui permet leur lecture pareille dans le train. For D., Proust's greatest appreciation of Sévigné's Lettres was the fact that "Mieux que personne, il a saisi et dit qu'il s'agissait de lettres d'amour et non de la gazette de son temps."
DUCHENE, ROGER. "Métamorphoses." RHL 96.3 (1996), 359–65.
D. discusses the different types of letters Mme. de Sévigné composed, and examines the literary history of their publication as well as their current accessibility. As far as S.'s style is concerned, D. contends that S. began as an epistolary "galante," and evolved into a "femme d'esprit" later in life. With respect to the textual history of S.'s letters, D. stresses that the first major event was the publication of S.'s missives to her cousin Bussy-Rabutin at the end of the seventeenth century. It was this edition that showed S. as "rivalisant d'esprit et d'intelligence avec son cousin." This edition, published by Bussy's son, led to the publication of S.'s letters to Madame de Grignan in the early eighteenth century. D. concludes the article with a summary of the Perrin and Monmerqué editions, which set the standard for modern day editions.
DUCHENE, ROGER. Chère Madame de Sévigné... Paris: Gallimard, 1995.
Review: P. Sommella in PFSCL 23 (1996), 680–681: A richly illustrated summation of the author's life and work. Includes excerpts, documents, judgements by the author's contemporaries and inheritors, a chronology, and a basic bibliography. Reviewer calls this a "délicieuse brochure."
FARRELL, MICHELE LONGINO. Performing Motherhood: The Sévigné Correspondance. Hanover/London: The University Press of New England, 1991.
Review: Gabriele Verdier in EMF 2 (1996), 223–27: V. commends F.'s work, calling it a "bold new reading of Sévigné's correspondance." In general, V. describes the book as "mak[ing] a much-needed contribution by positioning the Correspondance within the ideology of motherhood and at the origin of its literary enactment." Yet, V. expresses "unease" with "three major points" of F.'s argument: 1) the explanation for "Sévigné's rapid integration into the canon" 2) the idea of letter-writing as a "project" and "choice" to guarantee "social and literary success" and 3) the interpretation of Madame de Grignan's "silence" as part of Sévigné's "prescribed maternal role." V. calls the book "a milestone," but finds the basic thesis somewhat reductive. She concludes "There is more to her letters than the performance of motherhood."
GRASSI, MARIE-CLAIRE. "Naissance d'un nouveau modèle: L'Apparition de Madame de Sévigné dans les traits d'art épistolaire." RHL 96.3 (1996), 378–93.
G. examines S.'s role in "la mise en place d'une esthétique de la lettre au XVIIIe siècle." Placing herself in opposition to Catherine Montford Howard's work, G. claims that "Le modèle sévignéen apparaît donc dans deux ouvrages complémentaires en 1751 et 1761." These manuals, Eléazar de Mauvillon's Traité général du style avec un traité particulier du style épistolaire (1751) and Philipon de La Madeleine's Modèles de lettres sur différents sujets (1761), deal with the theory, style and type of letters, as well as the character of the authors. Philipon de La Madeleine's work is especially important to scholars of the seventeenth century because of its comparison between S. and La Fontaine. G. claims that S.'s work served as a model "parce que tout en s'intégrant dans l'esthétique de son siècle, celle d'une écriture mesurée, elle est la première à avoir su se situer entre impertinence et politesse."
HAROCHE-BOUZINAC, GENEVIEVE. "Voltaire et Madame de Sévigné, un éloge en contrepoint." RHL 96.3 (1996), 394–403.
Article discusses V.'s admiration for S. H.-B. argues that "Voltaire lit Mme de Sévigné en historien, c'est la valeur informative de la lettre qui l'attire." For V., S.'s merit lies in her documentation of France under Louis XIV. According to H.-B., much of V.'s Siècle de Louis XIV is based on S.'s writings. H.-B. points out that S. inspired not only V.'s interpretation of history, but his own letters, where V., in his words, strove to "écrire comme Mme de Sévigné." For H.-B., the "style sévignéen" consisted of "assiduité" and "correction," as well as "un style vif qui convient aux narrations animées, ce style dont les femmes ont le secret, mais que les hommes peuvent imiter."
HUET, JEAN-YVES. "Madame de Sévigné en Angleterre: Horace Walpole et Madame du Deffand." RHL 96.3 (1996), 404–35.
H. claims that "la correspondance d'Horace Walpole et Mme du Deffand n'est pas sans ressemblance avec celle de Mme de Sévigné et de Mme de Grignan." In this exchange, "Mme de Sévigné y est avec Voltaire le plus fréquemment cité." H. claims that W. developed a kind of "culte" around S., calling her "la sainte de Livry," and that Mme du Deffand "seconded" W.'s veneration of S., as both attempted to "retrouver l'esprit du règne de Louis XIV." One interesting aspect of W.'s admiration for S. is her status as an example "entre un modèle purement historique et un modèle littéraire." The fact that she is "entre les deux domaines," leads to W.'s designation of her as a "writer" rather than as an "author."
SCHNEIDER, MICHEL. "Les reines du bien dire." Le Point (20 juillet 1996), 83–84.
"Après Mme de S., d'autres femmes s'illustrèrent dans le genre épistolaire et l'art des Mémoires. Une collection [Coll. "Le Petit Mercure" au Mercure de France] offre un choix subtil de leurs écrits." These women writers "illustrèrent ce courant féminin de notre littérature, capricieux, secret, oublié un temps pour ressourdre en un autre, peu soucieux du bien penser, mais épris du bien dire." These authors "vivaient entre le Grand Siècle et la Révolution." The names of these women (and titles of their works published by Mercure de France) are given at the end of the article: Mme de Tencin, Mme de Staal de Launay, Mme du Deffand, Marie Thérèse d'Autriche, Mme de Genlis, la Margrave de Bayreuth, Julie de Lespinasse, and Germaine de Staël.
SOMMELLA, PAOLA PLACELLA. "Madame de Sévigné in Italie." RHL 96.3 (1996), 436–45.
S. sets out to "esquisser l'image de Mme de Sévigné en Italie." This task is hampered by the fact that Italian editions of the Lettres did not appear until the twentieth century. Accordingly, S. begins her article with a discussion of Luisa Graziana's 1916 edition of the Lettere scelte di Madame di Sévigné. S. claims that Graziani describes Sévigné as "une brillante journaliste, chroniqueur de son époque, une femme capable de conserver son amitié à ses amis, même quand ils sont disgrâciés (Fouquet, Pomponne)." Author then discusses other various editions, as well as articles by Italian scholars on Sévigné. S. relates that while some Italian scholarship praises the Lettres for its "irrégularité stylistique," other criticism falls into the trap of presenting Sévigné as "une mère exemplaire, une bonne chrétienne, [et] la spirituelle animatrice des salons aristocratiques."
DE VOS, WIM. Le Singe au miroir. Emprunt textuel et écriture savante dans les romans comiques de Charles Sorel. Tübingen: Guntar Narr, 1994.
Review: Boris Donné in RHL 96.2 (1996), 322: D. summarizes De Vos's purpose as to "mettre en évidence par une lecture allégorique le caractère métalittéraire de L'Histoire comique de Francion." Calling De Vos's study "cohérente," and "menée avec précision et érudition," D. nonetheless suggests that De Vos's methods "susciteront peut-être des réticences." On the whole, however, D. claims that "l'étude . . . propose plusieurs pistes intéressantes," and prepares the terrain for further study of Sorel's works.
TUCKER, HOLLY. "The Entombment of Lysis: Degradation, Ostracism, and Classical 'Death' in Charles Sorel's Le Berger extravagant." PFSCL 23 (1996), 511–525.
According to T. in the work ". . . madness and the abuse, debasement, and potential confinement with which it is associated should thus be read as analogous to Sorel's effort to silence traditional fiction and to create the tombeau des romans. As such, neither Lysis nor the roman rise up from the ashes; instead, from those ashes, the modern novel finds its origins."
BANDERIER, GILLES. "Autour d'Orphée: Ronsard et Tristan l'Hermite." SFr 38.3 (1994), 485–490.
A study of Ronsard's adaptation of the myth of Orpheus. Tristan l'Hermite also wrote an Orphée which seems to confirm that Ronsard still exerted a major influence in the early 17th century. Tristan remained faithful to his predecessor's perspective and literary sources but borrowed his imagery from Marino.
BERTAUD, MADELEINE. "Ah! Je suis l'auteur de ce meurtre inhumain . . . ." TL 8 (1995), 93–112.
Rich consideration of Tristan L'Hermite's La Marianne along with other treatments of the criminal (les Juives, Phèdre, Athalie, Medée, Rodogune, and others). Examines relation between the 17th c. understanding of tragedy and "le sens de la faute" as well as the moral/religious significance of criminals who recognize their misdeeds, are remorseful and, in some cases, repent. Demonstrates the "fins d'édification" in both the baroque and classical oeuvre, the latter "destinée à . . . plaire pour instruire." Convincingly proves that in 17th c. tragedy "le sentiment de [la] faute . . . est lieu de confluence entre la morale chrétienne . . . et les esthétiques tant baroque que classique."
WILLIAMS, CHARLES G.S. Valincour: The Limits of honnêteté. Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of America, 1991.
Review: D. J. Culpin in FS 46 (1992), 450–51: Well-documented study, depicting V. as member of the meritocracy of civil servants created by Louis XIV and an embodiement of honnêteté in addition to man of letters. "Seeking evidence for a reconciliation of honnêteté and religion midway between detachment of La Rochefoucauld and the lay morality of Mme Lambert opens up a terrain which others may till with profit."
GODARD DE DONVILLE, LOUISE. "L'oeuvre de Théophile de Viau aux feux croisés du 'libertinage'." OeC 20.3 (1995), 185–204.
"La réception critique de Théophile de Viau peut-elle s'affranchir de la référence au 'libertinage' de son auteur? Poser la question, c'est s'interroger sur le bien-fondé de l'analyse qui a établi la première, et réussi à autoriser pour plus de deux siècles, une convergence entre un comportement, une pensée et une écriture poétique—l'analyse de Françoise Garasse [La Doctrine curieuse des beaux esprits de ce temps; L'Apologie; Somme théologique].
© 2007 University of Nebraska–Lincoln. All Rights Reserved.
Sonoma State University |
Modern Language Association |
UNL Center for Digital Research in the Humanities