© 2007 University of Nebraska–Lincoln. All Rights Reserved.
Sonoma State University |
Modern Language Association |
UNL Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
2014 Number 62
MATTON, SYLVAIN. “Agrippa est-il l’auteur du De arte chimica pseudo-ficinien?” BHR 75.3 (2013) 499-514.
Author presents five points supporting his argument in favor of D’Aubigné’s authorship of De arte chimica: “Assurément, pris à part, aucun d’eux n’est décisif; mais réunis, ils forment un faisceau d’indices probant.” influence in terms of how best to create variety in the plot without sacrificing unity.
TEYSSANDIER, BERNARD, ed. Les Fables d’Esope Phrygien. Reims: Epure, 2011. “Héritages critiques” 2011/1.
Review: A Bertolino in S Fr 167 (2012) 312-313. Welcome rediscovery and rehabilitation of B.’s 1645 useful and agreeable work dedicated to the “métier du roi” (Louis XIV). Reproduces the rare copy of the Bibliothèque Carnegie de Reims and includes dédicaces to both prince and queen, a “vie d’Esope” and 128 fables, each followed by an explanatory maxim. The second half of the volume contains essays of criticism on the work, its editorial process, its author, its genesis, and the political use of the fable in the 17th c. The bibliography includes Greek and Latin “fabliers,” modern transmissions, and principal secondary criticism.
LEMOINE, MATHIEU. La Faveur et la gloire: le maréchal de Bassompierre mémorialiste (1579-1646). Paris: PU Paris-Sorbonne, 2012.
Review: J. Garapon in FS 68.1 (2014) 99-100. First comprehensive study of Bassompierre. Divided thematically, rather than chronologically. Includes study of the conflict between aristocracy and monarchy, the Mémoires (1655, first of their kind) the author’s incarceration, and his conflict with Scipion Dupleix, historian for Henri IV and Louis XIII. Reviewer: “livre remarquable” that gives valuable insight into the aristocracy at the time.
LABROUSSE, ELISABETH and ANTHONY MCKENNA, éds. Correspondance de Pierre Bayle, Vol. X: Avril 1696-juillet 1697. Lettres 1100-1280.
Review: J. C. Laursen in MLR 109.3 (2014) 805-806. “This critical edition of Bayle’s letters covers the sixteen months from April 1696 to July 1697. It contains 1280 letters plus mention of ninety-two lost letters, and of course Bayle may have written or received many more. Bayle corresponds here with fifty-six people. Approximately 2000 names are mentioned, most of them authors or subjects of authors, ranging across the entire course of history. And Bayle was not the only one who has been industrious: in the scholarly notes the editors refer to 296 works published since Bayle’s death. A read through these letters confirms the density and breadth of Bayle’s network of correspondents. The remarkable thing is that Bayle is not swamped by all of this information. In fact, he uses much of it in his Dictionnaire historique et critique, which he was writing in these years.”
KULESZA, MONIKA. L’Amour de la morale, la morale de l’amour. Les romans de Catherine Bernard. Warszawa: Unywerytet Warszawsky, Wydzial Neofilolog, 2010.
Review: F. Piva in S Fr 166 (2012) 142-143. Welcome study for the seriousness and competence it demonstrates as well as for the lucidity of its analyses of B.’s works, K.’s exploration will take its rightful place among others focusing on neglected women authors of the Grand Siècle. Despite outlining several problems that remain to be solved such as the relationship between B. and the world of letters and society in general as well as certain attributions such as that of Le Commerce galant, P. praises K.’s attentive and clear reading of B. alongside her confrontation of B.’s novels with the works of moralists such as La Rochefoucauld and Fontenelle.
DUFOUR, ALAIN, HERVE GENTON, et MONIQUE CUANY, éds. Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze. Genève: Droz: 2013.
Review: S. M. Manetsch in BHR 76.2 (2014) 369-371. Reviewer finds standard of excellence maintained in this 37th volume of Théodore de Bèze’s correspondence. Praise for “rich summaries of each letter and exhaustive annotations packed full of important biographical, historical and theological details.”
GUION, BEATRICE. “‘Ces grands mots de temps et de mort’: la mort dans les Oeuvres oratoires de Bossuet.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 169-180.
Careful and convincing demonstration presents solid and engaging arguments against both the romantic confessional appreciation and the baroque interpretation of B. Considering the demands of both doctrine and preaching, G. correctly reminds us that “la mort est d’abord présente pour inciter l’auditeur à la conversion” (169) and that our body is corruptible. Moral and theological lessons result from B.’s images and biblical references. G. underscores the role of the senses, antithesis, metaphoric assimilations and other key stylistic features such as repetition, all in the service of “l’exhortation au contemptus mundi et à la pénitence” (180).
JACQUETIN-GAUDET, ALBERTE and COLETTE DEMAIZIERE, eds. Daniel Cachedenier. Initiation à la langue française. Paris: Éditions Classiques Garnier, 2010.
Review: S. Lardon in S Fr 168 (2012) 558-559. Monumental edition “de grande valeur” (559) presents this grammar in facsimile, then translated and annotated. After a rich introduction, the volume is organized in three books as follows: “Des lettres”, “De la variation des mots”, and “De la syntaxe.” Bibliography, annexes and indices.
ARTIGAS-MENANT, GENEVIEVE. “‘Ce qu’on appelle la mort’: selon Robert Challe.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 193-205.
Penetrating analysis of C.’s evocation of the horrors of death in his Journal d’un voyage fait aux Indes orientales. Terrifying descriptions, poetic references (to Ovide, Corneille, among others) and commentaries (esthetic, moral, metaphysical, emotional) combine to provide the reader with a “parfait exemplum” (194). A.-M. observes the striking use of exclamations and the eloquence of a récit which appeals to the sensorial. A.-M. finds that C.’s evocation of death and his “art de la mise en scène” extend to each of the seven stories of his Illustres Françaises (197). The latter with its “art romanesque” and “inquiétude métaphysique” suggests to the reader an examination of his/her own philosophy of death (201). A.-M. examines C.’s other writings, concluding persuasively that the theme of death has a “rôle unificateur . . . dans l’oeuvre challienne” (204).
BUSSAT-ENEVOLDSEN, MARIE-CLAIRE. Le voile et la plume. Jeanne Chantal et François de Sales, l’étonnant récit de leur rencontre. Montrouge: Bayard, 2010.
Review: J. Morgante in S Fr 166 (2012) 137. This volume offers a biography which focuses on the first part of J de C.’s life, although the interested reader will also discover an account of her later life and a rapid reconstruction of that of F. de Sales. M. notes lacunae but remarks that the picture of Jeanne from the biography highlights her intelligence and independance.
McVICAR, DAVID, dir. Medea. English National Opera.
Review: G. Dammann in TLS 5737 (March 15, 2013) 17. Opera is given World War II as setting. Director draws “clever parallels between the warring ancient Greek cities and the stereotypical characterization of the allies.” Sarah Connolly has role of Medea.
MASTROIANNI, MICHELE. L’officina poetica di Jean-Baptiste Chassignet. Vercelli: Edizioni Mercurio, 2010.
Review: S. Lardon in S Fr 168 (2012) 557-558. Welcome recueil of M.’s articles, revised and augmented. The studies are grouped thematically in three sections relating to 1) biblical paraphrase, 2) religious poetry, and 3) emblematic and iconographic dimension. L. underscores the remarkable unity of the collection and its essential quality, not only for scholars of C. but also for those of 16th and 17th c. religious poetry. Index of names.
SCOTT, PAUL. “Authenticity and Textual Transvestism in the Memoirs of the Abbé de Choisy.” FS 69.1 (2015) 14-29.
Uses chronology, inconsistencies in the narrative, and analysis of plausibility to suggest that de Choisy’s “memoirs” should not be read autobiographically but rather as a fantasy that blends elements of the memoir, fairy tale, and novel. Posits that may have been written to compensate for abbé’s insecurities regarding his sexuality.
ROBERTS, HUGH. “Obscenity and the Politics of Authorship in Early Seventeenth-Century France: Guillaume Colletet and Le Parnasse des poètes satyriques (1622).” FS 68.1 (2014) 18-33.
Explores Colletet’s path from exile to immortel. Banished for “obscenity,” his use of forbidden words was less about libertinage than about establishing his credentials as a poet.
EDMUNDS, JOHN, trans. Intro. by Joseph Harris. Corneille, Molière, Racine: Four French Plays: ‘Cinna’, ‘The Misanthrope’, ‘Andromaque’, ‘Phaedra’. London: Penguin, 2013.
Review: T. Chilcott in MLR 109.3 (2014) 802-803. Superb new verse translations of four major plays in the French classical canon. Preface by Harris provides valuable theatrical and cultural context. “…the inclusion of Corneille’s Critique and Racine’s Prefaces, as well as sections on Chronology and Further Reading, a genealogical table, and a guide to pronunciation, enhances the sense of comprehensive treatment.”
RIFFAUD, A., ed. Pierre Corneille, Cinna. Genève: Droz, 2011 (“Textes Littéraires Français”)
Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 168 (2012) 561-562. Welcome critical edition follows that of 1682, the last one reviewed by C. Rich introduction largely indebted to G. Forestier, but with exegesis by R. related to C.’s political theme, philosophical references and classical sources. Demonstrates C.’s interest for today’s globalization and concerns of political power and its legitimacy. Admirable critical apparatus including a bibliography.
SIMONIS, LINDA. “Gestes et images du pouvoir. Tendances contradictoires dans Horace de Corneille.” PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 83-102.
Compares David’s Le serment des Horaces to Corneille’s Horace to show how the tragedy reveals a tension between sound and sight that exposes contradictory views concerning political power.
DELAHANTY, ANNE E. and TYLER BLAKNEY. “Textual Engagement with the Other in Cyrano de Bergerac’s L’Autre Monde.” FS 68.3 (2014) 313-27.
Shows how de Bergerac inverts the norm of the seventeenth-century travel narrative, challenges the practice of categorically defining the Other, and encourages the pursuit of personal experience to learn about the world.
PREVOT, JACQUES. Cyrano de Bergerac. L’écrivain de la crise. Paris: Ellipses, 2011. Collection “Bibliographies et Mythes historiques.”
Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 167 (2012) 313. C. is placed in a rich, erudite, and well-articulated historical-cultural context. After a biographical chapter which includes C.’s literary and libertine adventures, his contacts with the Fronde, etc., successive chapters analyze his works from the Entretiens pointus and letters, to his theatre and fiction. Useful chronology and well-oriented bibliography.
ANFRAY, JEAN-PASCAL. « L’étendue spatiale et temporelle des esprits: Descartes et le holenmérisme ». RPHF 139.1 (janvier-mars 2014) 23-46.
« Le holenmérisme demeure une pièce essentielle chez Descartes pour penser le rapport de l’âme à l’étendue spatiale et à l’étendue temporelle. Les deux premières parties de cette étude aborderont les discussions scolastiques autour de la présence spatiale de l’âme aux corps et la persistance temporelle de celles-ci. Dans les deux suivantes, il s’agira d’établir que Descartes défend sur ces deux questions des thèses holenmériennes ».
DEVILLAIRS, LAURENCE. René Descartes. Paris : Presses universitaires de France, 2013.
Review: P. Dumont in RPHF 139.2 (avril-juin 2014) 247-48. « L’auteur présente son ouvrage en rupture avec ‘ceux qui se déclarent cartésiens’ et associent trop le cartésianisme à ‘un scientisme buté’ fait pour ‘un être désincarné’. […] La conclusion évoque les orientations variables, au cours des siècles, de la postérité du cartésianisme, tour à tour rejeté ou revendiqué comme pilier de la religion chrétienne ou rempart de la laïcité. Laurence Devillairs entend clairement trancher cette alternative ».
DURU, AUDREY. Essais de soi: poésie spirituelle et rapport à soi, entre Montaigne et Descartes. Genève: Droz, 2012.
Review: E. Herdman in FS 68.2 (2014) 242-43. Explores literary and cultural impact of devotional poetry by lesser-known poets of late 16th-early 17th centuries. Shows that poets’ self-expression is more about religious and political autonomy than a quest for self as a modern reader might understand the term. Reviewer: “detailed and well-informed.”
THIEL, UDO. The Early Modern Subject: Self-consciousness and Personal Identity from Descartes to Hume. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011.
Review: D. Heller-Roazen in TLS 5757 (August 2, 2013) 24. Reviewer finds this a “learned and weighty book” which “reconstructs the steps” that led early modern thinkers “to offer innovative accounts of the relations between reflective awareness and identity across time.” Thiel argues that Descartes less innovative than some suppose since the doctrine of the cogito says little about “what makes each individual soul the thing it is” (Heller-Roazen). Cartesians “drew no close link between subjective awareness and the identity of the human person” (Heller-Roazen).
VELDE, DAAN JOHAN VAN DE. “Le Paragraphe dans le Discours de la Méthode.” FS 68.4 (2014) 477-92.
Closely studies editions of the Discours published during Descartes’s lifetime to show that his use of paragraphs is both unique and intentional, a specific textual strategy that aids in presenting his ideas in a clear and logical manner.
TONOLO, SOPHIE, ed. Madame Deshoulière. Poésies. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2010.
Review: J. Morgante in S Fr 167 (2012) 313-314. Highly useful edition for its pertinent introduction and annotations of texts. T.’s work highlights the value of D.’s poetry and its literary historic interest. Four appendices feature relevant texts such as the querelle of Phèdre (1677) in which D. participated.
DONNEAU DE VISÉ, JEAN. Les costeaux ou les marquis frians. Ed. Peter Shoemaker. London: MHRA, 2013.
Review: J. Prest in TLS 5769 (Oct 25, 2013) 31. Shoemaker presents a convincing case that this play, published anonymously in 1665, is by Donneau de Visé, not Claude Deschamps de Villiers. Prest says that “Visé was drawn to topicality . . . and, in 1665, the emerging figure of the gastronome was ripe for satirical treatment.” “Shoemaker ably sets out how the play coincided with a revolution in taste and a gradual but marked shift in culinary practice, which now promoted natural flavors and textures.” Volume fulfills the series aim of making lesser known texts available and affordable.
Review: D. Connon in MLR 109.2 (2014) 513. “Published anonymously, this short play was attributed in the eighteenth century to Deschamps de Villiers, although Peter William Shoemaker has enough faith in Chappuzeau’s seventeenth-century attribution to Donneau de Visé, which he backs up in his Introduction to this edition with both textual and circumstantial evidence, to include it on the title-page.”
PAPASOGLI, BENEDETTA. “Les leçons de la mort dans Les Aventures de Télémaque.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 181-191.
Praiseworthy parcours from the first to the last book of F.’s novel examines conversations, narration, action, mise en scène, spiritual signs, the dialectic between exterior and interior, and, to be sure, “peinture moral” and pedagogy. P. carefully and convincingly analyzes F.’s “ecphrases de la mort”, beauty and ugliness in the novel, finding that “les contraires ne s’excluent pas” (191) (the Platonician Fénelon has given a body to Mentor) and that Télémaque “se prête à une lecture ouverte” (190).
FURETIÈRE, ANTOINE. Le Voyage de Mercure et autres satires. Ed. Jean Leclerc. Paris: Hermann, 2014.
Review: H. Roberts in FS 68.4 (2014) 544. An updated edition of a text more known in Furetière’s time than our own. Also includes five shorter satires and a substantial glossary that reveals much about changes in the French language. Reviewer praises the editing by Leclerc, a noted scholar of burlesque literature. Text “helpful to a range of specialists and students,” especially those interested in the evolution of satire.
MOYES, CRAIG. Furetière’s Roman bourgeois and the Problem of Exchange: Titular Economies. Oxford: Legenda, 2013.
Review: M. Bannister in FS 68.3 (2014) 394-95. Looks at Furetière’s “puzzling” novel in the context of Fouquet’s fall from favor as well as the repetition of the word “title.” Explores the fourteen definitions of this word, as well as other “headwords,” in Furetière’s Dictionnaire universel. Reviewer: some may disagree with author’s methods or conclusions, but study sheds light on the novel regardless.
JEANNERET, MICHEL. Versailles, ordre et chaos. Paris: Gallimard, 2012.
Review: M.-C. Canova-Green in MLR 109.3 (2014) 803-805. “Starting with an analysis of the early Versailles gardens with their Ovidian inspiration symptomatic of a fear of a return to primitive ages, he shows to what extent the lavish festivals of the 1660s–1670s, comédies-ballets, ballets, and operas included, both duplicated and clarified the message at the heart of the park’s design with its monsters and graceful mythological figures. He then goes on to consider the better-known authors of the period, La Fontaine, La Bruyère, La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, Molière, Racine, as well as treatises of physiognomy and clandestine texts such as Theophrastus Redivivus, with a view to revealing how they all exposed the same unsettling kinship between man and animal.”
MORIARTY, MICHAEL. “La Bruyère: Virtue and Disinterestedness.” FS 68.2 (2014) 164-79.
Explains two of the principles underlying La Bruyère’s Caractères. Virtue is Aristotelian, motivated by doing good for its own sake; any glory or pleasure must be a byproduct, not a motive. Disinterestedness can go in two directions, self-sacrifice or detachment from the world, but is always a moral value, potential source of personal well-being, and social ideal.
CORRADI, FEDERICO, ed and trans. Madame de Lafayette. La Princesse de Montpensier. Rome: Portaparole, 2011.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 167 (2012) 314. Welcome translation of this nouvelle of L, usefully annotated and furnished with a pertinent introduction which is attentive to recent discussions of the nouvelle and 17th c. French narrative. Text is reprised from that of Micheline Cuénin (1979) and the translation takes into account the 1980 one of Gesualdo Bufalino and Paola Masino.
ESMEIN-SARRAZIN, CAMILLE, éd. Madame de Lafayette. Œuvres complètes. Paris : Gallimard, 2014.
Review: C. Seth in NQL 1106 (eu 1er au 15 juin 2014) 3. « L’un des grands mérites de cette édition nouvelle—outre sa richesse—est de ne pas esquiver les questions—y compris et surtout celles auxquelles il est impossible, en l’état actuel de nos connaissances, de répondre. On se souvient que Mme de Lafayette refusait de signer ses œuvres littéraires et désavouait à l’occasion l’attribution qui lui en était faite. Faut-il y voir le calcul politique d’une proche de la duchesse de Savoie, la reconnaissance implicite de la collaboration de tiers—on a plusieurs fois cité Segrais—ou la posture aristocratique d’une grande dame ? Le présent volume met en évidence les pratiques d’écriture en société, de circulation de manuscrits, de relectures et de corrections, de textes dont les autographes ont le plus souvent disparu. Nous ignorons—et ignorerons probablement toujours—la part des uns et des autres dans la composition des œuvres publiées ici sous le nom de Lafayette. Gageons que, malgré cela, les générations futures trouveront autant de plaisir que la nôtre à les découvrir et pourront encore affirmer avec fierté : ‘je lis La Princesse de Clèves’ ».
COLLINET, JEAN-PIERRE. Visages de La Fontaine. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2010.
Review: J. Morgante in S Fr 167 (2012) 314. Praiseworthy volume brings together 28 studies, some revised from 1991-2010, by an eminent critic of La F. Organized in sections as follows: “Généralités” (including emphasis on La F.’s duality and diversity) “Les Fables”, and “Les Amours de Psyché et Cupidon.”
FÉERIES: ÉTUDES SUR LE CONTE MERVEILLEUX XVIIE –XIXE SIÈCLE. 7 (2010). Le Conte et la Fable. 8 (2011). Le merveilleux français à travers les siècles, les langues, les continents.
Review: M. Kaplanoglou in M&T 29.1 (2015) 163-65. Journal, begun in 2004. According to website, “devoted to the study of the French language fantasy tale from the 17th to the 19th century. Each issue is organised around a theme and presents an overview of the critical literature of the genre. The journal has a resolutely literary approach.” Volume 7, edited by Aurélia Gaillard and Jean-Paul Sermain, includes articles on La Fontaine, Perrault, “anthropological parameters,” “narrative motivation,” imagination, memory, morality, and the recurring motif of the key. Volume 8, edited by Jean Mainil, explores “how a corpus of texts specific to France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had such a lasting influence in different linguistic, cultural, and geographic contexts” and includes articles on Perrault and d’Aulnoy, among others.
Portraits de La Fontaine, Le Fablier 21 (2010).
Review: F. Corradi in S Fr 167 (2012) 314-315. This issue of Le Fablier presents an important re-edition of the most significant biographical criticism of La F from the 17th c. to the second half of the 18th c. Ranging from works of praise such as those by Perrault and Chamfort, to anecdotal texts focusing on La F.’s life by Tallemant de Réaux, to erudite studies and biographical notices for editions. The introduction by Damien Fortin contains highly useful reflections on key concepts of the Grand Siècle. Includes a reproduction of a 17th c. miniature belonging to descendants of the maternal family of La F.
JEANNERET, MICHEL. Versailles, ordre et chaos. Paris: Gallimard, 2012.
Review: M.-C. Canova-Green in MLR 109.3 (2014) 803-805. “Starting with an analysis of the early Versailles gardens with their Ovidian inspiration symptomatic of a fear of a return to primitive ages, he shows to what extent the lavish festivals of the 1660s–1670s, comédies-ballets, ballets, and operas included, both duplicated and clarified the message at the heart of the park’s design with its monsters and graceful mythological figures. He then goes on to consider the better-known authors of the period, La Fontaine, La Bruyère, La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, Molière, Racine, as well as treatises of physiognomy and clandestine texts such as Theophrastus Redivivus, with a view to revealing how they all exposed the same unsettling kinship between man and animal.”
SPICA, ANNE-E. “Représentation du pouvoir, pouvoir de la représentation: De l’Art de régner de Pierre Le Moyne (1665).” PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 19-36.
Shows how Le Moyne intertwines the verbal and the visual in order to counter followers of Machiavelli and define the ideal Christian monarch as pious and merciful. Includes illustrations.
VERGÉ-FRANCESCHI, MICHEL. Ninon de Lenclos, Libertine du Grand Siècle. Paris : Payot, 2014.
Review: J. M. Goulemot in NQL 1113 (du 1er au 15 octobre 2014) 22-23. « Cette biographie foisonnante ne va pas sans poser à propos du genre qu’elle illustre quelques interrogations. » Le critique trouve que l’œuvre de Vergé-Franceschi démontre que Ninon de Lenclos fut libertine de mœurs mais il trouve qu’elle est moins convaincante pour démontrer un libertinage de l’esprit. En conclusion, le critique trouve que « des questions à poser demeurent, de fait, en suspens. Comment expliquer l’importance que lui ont reconnue ses contemporains et un certain imaginaire du siècle de Louis XIV, dont Voltaire s’est fait l’historien scrupuleux et admiratif ? Pourquoi n’a-t-elle pas survécu, le XVIIIe siècle achevé, que dans les manuels d’histoire littéraire, d’ordinaire si pudiques ? C’est l’un des mérites de cette biographie que de nous conduire à nous poser ces questions. »
MACIA, JEAN-LUC. “L’opéra française baroque à son zénith.” RDM (février 2014) 162-166.
Favorable review of the production of Lully’s Phaéton by Christophe Rousset and the “Talens lyriques.”
BOTS, HANS and EUGÉNIE BOTS-ESTOURGIE, eds. Madame de Maintenon. Lettres, vol. III (1698-1706). Paris: Champion, 2011.
Review: A. Amatuzzi in c 167 (2012) 316. Welcome third volume (of seven planned) of M.’s correspondence includes over 800 letters. Principal themes are indicated in the introduction and include the following, among others: education, quietism, Jansenism, wars and politics. Modernization of orthography and useful annotations.
CONESA, GABRIEL. Le Pauvre homme! Molière et l’affaire du Tartuffe. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2012.
Review: J.F. Gaines in PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 213-15. An account of the Tartuffe affair that focuses on 1664-1669, with more attention to the early part of the period. Develops, modifies, and in some cases completely revises representation of figures within the theater, the sociopolitical margins, or even the historical mainstream. Reviewer seems unable to decide whether work is historical fiction or “creative non-fiction,” but praises text for its readability and extensive research.
EDMUNDS, JOHN, trans. Intro. by Joseph Harris. Corneille, Molière, Racine: Four French Plays: ‘Cinna’, ‘The Misanthrope’, ‘Andromaque’, ‘Phaedra’. London: Penguin, 2013.
Review: T. Chilcott in MLR 109.3 (2014) 802-803. Superb new verse translations of four major plays in the French classical canon. Preface by Harris provides valuable theatrical and cultural context. “…the inclusion of Corneille’s Critique and Racine’s Prefaces, as well as sections on Chronology and Further Reading, a genealogical table, and a guide to pronunciation, enhances the sense of comprehensive treatment.”
JEANNERET, MICHEL. Versailles, ordre et chaos. Paris: Gallimard, 2012.
Review: M.-C. Canova-Green MLR 109.3 (2014) 803-805. “Starting with an analysis of the early Versailles gardens with their Ovidian inspiration symptomatic of a fear of a return to primitive ages, he shows to what extent the lavish festivals of the 1660s–1670s, comédies-ballets, ballets, and operas included, both duplicated and clarified the message at the heart of the park’s design with its monsters and graceful mythological figures. He then goes on to consider the better-known authors of the period, La Fontaine, La Bruyère, La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, Molière, Racine, as well as treatises of physiognomy and clandestine texts such as Theophrastus Redivivus, with a view to revealing how they all exposed the same unsettling kinship between man and animal.”
PEACOCK, NOËL. Molière sous les feux de la rampe. Paris: Hermann, 2012.
Review: M. Hawcroft in FS 68.1 (2014) 100-01. Looks at 20th- and 21st-century productions of Molière, mostly via reviews and director’s writings; some live and taped productions are also included. Author places these performances in context, starting with those put on by Molière himself.
PERRENOUD, THIBAULT, dir. Le Misanthrope. Théâtre de la Bastille, du 20 novembre au 20 décembre 2014.
Review: M. Le Roux in NQL 1117 (du 1er au 15 décembre 2014) 28. « Certains artistes de la jeune génération ressentent comme une évidence le souci de rendre les textes du passé le plus proches possible de leur époque à eux. Pour leur première mise en scène, Thibault Perrenoud et ses partenaires de la compagnie Kobal’t, Mathieu Boisliveau et Guillaume Motte, situent Le Misanthrope dans une fête d’aujourd’hui, avec buffet, musique, tenues plus ou moins à la mode selon les participants. Au Théâtre de la Bastille, dans un espace entouré de trois côtés par les spectateurs, un affrontement physique, dès la scène d’exposition, donne d’entrée de jeu la mesure de l’énergie déployée. […] Marc Arnaud s’avère un magnifique Misanthrope, dans la manifestation des émotions comme dans la diction des alexandrains ».
PIERRE, HERVÉ, dir. Georges Dandin. Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, du 12 novembre 2014 au 1er janvier 2015.
Review: M. Le Roux in NQL 1117 (du 1er au 15 décembre 2014) 28. « Le spectacle est dédié à Jean Dautremay […]. Hervé Pierre, son élève à l’École du TNS (Théâtre national de Strasbourg) est resté fidèle à son enseignement. Pour sa première création dans la Maison, il s’est manifestement inspiré de la rigueur artistique de son maître et de son respect des textes. Il est parvenu à associer un retour au contexte de la création et des choix très personnels. En 1668, pour un ‘grand divertissement royal de Versailles’, Molière inséra Georges Dandin dans une pastorale avec musique et ballet de Lully. Loin de rechercher une harmonie de tons, il creusa l’écart et conçut ce qui a parfois été considéré comme une parodie burlesque de la bergerie. Le metteur en scène a gardé le souvenir de ce contraste, scandant chaque changement d’acte par une élégante chorégraphie (de Cécile Bon) : rupture du vraisemblable et médiation de l’art ».
PODALYDÈS, DENIS, dir. Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris, 23 June 2012.
Review: M. Le Roux in TJ 65.2 (2013) 273-75. A production that “wound up showcasing France’s own struggles with integration.” In a country “with about 5 million Muslims and an immigrant population that often seems socially alienated and politically marginalized, the dilemma of how to produce Le Bourgeois gentilhomme at state-supported theatres reveals fraught tensions between France’s past and future.” Reviewer has high praise for many aspects of the production, including Pascal Rénéric’s performance as Jourdain, but not totally convinced by director’s attempt to “mock the mockers” and to make the French characters in “Ottoman drag” the real objects of ridicule.
ROUSSILLON, MARINE. “La visibilité du pouvoir dans les Plaisirs de l’île enchantée (1664) spectacle, textes et images.” PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 103-17.
Studies the publications that accompany/follow each fête at Versailles to show how they bring together representations of power, an ethics of pleasure, and an aesthetically satisfying blend of various arts.
STEIGERWALD, JÖRN. “De la maison de ville à la maison royale: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme de Molière.” PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 19-36.
Shows how Le Moyne intertwines the verbal and the visual in order to counter followers of Machiavelli and define the ideal Christian monarch as pious and merciful. Includes illustrations.
HOFFMAN, MELISSA A. “The Fairy as Hero(ine) and Author: Representations of Female Power in Murat’s “Le Turbot.” M&T 28.2 (2014) 252-77.
Reveals Murat’s fairy Turbodine as lover, author, powerful influence on other rulers, and commanding queen in her own right. Power and knowledge become feminine concerns in the tale; pride of place goes to les conteuses.
FERREYROLLES, GÉRARD. “Mourir avec Pascal.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 127-138.
Focusing on P.’s Lettre sur la mort written at his father’s death, on his Pensées, and on his Prière pour demander à Dieu le bon usage des maladies written two or three years before his death, F. discovers three perspectives and an evolution: “une perspective théologique, une perspective apologétique et une perspective spirituelle” (127). In the letter P. reminds us that man as created was not destined to die, but death is the result of original sin, and that the horror we feel for death was legitimate in the innocent state. Finally, according to the Christian vision, death marks “le couronnement de la béatitude de l’âme, et le commencement de la béatitude du corps” (Lettre sur la mort, 859). F. finds that in the Pensées, P.’s perspective necessarily must change as he seeks to persuade his “lecteurs libertins” with vivid, brutal and repugnant images of death “pour déchirer le voile d’oubli dont l’homme enveloppe sa fin” (F. 130). Death for P. does not illustrate our misery, but our vanity (liasse III, F. 130). Masterfully referring to numerous pertinent fragments, F. draws our attention to fragment 190 where the situation is resumed in an abrupt warning: “si vous mourez sans adorer le vrai principe, vous êtes perdu” (131). The spiritual dimension or perspective is developed in P.’s Prière pour demander à Dieu le bon usage des maladies where we have a reflection on death which all must face and a meditation on death which belongs to the Christian (132). Death is no longer a confrontation with the question of God’s existence but the experience of his presence in the person of Jesus-Christ (133). F.’s rich analysis also takes into account other writings of P. such as the Écrit sur la conversion du pécheur and letters to Mlle de Roannez as he underscores the Augustinian anthropology of P. and the Pauline understanding of the struggle between flesh and spirit. F. concludes that P.’s treatment of death has both a remarkable continuity and a progression. The three foci here correspond to three significations: “adoration,” “expiation”, and “libération” (138).
JEANNERET, MICHEL. Versailles, ordre et chaos. Paris: Gallimard, 2012.
Review: M.-C. Canova-Green MLR 109.3 (2014) 803-805. “Starting with an analysis of the early Versailles gardens with their Ovidian inspiration symptomatic of a fear of a return to primitive ages, he shows to what extent the lavish festivals of the 1660s–1670s, comédies-ballets, ballets, and operas included, both duplicated and clarified the message at the heart of the park’s design with its monsters and graceful mythological figures. He then goes on to consider the better-known authors of the period, La Fontaine, La Bruyère, La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, Molière, Racine, as well as treatises of physiognomy and clandestine texts such as Theophrastus Redivivus, with a view to revealing how they all exposed the same unsettling kinship between man and animal.”
LYONS, JOHN D. The Phantom of Chance : From Fortune to Randomness in Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012.
Review: K. Wine in MP 111.4 (May 2014) E411-E414. “This searching and provocative study offers a compelling account of the cultural and intellectual currents that encouraged the increasing prominence of a “de-dramatized” hasard over the course of the seventeenth century. Whereas […] much writing about chance in the early modern period has focused on probability or on games of chance, Lyon’s wider emphasis offers an illuminating perspective on the grand siècle as a whole, demonstrating that the period’s preoccupation with regularity lead to new methods of dealing with the disordered, the random, and the formless. The book’s richest rewards, however, lie in its readings. Lyons states early on that much of the distinctiveness of individual writers lies in the ways they use their perception of chance’s ubiquity, a claim that the individual chapters fully bear out. At the same time, the individual analyses bring to light unexpected affinities, as in the cases of Pascal and the Jesuits or Joad and Athalie.”
SHIOKAWA, TETSUYA. Entre foi et raison: l’autorité. Études pascaliennes. Paris: Champion, 2012.
Review: H. Bjornstad in PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 215-18. A collection of texts by eminent Pascal scholar Shiokawa, written over four decades and revised and/or translated into French for the present volume. Three sections of five essays each: themes and concepts, apologetics, and politics. Reviewer finds second the strongest. Essays are clear and hold together both individually and as a collection, thanks in large part to author’s problem-driven approach. A valuable contribution to Pascal studies.
TANOÜARN, GUILLAUME DE. Parier avec Pascal. Paris : Cerf, 2012.
Review: J. Dubray in RPHF 139.2 (avril-juin 2014) 250-51. « Certes, depuis des siècles, la pensée de Pascal, mondialement analysée et commentée, n’a cessé de susciter, de L. Brunschvieg à Ph. Sellier, de Nietzsche à L. Goldman, les interprétations les plus variées, voire les plus contradictoires. Si cette diversité présente un caractère légitime, il semble, toutefois, difficile d’adhérer pleinement aux thèses développées ici par l’auteur tant elles surprennent les lecteurs les moins avertis et peuvent heurter les spécialistes les plus réputés. Ainsi l’amalgame opéré entre le pari tel que l’entend Pascal, uniquement préparatoire à la foi, et la foi elle-même, laquelle dépend d’un don libre et gratuit de Dieu, représente une lecture totalement subjective qui frôle le contresens ».
MAGNIEN-SIMONIN, CATHERINE. “La Mort des grands dans les écrits historiques d’Étienne Pasquier.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 113-125.
Concentrating her analysis on P.’s Les Recherches de la France and on numerous letters where P. reveals a fascination with the death of “personnages illustres” such as the Guises, Coligny and Montaigne, among others, M.-S. examines how P. used the materials. She discovers P.’s originality in painting not only a “miroir du prince” but examples to avoid. P.’s récits distinguish between “la belle mort” and “la bonne mort,” and M.-S. discovers chez P. not only representation but also “signification au moment et dans les circonstances” (121). M.-S. has found surprising commentaries of P. such as the one reminding his readers of the condemnation of astrology by Christianity juxtaposed with an account of a death, complete with predictions and coincidences. History chez P. is, M.-S. concludes, a “réflexion sur l’histoire de la France, nourrie de la vie et de la geste des grands personnages et éclairée par leur mort”(125).
BOLDUC, BENOÎT. “Fêtes on Paper: Graphic Representations of Louis XIV’s Festivals at Versailles.” Princeton U Library Chronicle LXXVI, 1-2 (2014-2015) 211-41.
Explores three royal festivals in light of Perrault’s (1664) and Félibien’s (1668, 1674) published accounts thereof, especially the plates, as manifestations of monarchical power in which art and nature are brought together in seemingly miraculous ways.
FÉERIES: ÉTUDES SUR LE CONTE MERVEILLEUX XVIIE –XIXE SIÈCLE. 7 (2010). Le Conte et la Fable. 8 (2011). Le merveilleux français à travers les siècles, les langues, les continents.
Review: M. Kaplanoglou in M&T 29.1 (2015) 163-65. Journal, begun in 2004. According to website, “devoted to the study of the French language fantasy tale from the 17th to the 19th century. Each issue is organised around a theme and presents an overview of the critical literature of the genre. The journal has a resolutely literary approach.” Volume 7, edited by Aurélia Gaillard and Jean-Paul Sermain, includes articles on La Fontaine, Perrault, “anthropological parameters,” “narrative motivation,” imagination, memory, morality, and the recurring motif of the key. Volume 8, edited by Jean Mainil, explores “how a corpus of texts specific to France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had such a lasting influence in different linguistic, cultural, and geographic contexts” and includes articles on Perrault and d’Aulnoy, among others.
GHEERAERT, T., ed. Charles Perrault, Contes. Paris: Champion, 2012.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 168 (2012) 563-564. Praiseworthy new edition of P.’s Contes contains modernized Contes en vers and the Histoires ou Contes du temps passé in prose. Abundant annotations along with a rich and well-documented introduction, annexes, notices and a selected bibliography.
SEIFERT, LEWIS. “Queer Time in Charles Perrault’s ‘Sleeping Beauty.’” M&T 29.1 (2015) 21-41.
Claims that the disruptions of space and time in “Sleeping Beauty” and other tales create the possibility of “other enchanted temporal realms where queer desires are not followed by—or subordinated to—heteronormative nightmares.”
PLANTAVIT DE LA PAUSE, JEAN DE. Mémoires de Messire Jean de Plantavit de La Pause, seigneur de Margon, chevalier de l’ordre de Saint-Louis, lieutenant de roy de la province de Languedoc, colonel d’un régiment de dragons et brigadier des armées de Sa Majesté. Ed. Hubert de Vergnette de Lamotte. Paris: Éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, 2013.
Review: M. Green in FS 69.1 (2015) 94-95. More than mere autobiography of an obscure nobleman, the writings of this contemporary of Saint-Simon provide insight into military campaigns, court politics, religion, music, literature, and the arts. Edition includes tables of contents and indexes for each chapter; spelling and punctuation are somewhat modernized.
CAGNAT-DEBOEUF, CONSTANCE. “‘Ce triomphe d’amour’: la mort des Solitaires dans les mémoires de Port-Royal.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 139-154.
Rich and fascinating examination of memorial texts by C.-D. demonstrates not only their great importance and variety but also their diverse strategies. C.-D. finds the originality of the “récit de mort port-royaliste” to be in the tension that exists when adversaries attempt to transform edifying récits into “morts des réprouvés” (139). Important stylistic characteristics, language and salient examples of the hagiographic récit are presented and analyzed. Particularly appealing is C.-D.’s examination of several “hymnes à l’amitié” included in the récits, modeled after S. Augustine and demonstrating affinities with Montaigne. C.-D. asks, rightly so in our eyes, if we cannot apply to the Solitaires’ “récit de mort” the phrase from one (by Nicolas Fontaine) “ce triomphe d’amour qui surmonte tout”? (154).
PAPASOGLI, BENEDETTA. “Rileggendo Sainte-Beuve: è il ‘Port-Royal’ ad aver ‘fatto’ la grandezza sei Solitari?” S Fr 166 (2012) 79-83.
P’s useful article includes reminders of previous editions of Port-Royal, the French editions of 1955 and 2004, the Italian translation of 1964 and the recent 2011 one. Focuses on the iconographic apparatus and its dialogue with the literary portraits. Notes the introduction by Mario Richter which allows us to experience anew S.-B.’s rich intellectual and spiritual dimensions. Underscores the excellence of the edition and the collaborative work of five translators (80). The remainder of the article offers insights into the question “Come rileggere oggi il Port-Royal?” as it reviews various perspectives and their critics such as Jean Molino, Philippe Sellier, Louis Marin, Tony Gheeraert, among others. P.advises that those who would immerse themselves in Port-Royal would do well first to read Fontaine’s Mémoires.
BJØRNSTAD, HALL. “From the Cabinet of Fairies to the Cabinet of the King: The Marvelous Workings of Absolutism.” Princeton U Library Chronicle LXXVI, 1-2 (2014-2015) 242-65.
Analyzes text and engraving in the 1717 edition of Jean de Préchac’s 1698 fairy tale, “Sans Paragon,” an allegory of the life and reign of Louis XIV. Shows that tale does more than flatter the Sun King; it also gives insight into absolutism and its extravagant notions of glory.
BRUYER, TOM. Le Sang et les larmes. Le suicide dans les tragédies profanes de Jean Racine. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2012.
Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 168 (2012) 563. Welcome study is clearly and solidly documented with references to a wide variety of criticism in languages other than French (Italian, German, and English, for example). Examines frequency and typology of suicide in R. (honor, love, symbolic) ceremonial aspects, variants of R,’s classical sources, dramatic function, and the role of suicide in evoking pathos in the spectator. Indicates possible future directions for research.
CAMPBELL, JOHN. “Mort et dramaturgie dans les tragédies de Racine.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 155-167.
Welcome investigation reveals the remarkable particularity of the place occupied by death in R.’s tragedies. Avoiding the trap of imposing anachronistic notions on R,’s theatre, C.’s analysis focuses on “la praxis du théâtre” (157) disclosing death as “un outil dramatique parmi d’autres” (160) and “surtout, une question de plaisir” (167).
EDMUNDS, JOHN, trans. Intro. by Joseph Harris. Corneille, Molière, Racine: Four French Plays: ‘Cinna’, ‘The Misanthrope’, ‘Andromaque’, ‘Phaedra’. London: Penguin, 2013.
Review: T. Chilcott in MLR 109.3 (2014) 802-803. Superb new verse translations of four major plays in the French classical canon. Preface by Harris provides valuable theatrical and cultural context. “…the inclusion of Corneille’s Critique and Racine’s Prefaces, as well as sections on Chronology and Further Reading, a genealogical table, and a guide to pronunciation, enhances the sense of comprehensive treatment.”
JEANNERET, MICHEL. Versailles, ordre et chaos. Paris: Gallimard, 2012.
Review: M.-C. Canova-Green in MLR 109.3 (2014) 803-805. “Starting with an analysis of the early Versailles gardens with their Ovidian inspiration symptomatic of a fear of a return to primitive ages, he shows to what extent the lavish festivals of the 1660s–1670s, comédies-ballets, ballets, and operas included, both duplicated and clarified the message at the heart of the park’s design with its monsters and graceful mythological figures. He then goes on to consider the better-known authors of the period, La Fontaine, La Bruyère, La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, Molière, Racine, as well as treatises of physiognomy and clandestine texts such as Theophrastus Redivivus, with a view to revealing how they all exposed the same unsettling kinship between man and animal.”
LYONS, JOHN D. The Phantom of Chance : From Fortune to Randomness in Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012.
Review: K. Wine in MP 111.4 (May 2014) E411-E414. “This searching and provocative study offers a compelling account of the cultural and intellectual currents that encouraged the increasing prominence of a “de-dramatized” hasard over the course of the seventeenth century. Whereas […] much writing about chance in the early modern period has focused on probability or on games of chance, Lyon’s wider emphasis offers an illuminating perspective on the grand siècle as a whole, demonstrating that the period’s preoccupation with regularity lead to new methods of dealing with the disordered, the random, and the formless. The book’s richest rewards, however, lie in its readings. Lyons states early on that much of the distinctiveness of individual writers lies in the ways they use their perception of chance’s ubiquity, a claim that the individual chapters fully bear out. At the same time, the individual analyses bring to light unexpected affinities, as in the cases of Pascal and the Jesuits or Joad and Athalie.”
PLANCHE. MARIE-CLAIRE. De l’iconographie racinienne, dessiner et peindre les passions. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010.
Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 167 (2012) 315. This important addition to R. scholarship contains a trove of nearly 100 images in black and white. The reviewer would have appreciated more solid scholarly analysis and a more comprehensive bibliography, however the discovery and presentation of the iconographic corpus covering the years 1668-1815 remains highly useful. Chapters include examinations of the following topics: the poetics of the image in R., the iconographic corpus and editorial history, criteria of selection, place, and expressions and attitudes.
DORNIER, CAROLE and CLAUDINE POULOUIN, eds. Les Projets de l’abbé Castel de Saint-Pierre (1658-1743). Pour le plus grand bonheur du plus grand nombre. Caen: Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2011.
Review: A. Amatuzzi in S Fr 167 (2012) 315-316. A. notes that all of the works of St.-P. are available on line at the site of the Centre Régional des Lettres de Basse-Normandie. The volume reviewed here includes a rich interdisciplinary bibliography and a chronological list of St.-P.’s writings. Chapters are organized into sections as follows: “Rêves d’Europe” (reflexions on St.-P.’s visions for Europe) “Refonder ou aménager l’absolutisme”, “Education et formation morale,” and “Castel de St.- P., utopiste ou polémiste?”.
BUSSAT-ENEVOLDSEN, MARIE-CLAIRE. Le voile et la plume. Jeanne Chantal et François de Sales, l’étonnant récit de leur rencontre. Montrouge: Bayard, 2010.
Review: J. Morgante in S Fr 166 (2012) 137. This volume offers a biography which focuses on the first part of J de C.’s life, although the interested reader will also discover an account of her later life and a rapid reconstruction of that of F. de Sales. M. notes lacunae but remarks that the picture of Jeanne from the biography highlights her intelligence and independance.
SCARRON, PAUL. Théâtre complet. Ed. Jonathan Carson. Genève: Droz, 2013.
Review: A. Riffaud in FS 68.3 (2014) 392-93. A 2-volume anthology of Scarron’s plays; includes introduction and bibliography. Reviewer finds that the volume promises much, but delivers little, both in content (e.g. incomplete bibliography, lack of synthesis in the introduction, inaccuracies) and form (e.g. numerous typographical errors, grammatical errors in the editor’s introduction and notes, formatting problems).
SCARRON, PAUL. The Comic Romance. Trans. Jacques Houis. Richmond, Surrey, UK: Alma, 2012.
Review: M. Slater in TLS 5729 (Jan 18, 2013) 11. A “lively new translation,” though it “doesn’t always do justice to Scarron’s vivid stylistic extravagances.” Reviewer occasionally disagrees with translator’s choices, but finds this to be “A welcome revival of a comic classic.”
DUCHÊNE, ROGER, éd. Madame de Sévigné. Lettres de l’année 1671. Paris : Gallimard, 2012.
Review: B. V. Le Marchand in DFS 101 (Spring 2014) 125-126. « Le recueil offre 6 lettres datant de 1670, suivies de 104 lettres écrites durant l’année 1671. Lettres bi-hebdomadaires (écrites le mercredi et le dimanche) elles sont principalement destinées à sa fille ; mais quelques-unes s’adressent à ses cousins Coulanges et Bussy-Rabutin, une au mari de sa fille, une au comte de Guitaut (voisin de Madame de Sévigné) et une autre à d’Hacqueville (ami de Madame de Sévigné) ; on y retrouve aussi quatre réponses de Bussy-Rabutin. […] Le lecteur saura apprécier la justesse des notes et des commentaires de l’édition de Roger Duchêne (1930-2006) biographe, historien et spécialiste de l’art épistolaire et de Madame de Sévigné. La préface de Nathalie Freidel offre des informations judicieuses permettant de bien mettre en contexte ces lettres de l’année 1671 et de mieux cerner l’envergure de cette correspondance ».
FREIDEL, NATHALIE. “L’autre langue de Mme de Sévigné: l’italien dans la ‘Correspondance’.” S Fr 168 (2012) 404-413.
Careful examination of S.’s admiration of “le clinquant du Tasse” (II, 499). F. situates S. among other admirers of champions of “italianisme” as “un medium essentiel d’accès à la culture” (404). Although her focus is S., F. indicates the wide use of and debt to Italian prevalent in the epistolary genre as well as in the theatre and other genres. Sections on the following organize this short but well-documented and convincing study: “Une voie privilégiée d’accès des femmes à la culture”, “L’apanage d’une culture mondaine” and “Une langue à soi.” F. finds that Italian for S. “donne accès à la réalité intérieure” (411) permitting her, for example, to express her upset at successive separations by borrowings from Pastor fido (412).
MALTÈRE, STÉPHANE. Madame de Sévigné. Paris: Gallimard, 2013.
Review: J. Campbell in FS 68.2 (2014) 246-47. Uses the work of scholars such as Jacqueline and Roger Duchêne to create a narrative of Sévigné’s life and times. Intended to be informative as well as entertaining, with emphasis on the former. Reviewer concerned that Sévigné’s letters are infrequently cited, much less explored in any depth.
CAGNAT-DEBOEUF, CONSTANCE. “‘Ce triomphe d’amour’: la mort des Solitaires dans les mémoires de Port-Royal.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 139-154.
Rich and fascinating examination of memorial texts by C.-D. demonstrates not only their great importance and variety but also their diverse strategies. C.-D. finds the originality of the “récit de mort port-royaliste” to be in the tension that exists when adversaries attempt to transform edifying récits into “morts des réprouvés” (139). Important stylistic characteristics, language and salient examples of the hagiographic récit are presented and analyzed. Particularly appealing is C.-D.’s examination of several “hymnes à l’amitié” included in the récits, modeled after S. Augustine and demonstrating affinities with Montaigne. C.-D. asks, rightly so in our eyes, if we cannot apply to the Solitaires’ “récit de mort” the phrase from one (by Nicolas Fontaine) “ce triomphe d’amour qui surmonte tout”? (154).
PAPASOGLI, BENEDETTA. “Rileggendo Sainte-Beuve: è il ‘Port-Royal’ ad aver ‘fatto’ la grandezza sei Solitari?” S Fr 166 (2012) 79-83.
P’s useful article includes reminders of previous editions of Port-Royal, the French editions of 1955 and 2004, the Italian translation of 1964 and the recent 2011 one. Focuses on the iconographic apparatus and its dialogue with the literary portraits. Notes the introduction by Mario Richter which allows us to experience anew S.-B.’s rich intellectual and spiritual dimensions. Underscores the excellence of the edition and the collaborative work of five translators (80). The remainder of the article offers insights into the question “Come rileggere oggi il Port-Royal?” as it reviews various perspectives and their critics such as Jean Molino, Philippe Sellier, Louis Marin, Tony Gheeraert, among others. P.advises that those who would immerse themselves in Port-Royal would do well first to read Fontaine’s Mémoires.
TALLEMANT DES RÉAUX. Historiettes. Ed. Antoine Adam and Michel Jeanneret. Paris: Gallimard, 2013.
Review: A. Viala in FS 68.3 (2014) 393-94. A new edition, edited by Jeanneret. Contains a third of the material included in Adam’s earlier Pléiade edition, as well as Adam’s notes, to which Jeanneret adds his own, along with an introduction and vocabulary footnotes. Reviewer praises text for its accessibility and reading pleasure.
DENIS, DELPHINE, dir. Honoré d’Urfé, L’Astrée. Première partie. Paris: Champion, 2011.
Review: J. Morgante in S Fr 166 (2012) 137-139. Welcome scholarly edition of the first part of L’Astrée. Hailed as trustworthy, the critical apparatus includes variants which are judged to merit commentary. M. includes discussion of the 17th c. editions and remarks on editorial decisions of this edition. Of particular interest in the introduction are linguistic observations and the ideal of the social elite of the time. Similarly enlightening are discussions of early modern editorial practice. It is possible to consult electronically the site of the équipe attached to the C.E.L.L.F. directed by D. and Alexandre Gefen: http://astree.paris-sorbonne.fr
Tristan et la Musique de son temps. Cahiers Tristan l’Hermite 33 (2011).
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 168 (2012) 561. This issue of Cahiers Tristan l’Hermite focuses on T.’s contact with music. Points examined include: literary genres, musical customs in T.’s time, relationships between voice and effects, T.’s writings for the ballet, and libertine influence on “divertissement,” among others.
LEOPIZZI, MARCELLA. “Vanini en France: perspectives de recherche.” S Fr 168 (2012) 505-512.
Retraces V.’s French milieu with attention to his patrons and protectors, libertine literary circles, the discovery of America, and the wide diffusion of Greek and Latin works. L. notes both important findings on V.’s life and the lack of documentation--she mentions as of yet non-inventoried sacks (some 80,000) of the Archives Départementales de la Haute-Garonne de Toulouse which relate to judicial activity of the period. Other suggestions for future research are outlined, such as manuscript notes of the “fonds Baudouin” of the same archives which L. considers “une mine d’information” (508). The remainder of L.’s article offers tantalizing precisions relating to these documents, and an insistence on the influence of V. on the libertine current as well as the continuing presence of Italian culture in French culture of V.’s era “où se croisent des cultures diverses et des dialogues multiples” (512).
© 2007 University of Nebraska–Lincoln. All Rights Reserved.
Sonoma State University |
Modern Language Association |
UNL Center for Digital Research in the Humanities