Richardson and the Philosophes
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- Synopsis
- In mid-eighteenth-century Europe, a taste for sentiment accompanied the 'rise of the novel', and the success of Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) played a vital role in this. James Fowler's new study is the first to compare the response of the most famous philosophes to the Richardson phenomenon. Voltaire, who claims to despise the novel, writes four 'Richardsonian' fictions; Diderot's fascination with the English author is expressed in La Religieuse, Rousseau's in Julie - the century's bestseller. Yet the philosophes' response remains ambivalent. On the one hand they admire Richardson's ability to make the reader weep. On the other, they champion a range of Enlightenment beliefs which he, an enthusiast of Milton, vehemently opposed. In death as in life, the English author exacerbates the philosophes' rivalry. The eulogy which Diderot writes in 1761 implicitly asks: who can write a new Clarissa? But also: whose social, philosophical or political ideas will triumph as a result?
- Copyright:
- 2014
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- Book Size:
- 185 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9781351550819
- Related ISBNs:
- 9781315088679, 9781909662117, 9781909662117, 9781315088679, 9781909662117, 9780367601539
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Date of Addition:
- 03/20/20
- Copyrighted By:
- N/A
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Nonfiction, Language Arts, Foreign Language Study
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.