FRENCH 17

See French 17 (1997).

CALDER, ANDREW. "Humor in the 1660s: La Rochefoucauld, Molière and La Fontaine." SCFS 20 (1998), 125–38.

Illuminating exploration of the paradox of public optimism, in the first half of the 1660s, and the bleakness of literary production. All three authors condemn the court, and are happy to be free of its corrupting influences. Valuable use of Erasmus in reading Fables 11, 8.

CANEPA, N. L., ed. Out of the Woods: The Origins of the Literary Fairy Tale in Italy and France. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998.

Review: Felizitas Ringham in FS 53.2 (1999), 206: The collection brings together 11 contributions by a number of eminent scholars on the topic of the literary fairly tale as a vital changing form firmly entrenched in its socio-historical context. The first section focuses on Italian origins; section two deals with French fairy tales of the 1690s; section three treats eighteenth-century parodies and fairly-tale transformations. One regrets the absence of any definition of the genre. Altogether there appears to be little reference to the topical universality or fairy-tale timelessness evoked in the title. "Thus while emphasizing the valuable and interesting contribution this volume makes to literary history, I believe it should be read as a supplement to other seminal fairy-tale studies. . .".

CAREY, GARY and MARY ELLEN SNODGRASS. A Multicultural Dictionary of Literary Terms. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999.

Review: R. H. Kieft in Choice 36.8 (1999), 1433–1434: "[M]ore than 450 critical and rhetorical terms for fiction, poetry, and drama/theater." Not as "multicultural" as it purports to be in the title.

CAVAILLE, JEAN-PIERRE. "Galanterie et histoire de 'l'antiquité moderne'. Jean Chapelain, De la lecture des vieux romans, 1647." DSS 200 (1998), 387–415.

Composed on the eve of the Fronde, Chapelain's book is at once a study of medieval literature and a revealing appraisal of politics and morality under Mazarin.

CAVAILLÉ, JEAN-PIERRE. "De la construction des apparences au culte de la transparence. Simulation et dissimulation entre le XVIe et le XVIIe siècle." Littératures Classiques 34 (1998). 73–102.

Analysis of the evolution of the metaphysics of being and appearance, simulation and dissimulation, the secret, the notion of public and private, from "sprezzatura" to "honnêteté", from Macchiavelli to Rousseau, from the seventeenth-century valorization of dissimulation to the praise of transparence and sincerity which will prevail in the following century.

CHARBONNEAU, FRÉDÉRIC. "Sexes hypocrites. Le théâtre des corps chez Jean-Jacques Bouchard et l'abbé de Choisy." EF 34.1 (1998), 107–22:

C. examines the use of a theatrical paradigm in the Confessions of Jean-Jacques Bouchard and the Mémoires of l'abbé de Choisy, to illustrate the way in which the two authors attempt to give written form to sexual experience in their 17th-century autobiographical writing.

CHARLES-DAUBERT, FRANÇOISE. Les libertins érudits en France au XVIIe siècle. Collection Philosophies. Paris: PUF, 1998.

Review: J. Prévot in Corpus 35 (1999), 174–176: Volume criticized on virtually every count: for incomplete definitions, faulty methods, insufficient representation of libertine writers, a poor bibliography. "On regrettera sincèrement qu'un public d'étudiants ou de lecteurs soucieux de s'informer à moindres frais se voie offrir un petit livre raté sur un siècle déjà tellement maltraité."

CHAUVEAU, JEAN-PIERRE. "Périodisation de la vie poètique au XVIIe siècle." Littératures Classiques 34 (1998), 161–171.

Three periods, "baroque", la "génération Louis XIII," and "le siècle de Louis XIV," the last one being "le plus insaisissable, le plus rebelle à l'effort de périodisation" since at the time when La Fontaine produces the Fables, poetry in the seventeenth-century might have already been "en voie de liquidation."

CLARKE, JAN. The Guénégaud Theatre in Paris (1673–1680). Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 1998.

First of a projected three volume work intended to provide a detailed account of the Hôtel Guénégaud, first home of the Paris Opéra and first home of the Comédie Françaiise. Excellent information on administrative structures and the running of the theatre.

CLEMENT, MICHELE. Une poétique de crise; poètes baroques et mystiques (1570–1660). Paris: Champion, 1996.

Review: G. Peyroche d'Arnaud in BHR 61.1 (1999), 294–96: " . . . on doit reconnaître le courage de M. Clément de s'atteler à une tâche aussi difficile que définir le baroque—ce qui, en effet, ne peut se faire qu'en termes de crise, ou de tension: tension historique entre Renaissance et classicisme, tension poétique vers l'au-delà du langage, tension métaphysique et mystique vers l'Autre qu'est Dieu."

See French 17 (1997).

CONLEY, TOM. The Self-Made Map: Cartographic Writing in Early Modern France. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.

Review: Timothy J. Reiss in MLQ 60.1 (1999), 113–19: A psychoanalytic study of the links between the development of cartography and self-aware writing. While the reviewer has reservations about "the book's systematizing thesis," he finds it a "formidable display of interdisciplinary learning."

CONROY, JANE. Terres tragiques. L'Angleterre et l'Ecosse dans la tragédie française du XVIIe siècle. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 114 (1999).

Study play by play of the sources, the relations with other dramatic traditions, the public, the creation of literary mythology in the "English tragedies" of Montchrestien, La Calprenède, Puget de la Serre, Boyer, Thomas Corneille, and Boursault. The author takes apart the mechanisms of image creation , that of the great figures, Elisabeth, Mary Stuart, Essex, and the representation of power in this theater.

CORTI, LILLIAN. The Myth of Medea and the Murder of Children. Westport, Conn: Greenwood, 1998.

Review: J. L. Thorndike in Choice 36.8 (1999), 1451: "C. ... argues in this provocative book that though Euripides' Medea is the most famous dramatization of child-murder, by no means is infanticide restricted to the classical Greeks. Drawing from the fields of medicine, psychology, economics, and cultural studies, as well as comparative literature, this invigorating and original book asks why this common act of violence has been subjugated for so long.... [C.] investigates many competing theories, including Freudian (the child is a sexual rival for one parent's attention) and Malthusian (the child presents increased competition for scarce resources). Her research spans the centuries and encompasses literature, film, drama, performance history, fiction and even [television]."

COURSE, DIDIER. "Parure et dévotion: les pierres précieuses du père Le Moyne." DSS 201 (1998), 579–594.

Analyzes the metaphorical uses of jewels in littérature dévote of the first half of the century, from their quasi-universal presence in discourses denouncing female vanity to their use as a symbol of divine truth and election.

CROIX, ALAIN. "L'historien et son nombril. Essai sur la périodisation du XVIIe siècle." Littératures Classiques 34 (1998), 14–25.

The author concludes his attempt at periodization by saying that the classicism of the period Louis XIV divides a Baroque period, which he extends to 1660, from the Enlightenment, all the while viewing the 1630's as marked by a definite push toward Classicism.

CUCHE, FRANÇOIS-XAVIER, ed. Complots et coups d'Etat sur la scène du théâtre: XVIe–XVIIe siècles. Journée d'études du 13 mars 1997. Strasbourg: U.F.R. des Lettres, 1998.

Review: Pierre Ronzeaud in PFSCL 26 (1999), 457–458: "...projections et méditations...non dénuées d'utilité en notre époque de politique spectacle...".

DANDREY, PATRICK. "Moralia & medicinalia. Cadastre, semences et moissons (1977–1997)." DSS 202 (1999), 37–53.

A thorough discussion of the impact of medical science on classical moralists; in the intersection of moralists and "l'imaginaire médical" the author discerns an important transition between scholasticism and "l'encyclopédisme" of the Enlightenment. Appended to the article is a lengthy bibliography of latter-day studies of melancholy, mysticism, possession, medecine and anthropology, history of medecine, sickness and the medical imaginary.

DEBAISIEUX, MARTINE, ed. Le Labyrinthe de Versailles. Parcours critiques de Molière à La Fontaine; à la mémoire d'Alvin Eustis. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 1998.

La première partie, "Autour de Molière," offre sept études qui mettent en question l'ordre établi du siècle et la seconde partie, "Les égarements du Grand Siècle," sept études qui "quittent le droit chemin" pour examiner "ce qui a dû être occulté, refoulé, [et] enfermé."

DEFRANCE, A. AND MÉCHOULAN, É. "L'art de tourner court: conte, nouvelle et périodisation au XVIIe siècle." Littératures Classiques 34 (1998), 173–190.

Analysis of the "nouvelle" and the "conte" by arbitrarily dividing the century's production into two periods, pre-1650 and post-1650. The authors conclude that "la pertinence d'une périodisation tient plus à ce qu'elle permet de penser en aval qu'à ce qu'elle construit en amont."

DEJEAN, JOAN. Ancients against Modern: Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siècle. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1997.

Review: D. N. Deluna in MLN 113.5 (1998), 1183–87: "DeJean's book, focused upon the final decades of Louis XIV's France, offers a new interpretation of the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes, over antiquity's continuing superiority in letters. She links the Moderns' cause in the conflict to contemporary nontraditional literary communities that are said to have evolved the cultural riches of the modern novel and a sentimental ethos."

See French 17 (1998).

DEJEAN, JOAN. Ancients Against Moderns: Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siècle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Review: Colin Keaveney in FS 52.3 (1998), 343–344: "DeJean's investigation of the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes equates the Modern position in that debate with the relativist approach of many American academics today: like their French predecessors, today's American Moderns are under attack from conservatives for daring to question the criteria governing the choice of canonical texts." What is most admirable is not so much the "book's arguable central conceit nor its unobjectionable conclusion,. . ., but its unerring attention to the semantic shift and slippage of key words (e.g. 'siècle,' 'public,' 'culture') that offer us some purchase on the changing sensibilities of a bygone age."

DENIS, DELPHINE. "Le discours moraliste: du style à l'inscription langagière." DSS 202 (1999), 55–65.

A study of the "discours du moraliste" rather than "discours moral," the article constitutes a linguistic inquiry into how moralists spoke and demonstrates ultimately that a certain ethos informs stylistic features of moralistic discourse.

DONOVAN, JOSEPHINE. Women and the Rise of the Novel, 1405–1726. New York: St. Martin's, 1999.

Review: D. L. Patey in Choice 36.11/12 (1999), 1938: Disappointing introduction; however, "her short history of women's fiction from Christine de Pizan and Marguerite de Navarre to such early-18th-century figures as Delarivière Manley, Eliza Haywood, and Jane Barker goes on to make a nuanced, persuasive case for a continuing tradition in women's fiction of 'critical irony' and attention to the richly revealing details of particular lives.... Literary scholars may not find much here that is new...."

DOTOLI, GIOVANNI. Temps de préfaces: le débat théâtral en France de Hardy à la Querelle du Cid. Paris: Klincksieck, 1996.

Review: Franziska Sick in PFSCL 26 (1999), 214–215: "On ne peut que souhaiter que ces informations très utiles inspirent de nouvelles recherches et contribuent à enrichir encore nos connaissances du XVIIe siècle.

DOTOLI, GIOVANNI. "Réflexion morale et sociologie." DSS 202 (1999), 67–73.

Claiming that "le moraliste est un sociologue avant la lettre," the author defends this notion by outlining points of convergence in terms of purpose and object of inquiry (desire to understand society as a whole) and methodology(quasi-scientific direct observation, categorization, taxonomy, etc.).

DOUBROVSKI, SERGE. "Existences." TM (Juillet-Septembre 1998), 1–15.

Chapter from his latest book: Laissé pour conte, scheduled to be published by Grasset in January 1999.

DUBOIS, CLAUDE, éd. L'Isle des Hermaphrodites. Genève: Droz, 1996.

Review: M. S. Rivière in MLR 94.2 (1999), 536–37: "In an elegantly written and most informative introduction, complemented by a useful glossary and a select bibliography, Dubois supports the theory first forumlated by Pierre Bayle in his article 'Salmacis' of the Dictionnaire historique et critique (Rotterdam, 1697), that the anonymous author [of L'Isle des Hermaphrodites] was Artus Thomas, Sieur d'Embry, who was probably born in the middle of the sixteenth century and died after 1614. However, the editor dismisses a little too summarily,one feels, the objections raised by scholars before him that a striking stylistic dissonance between Thomas's other works and L'Isle casts considerable doubt on Bayle's hypothesis."

See French 17 (1998).

DUBOIS, CLAUDE-GILBERT. "Le baroque: méthodes d'investigation et essais de définition." Littératures Classiques 36 (1999), 23–40.

The author questions the distinction baroque/classicism, rejects the use of the term "baroque" to describe vastly different movements throughout history, defines a "baroque historique" while emphasizing the difficulty of periodization, and studies the "baroque restreint" of the years 1580 to 1660, from mannerism to classicism, while pinpointing in the latter "une forme française, étatisée, régulée, centralisée, du baroque européen."

DUBU, JEAN. Les églises chrétiennes et le théâtre. Grenoble: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1997.

Review: Claude Abraham in FR 72 (1999), 748–49: "A wonderful book" of lively intelligence and profound understanding, this panoramic study—in effect from the Council of Trent to the Council of Soissons—insists on the distinction of the Church of Rome (which did not declare war on the theatre) and the Gallican church, whose prelates' zeal for protecting their charges led to extravagant measures. For the first time a book on the subject that is more than anecdotal.

See French 17 (1998, Part III).

DUCHÊNE, JACQUELINE. La Dame de Vaugirard. Roman. Paris: Jean-Claude Lattès, 1997.

Review: Maya Slater in PFSCL 25 (1998), 603–604: "Jacqueline Duchêne est parfaitement qualifiée pour entreprendre la tâche de faire revivre le XVIIe siècle par le moyen du roman."

EKMAN, MARY C. "Opening the Account: Initiatory Strategies and Noble Identity in Early Modern Women's Memoirs." FLS 26 (1999), 27–35.

E. summarizes her effort in the following manner: "This paper explores the beginnings of early modern women's memoirs and approaches the idea of beginning as a locus for the interplay of custom and differentiation." Among the questions E. asks are the following: "What initiatory tactics do these writers employ in their adoption of the traditional nobilary genre of memoirs?" How do they present, in the opening lines of their work, the circumstances of their writing? And, how do they differ from the beginnings of contemporary male memorialists?" Much of the article focuses on the Memoires of Marguerite de Valois, whose work constituted, "a radical departure from the tradition of men's memoirs," because they revealed a shift from emphasis on "the nobility and military action," to "lineage and personal merit." Consequently, women's memoirs "underscore the socio-historical construction of woman as different," and at the same time, "negotiate a place for [women's] works in a class-based tradition and argue that their lives are worthy of memory."

EKSTEIN, NINA. "Staging the Tyrant on the Seventeenth-Century French Stage." PFSCL 26 (1999), 112–129.

The author examines the representation of the tyrant on stage: how the "identity of the dramatic tyrant is constructed in the context of the seventeenth-century stage" in the tragedies of Du Ryer, De Viau, Scudéry, L'Hermitte, Corneille, Villedieu, and Racine.

EMELINA, JEAN. Comédie et tragédie. Nice: Publications de la Faculté des lettres, arts et sciences humaines de Nice, 1998.

Review: Michel Autrand in RHL 99.2 (1999), 303: Volume compiles Emelina's principal works on Molière, and seventeenth-century drama in general. Reviewer claims that the originality of E's work lies in his discussion of rarely- studied themes and motifs such as "la présence de l'enfant, l'utilisation de la géographie et l'exotisme, [et] la construction de l'espace." Among the volume's "agréable surprises" are the incoroporation of Garnier into the circle of "grands dramaturges," as well as the link made between Phèdre and Quinault's Bellérophon. Reviewer states that of the nine articles devoted to Molière, the most remarkable are those dealing with death, as well as "la présence du surnaturel et de la fatalité."

EMELINA, JEAN. Comédie et tragédie. Nice: Publications de la Faculté de Lettres, Arts et Sciences Humaines de Nice, Centre de Recherches Littéraires Pluridisciplinaires, 1998.

Review: Charles Mazouer in PFSCL 26 (1999), 465–467: "Jean Emelina, désormais émérite, ne pouvait pas mieux être honoré que par ce volume, qui reflète parfaitement sa personnalité d'universitaire."

ERICKSON, GLENN W. and JOHN A. FOSS. Dictionary of Paradox. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998.

Review: D. V. Feldman in Choice 36.4 (1998), 657: "The term 'paradox' has wide application, including mathematical theorems with counterintuitive conclusions..., attacks on philosophical systems... or on the foundations of mathematics..., challenges to physical theories..., just plain self-contradictory utterances..., and various outright fallacies. One finds paradoxes of all these sorts and more collected here, each one formulated, explained, and, where possible, resolved. Copious cross-references connect paradoxes united by common themes or distinguished by subtle variations. Carefully compiled citations make this volume a portal to the literature for students with many diverse interests."

FRAGONARD, M.-M. "Changements, ruptures et sentiment de rupture: du XVIe au XVIIe siècle." Littératures Classiques 34 (1998), 205–216.

The author refuses to date a radical turn from the 16th to the 17th Century.

GÉLY-GHÉDIRA, VÉRONIQUE. "Eros et antéros: conversions de la fable dans l'Europe baroque." Littératures Classiques 36 (1999), 127–139.

On the mutation of the fable in Baroque Europe, conditioned by the conversion of allegory from an hermeneutic and discursive form to a rhetorical one, and undergoing a rebirth by investing all the fields of representation, especially the theater, "lieu baroque par excellence", and lyric poetry.

GÉNETIOT, ALAIN. Poétique du loisir mondain, de Voiture à La Fontaine. Paris: Champion, 1997.

Review: C. Berrone in SFr 42 (1998), 129–30: A study of that lyric production devoted to the praise of "loisir", "conversation" "la fine raillerie", and the pleasures of harmony within a restricted group. Includes useful biographic and bibliographic notes dedicated to Voiture, Sarrasin, Benserade, Pélisson and La Fontaine, but many other authors are cited throughout. The conclusion includes an interesting summary of the debate over the classicism of La Fontaine.

GILLOT, MICHEL AND JEAN SERROY. La comédie à l'âge classique. Paris: Belin, 1997.

Review: Charles Mazouer in PFSCL 25 (1998), 610–611: "...mes collègues ont parfaitement maîtrisé —ce qui est à mes yeux un très beau compliment—l'art si difficile de la vulgarisation."

GILOT, MICHEL AND JEAN SERROY. La comédie à l'âge classique. Paris: Berlin, 1997.

Review: C. Berrone in SFr 42 (1998), 342: An overview of the history of French comic theatre from its origins to Beaumarchais, with particular attention paid to the linguistic aspects ("fantaisie verbale") of the various texts. Includes a large number of plot summaries and well-chosen excerpts. B. notes that the sections of the book devoted to the theory of the genre also make good use of frequent citations from préfaces, treatises and other related documents. A full chapter is reserved for each of the most important authors (Molière, Marivaux and Beaumarchais).

GREENE, THOMAS M. "Poetry and Permeability." NLH 30 (1999), 75–91.

Valuable essay richly elaborating the projectiveassimilative cycle of selfhood in which it regulates the economy of acces. Continues investigations begun in Poésie et magie (1991) and "Poetry as Invocation" (NLH, 1993).

GRIMM, J. "Quand s'arrête le siècle de Louis XIV?" Littératures Classiques 34 (1998), 237–249.

The author studies the various "Histoires de la Littérature" to conclude on the difficulty of positing a final date for the "siècle de Louis XIV."

GUENOUN, SOLANGE. Archaïque Racine. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.

Review: Richard Parish in FS 53.1 (1999), 61: This study seeks to build a bridge between Lacanian psychoanalysis and Racinian criticism. The plays discussed are La Thébaïde, Andromaque, Britannicus, and Iphigénie. One of the most fascinating angles of approach lies in the exploration of the antonomastic implications of Andromaque, Agrippine and Clytemmnestre. Unfortunately, bibliographical reference, indexing, accentuation and even spelling are at best approximate, and punctuation is chaotic.

GUION, BEATRICE. "De l'anthropologie des moralistes classiques." DSS 202 (1999), 75–88.

Defends the thesis that moralists can be likened to anthropologists because both seek to understand and describe human behavior through empirical observation; notes as well the limits to such a comparison.

HAMMOND, NICHOLAS. Creative Tensions: An Introduction to Seventeenth-Century Literature. London: Duckworth, 1997.

Review: Nancy Arenberg in FR 72 (1999), 570–71: From the "highly original" perspective of inner tensions, the canonical works are presented with dynamism and a useful dismantling of stereotypes. The clarity of presentation of the polemical dissentions encoded in Pascal's major texts (Ch.4) alone make this book a valuable addition to guides for teachers and students; honnêteté is given a fruitful complexification (Ch. 5); minor genres (and genders) venture into "uncharted territory" with treatment of the marginalized.

HAMMOND, NICHOLAS. Creative Tensions: An Introduction to Seventeenth-Century French Literature. London: Duckworth, 1997.

Review: Maya Slater in PFSCL 26 (1999), 221–222: "Overall, the book is a real pleasure to read, and provides many fresh insights."

HAMMOND, NICHOLAS. Creative Tensions: An Introduction to Seventeenth-Century French Literature. London: Duckworth, 1997.

Review: D. Shaw in LR 94.1 (1999), 197–98: "This slightly over-ambitious study attempts breadth and depth in 160 pages. It aims to give an overview of seventeenth-century French aesthetics, religion, and sexual politics. It also seeks to look beyond the conventionally serene image of the age to the creative stresses that lie at its heart. Rather than a history of literature, it aims to be an impressionistic survey dedicated to correcting the bland image conveyed by the three unities. Nevertheless, it does not entirely avoid the trap of superficiality."

HAROCHE-BOUZINACE, GENEVIEVE. "La lettre à l'âge classique, genre mineur?" RHL 99.2 (1999), 183–204.

Article deals with three main "lignes de partage (oral-écrit, éphémère-durable, féminin-masculin)" that shape the letter's status in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (1623–1789). In general, author discusses the process of "minorisation," in which the letter, while appreciated in various intellectual circles of early modern France, nonetheless was relegated to the lower ranks in the hierarchy of literary types. The reasons for this diminution are in part conceptual. As H-B states at the beginning of her essay, "La lettre obéit à des conventions prescriptives élémentaires, et ne peut se référer, comme les genres nobles à des normes transcendentales." At the same time, however, social, if not gender issues also contribute to the letter's classification as a "minor" literary contribution. In the latter part of her essay, H-B talks extensively about how, during the period in question, "écriture épistolaire" became synonymous with "écriture féminine." As a result, the letter became a "genre mignon," characterized to a degree by what La Bruyère calls "l'honnête dissimulation." For La Bruyère, this "dissimulation" came about because, "les femmes, par respect de la bienséance," ne [pouvaient] exprimer leurs émotions, mais les laiss[aient] devenir." H-B. argues that La Bruyère praised this type of discourse as fresh and creative. Yet, many eighteenth-century critics saw the subtleties of "feminine writing" as deceptive and manipulative, this confirming the letter's rank as a "genre mineur."

BOILLET, DANIELLE, and DOMINIQUE MOCOND'HUY, eds. Discontinuité et/ou hétérogéniété de l'oeuvre littéraire. Poitiers: Université de Poitiers, 1997.

Review: Nathalie Grande in RHL 99.3 (1999) 535: Reviewer summarizes the work in the following manner: "Le présent ouvrage rassemble les travaux d'une journée d'étude [organisée par] le groupe de recherche de l'Université de Poitiers, 'Littérature et société en France, en Italie, en Espagne, et au Portugal aux XVe –XVIIe siècles.'" Among the seventeenth-century French authors discussed are d'Urfé and Le Moyne. The work is comparative in its approach, and covers a variety of genres ranging from poetry to the sentimental novel.

HARRISON, HELEN L. Pistoles/Paroles: Money and Language in Seventeenth-Century French Comedy. Charlottesville, VA: Rookwood Press, 1996.

Review: M. Hawcroft in MLR 94.1 (1999), 1108–09: "Serious and intellectually ambitious" work, "theoretically informed" and thoroughly grounded by "political and economic history, rhetoric, and the sociology of the theatre as well as with the techniques of textual analysis." Discussions based on comedies by P. Corneille, Scarron, T. Corneille, and Molière. Reviewer cites interestingly argued views but regrets "too many different angles of vision": "Sometimes, the focus is on characters' financial exchanges, sometimes on the financial problems of seventeenth-century French society, sometimes on the financial needs of playwrights, and sometimes the first of these is taken as a metaphor for the second and third."

See French 17 (1998).

HOFFMAN, KATHRYN A. Society of Pleasures: Interdisciplinary Readings in Pleasure and Power During the Reign of Louis XIV. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997.

Review: Megan Conway in SCN 57 (1999), 71–73: Eight essays illustrate Hoffman's thesis "that the construction and execution of absolute power—and perhaps all power—carry the seeds of that power's own eventual, and it would seem inevitable, destruction." Chapters are devoted to a variety of texts and topics including Louis XIV's Mémoires, Racine's Bazajet, Molière's Dom Juan and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. A analysis of a Jesuit and Jansenist disagreement over fasting "slips beautifully into a discussion of the sins and merits of chocolate" in a chapter based on an entry from Furetière's Dictionnaire universel. Reviewer writes that Hoffman creates "her own contemporary version of a palimpsest, a rather three-dimensional text where the non-static politics of power are described, inscribed and re-inscribed on a multiplicity of levels. The book requires much patience and reflection but ultimately deserves them both."

HOGG, CHLOE. "Strong Women, Illustrious Men: Constructing History and Civic Virtue in the Grand Siècle." PFSCL 26 (1999), 19–27.

The author compares the projects of Scudéry (Les Femmes illustres ou les Harangues héroiques) and Perrault (Les Hommes illustres qui ont paru en France pendant ce siècle), who both work at dismantling absolutism through their lessons in civic virtue.

HOURCADE, PHILIPPE, ed. "Les minores." Littératures classiques 31 (automne 97).

Review: François Lagarde in PFSCL 26 (1999), 222–224: "Le coordinateur fort stylé de ce numéro réussi a bien fait de retenir des études portant sur des auteurs du "grand" siècle ainsi que sur ceux qui ont suivi ou précédé."

HOWARTH, WILLIAM D., ed. and JAN CLARKE, EDWARD FORMAN, JOHN GOLDER, MICHAEL O'REGAN and CHRISTOPHER SMITH, assoc. eds. French Theatre in the Neo-Classical Era: 1550–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Review: Michael Hawcroft in FS 53.2 (1999), 201: This work deserves the "congratulations and gratitude of anyone with an interest in early modern French theatre. Their volume creates a rich and fascinating context in which to situate both familiar and unfamiliar plays of the period." The documents are divided into 4 chronological periods: 1550 to 1630, 1630 to 1680, 1680 to 1715, 1715 to 1789; and within each period the arrangement is thematic. Each group of documents is preceded by a concise and helpful commentary. The bibliography is excellent.

HOWARTH, WILLIAM, ed. French Theatre in the Neo-classical Era, 1550–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Review: R. W. Herzel in ThS 39.2 (1998), 122–124: "Howarth's splendid contribution to the Cambridge Theatre in Europe: a documentary history should add considerable momentum to the study and teaching of French theatre as theatre. Many of the documents presented here have not been published before; many more were published only in limited editions that have been out of print for decades; the large majority have never been translated. The collection is carefullly indexed, and concludes with a thorough and extensive bibliography... which concentrates on genuine theatre history, to the notable exclusion of many of the most familiar works of dramatic criticism. The book is divided into four parts: 1550–1630, from the interdiction of religious drama to the beginnings of viable commercial theatre in Paris; 1630–1680, the period of Corneille, Molière and Racine; 1680–1715, from the formation of the Comédie-Française to the death of Louis XIV; and 1715–1789, from the Regency to the Revolution. Each chronological part is divided into topical sections, with the system of classificaton changing according to the period.... The scholarly and editorial standards maintained by Howarth and his team of associate editors are very high." Includes "documents of control," "eighteenth-century material on audiences, authors, critics, and censorship," "acting, architecture, stage presentation, and company administration," "playhouses, companies, mise en scène and costume," and "actors, audiences, authors and critics." "The editors maintain a consistent practice of identifying the source of each document, referring to pertinent scholarship, and then allowing the document, whether written or pictorial, to speak for itself as much as possible.... In short, excellent as the organization of this collection is, much of the pleasure of paging through it comes from the discovery of unexpected connections, quirks and insights. The book will be a godsend to teachers of theatre history, both as a way of bringing vividness and life to what are often dry generalizations and as a source of ammunition against conventional wisdom.... Its usefulness to scholars, though different, is equally great: as an entry-point into the complex, idiosyncratic, and scattered world of French theatre documentation, it will be both a time-saver and, one hopes, an inspiration."

HOWARTH, WILLIAM D., ed. French Theatre in the Neo-Classical Era, 1550–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Review: D. F. Connon in MLR 91.2 (1999), 537–38: "The volume collects together a vast array of documents from the period specified in the title, relating to all aspects of theatrical life, the practical as well as the literary. Indeed, this is much more a social history of French theatre of the era than a study of literary developments."

JACKSON, JOHN E. "On Literary Subjectivity in the Seventeenth Century." Diogenes 46.2 (1998), 75–88.

A psychoanalytic discussion of subjectivity applied to the seventeenth century. J. opposes the heterogeneity of intrapsychic and intersubjective relations with the homogeneity the classical subject seems to insist upon. His primary example is Corneille, whose multiple characters in any given play all seem to speak in the same voice in a kind of subjective affirmation. J. examines Médée and Rodogune to show how these two works "sought to resolve the opposition between inherently conflictual subjectivity ... and the desire for unity and homogeneity that governs the conception of the self at this time." He then contrasts subjectivity in these plays with the character of Alceste in Molière's Misanthrope, arguing that Alceste desires a "symbolic usurpation of the King's place." J. further describes the place of the Self in Pascal and La Rochefoucauld: "The Self is ultimately hated ... as the seat of volition, a dominating pride, that is fallen nature transforms into the creature's ultimate locus of resistance to grace granted by God" in Pascal, while La Rochefoucauld's "concern for demasking" intends to "liberate the Self from its illusions." J. concludes with a discussion of Amphitryon, in which "The Self, guaranteed by language, proves as impossible to grasp as it was for Pascal."

JANIK, VICKI K., ed. Fools and Jesters in Literature, Art, and History: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook. Westport, Conn: Greenwood, 1998.

Review: F. K. Barasch in Choice 36.4 (1998), 672: "A global 'dictionary' of comics and clowns..., this work offers 60 entries, varying in length and depth, each with the same useful format: background, description and analysis, critical reception, notes (where relevant), and a selected bibliography. The volume opens with a scholarly introduction to the fool figure and closes with a general bibliography." Includes commedia dell'arte. "By taking fools seriously and by recognizing their value in cultural criticism, the editor has performed a monumental service to the state of learning: fools point to the instability of language and the 'fallibility of reason,' and they hold secrets of their societies."

JAOUËN, FRANÇOISE. De l'art de plaire en petits morceaux. Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère. Vincennes: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 1996.

Review: C. Rosso in SFr 42 (1998), 343: R. indicates that by insisting on the problematics of reading, F. Jaouën is able to approach a complex subject (the nature of fragmentary texts) from a new perspective. The study focuses particularly on the link between writing and reading, the triangulation between the author, the book and the public. R. notes that the chapter on Pascal contains an original and extremely interesting rereading of the fragmentary nature of the Pensées.

JENSEN, KATHARINE ANN. Writing Love: Letters, Women, and the Novel in France, 1605–1776. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995.

Review: Nancy Mc Elven in FR 72 (1999) 916–17: After describing an inscription of women letter-writers into an "ideology of femininity" predicated on their abandonment, claims that publishers (male) created the image of "feminine, emotional epistolarity," in order to marginalize it as "love letters." Close reading of Mme de Villedieu's letters shows a contrary reality, as does Anne Ferrand's (the two 17th-century figures treated here, followed by Graffigny, Riccoboni, Lespinasse). Fine thematic and stylistic analysis and significant use of self-help manuals. A real contribution to current scholarship in women's writing on the history of the novel.

See French 17 (1998).

KAPP, VOLKER. "Les moralistes et la rhétorique." DSS 202 (1999), 89–99.

Highlights relevant scholarship on the rhetoric of moralists and examines the ways in which "la lecture rhétorique" illuminates both stylistic and thematic elements of moralist literature.

KATRITZKY, M. A. "Was Commedia dell'arte Performed by Mountebanks? Album amicorum Illustrations and Thomas Platter's Description of 1598." ThR 23.2 (1998), 104–126.

An excerpt from Katritzky's own introduction to this issue of ThR summarizes his article as follows: "With particular reference to Thomas Platter's lengthy account of an Italian mountebank troupe performing in Avignon in 1598, and to over twenty pictures of mountebanks in alba amicorum," this article "examines some aspects of early modern mountebank activity from a specifically visual point of view. These aspects are mountebanks' venues, stages and audiences; their commercial activity; the appearance and routines of the chief mountebank; his companions, and the entertainment offered by the troupe as a whole."

KNAUFF, BARBARA. "The Curious Traveler in Foigny's La Terre australe connue (1676)." PFSCL 26 (1999), 273–282.

This paper was presented during the 1997 MLA convention conference on "La curiosité au XVIIe siècle." The author defines the role of curiosity, both subjective and objective, in 17th Century culture, by "examining its focal and dual role in one of the most fascinating texts in the French imaginary voyage tradition."

KRONEGGER, MARLIES. "Introduction au baroque." Littératures Classiques 36 (1998), 17–22.

The baroque period is seen as a cultural apex, when "toutes les formes de la vie et des arts ont atteint des sommets insoupçonnés."

LAFOND, JEAN. L'homme et son image. Morale et littérature de Montaigne à Mandeville. Paris: Champion, 1996.

Review: J.-P. Collinet in SFr 42 (1998), 131–2: An "important volume" consisting of thirty articles, almost half of which are devoted to "La Rochefoucauld et son milieu." C. pays particular homage to C. Rosso's "Procès à La Rochefoucauld" (a study focusing on the "augustinisme" of the Maximes) as "la pièce maîtresse de tout l'ouvrage et son plus ferme point d'appui", but characterizes the entire collection as a "collection bien équilibrée, ensemble homogène, contenu dense et riche de savoir et de réflexion: tout concourt à transformer cette gerbe d'écrits divers par la date et la destination en un livre cohérent, solide et de haute qualité."

LAFOND, JEAN. L'homme et son image: Morales et littérature de Montaigne à Mandeville. Geneva: Slatkine, 1996.

Review: D.J. Culpin in FS 52.4 (1998), 464: "This book brings together thirty articles by Lafond, twenty-nine of which have been previously published. The underlying theme which gives the book its unity is the preoccupation with self-knowledge, present in western moral thought since Socrates, and dominant in the writing of French moralists of the later seventeenth century. It is on this period and, not surprisingly, on La Rochefoucauld, that these pages principally focus. . . . For the most part these contributions hang together well. . . ".

LAFOND, JEAN. L'homme et son image. Morales et littérature de Montaigne à Mandeville. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1996.

Review: Michael S. Koppisch in DSS 202 (1999), 202–203: A collection of thirty articles by Lafond devoted to Montaigne, Descartes, Guez de Balzac, and La Rochefoucauld. "Ce qui donne l'unité aux chapitres de ce livre est la centralité de 'la morale dans sa double dimension individuelle et sociale.'"

LAGARDE, FRANÇOIS, ed. L'esprit en France au XVIIe siècle: Actes du 28e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 101 (1997).

Review: Henry Phillips in FS 52.4 (1998), 461–462: "This interesting volume of collected papers . . . addresses the complexity of the term 'esprit' in seventeenth-century discourse in France. A number of the contributions inevitably focus on the social issues involved with 'esprit' where the deliberations of Bouhours on the subject take pride of place, alongside, in the literary sphere, those of La Bruyère, with the appearance of Corneille, Molière and Racine. Welcome prominence is given to 'esprit' in the context of women's writing. . . . Finally Pascal is not forgotten, nor La Rochefoucauld. . . . The most important articles are to my mind those of Merlin [who looks at 'esprit' in language] and Viala [who analyses the relation of 'esprit' to 'galant']."

LAGARDE, FRANÇOIS, ed. L'esprit en France au XVIIe siècle. Actes du 28e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. The University of Texas at Austin, 11–13 Avril 1996. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 101(1997).

Review: Michel Peterson in PFSCL 26 (1999), 480–485: "A la lecture des Actes de ce colloque, on se dit qu'il fait partie des rares auxquels on aurait souhaité participer pour des motifs autres que touristiques."

LASSERRE, FRANCOIS. "Un ouvrage sous-estimé: la Comédie des Comédiens de Gougenot." PFSCL 25 (1998), 511–522.

Refutation of two commonplace beliefs regarding Gougenot's misunderstood play: 1) that this play provides a list and a faithful portrait of the troupe of the Hôtel de Bourgogne and 2) that there is no essential relationship between the first two acts (in prose) and the comedy in verse of the last 3.

LAVOCAT, FRANÇOISE. Arcadies malheureuses. Aux origines du roman moderne. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: Eglal Henein in PFSCL 26 (1999), 485–486: "Madame Lavocat a puisé dans la littérature européenne des informations très précieuses qu'elle a su exploiter avec beaucoup de talent."

LAVOCAT, FRANÇOISE. Arcadies malheureuses. Aux origines du roman moderne. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: Stéphane Macé in DSS 203 (1999), 402–403: First part of book describes the emergence of the pastoral novel and compares Italian, Spanish and French narratives spanning the 16th and 17th-c.. Second part is devoted to the heroic pastoral novel: "L'auteur insiste en particulier sur le nouveau rapport qui s'établit entre l'Arcadie et l'Histoire." Reviewer finds some repetition in this section but concedes "le tableau historique est d'une grande précision" and characterizes Lavocat's study as a major work.

LAVOCAT, FRANÇOISE. Arcadies malheureuses. Aux origines du roman moderne. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: B. Vanhouck in RSH 252 (1998), 198–200: "Dans cette longue étude comparée et extrêmement documentée de la pastorale en prose telle qu'elle fut pratiquée en Espagne, en Italie et en France de la fin du XVIe siècle jusqu'au XVIIIe siècle, F.L. met d'abord en avant l'existence d'une 'pastorale académique,' apparue au XVIe siècle et qui ne s'écarte guère de ses origines poétiques, à la fois bucoliques et idylliques. Célébrant les vertus du Prince et les pouvoirs de la parole poétique, le récit conserve une dimension allégorique prononcée qui passe notamment par la présence d'un 'je' à la fois poète et figure à peine travestie de l'auteur. Académique, cette pastorale l'est en effet, dans la mesure où elle met en scène une communauté de poètes à l'image des académies crées d'abord à la Renaissance en Italie, puis en France et en Espagne." In France and Spain: "l'univers pastoral, rejeté loin de toute histoire, et circonscrit dans l'espace par des frontières infranchissables que matérialise parfois une géographie insulaire, se rapproche de l'utopie. Il s'en distingue cependant par les relations ambiguës qu'il noue avec l'extérieur: hors du monde, l'Arcadie subit pourtant plus que jamais les soubresauts de l'histoire. Cette ambiguïté, pour F.L., est le signe même de la réunion conflictuelle de deux genres que leur rapport au temps suffit à séparer: la pastorale, intemporelle, et le roman, soumis à une histoire.... Mais l'auteur échoue finalement à nous montrer sur quoi repose cet antagonisme, affirmé d'emblée et comme allant de soi." Yet overall recommended.

LAWNER, LYNNE. Harlequin on the Moon: Commedia dell'Arte and the Visual Arts. New York: Abrams, 1998.

Review: F. K. Barasch in Choice 36.6 (1998), 1048: "This beautiful folio represents the visual world of commedia dell'arte, old and new, with 181 reproductions of paintings, engravings, and photographs, including 75 full color plates on fine paper. L. organizes the volume in two parts, first providing general readers with a survey of commedia's performance history—from its earliest record in 1545 to Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Marceau and the present decade—and then with a survey of its almost simultaneous history in art. She disburses pictures (some rarely reproduced) and excerpts from printed works throughout, annotating them with descriptions, artist attributions, dates, and translations of inscriptions (which occur in a number of pictures). Scholars should be wary of incomplete or erroneous information.... Nevertheless, the useful index, notes, bibliography, and picture credits can help scholars identify resources for checking facts...."

LECOQ, JEAN-FRANÇOIS. "Morales classiques et philosophies contemporaines." DSS 202 (1999), 101–118.

Considers "la rencontre de la philosophie et de la réflexion morale," focusing on the significant role of English philosophers as well as Descartes and classical philosophers.

LEERSON, JOEP. "Caractères des nations et imagologie." DSS 202 (1999), 119–123.

A brief outline of the pertinence of moralist literature for the study of imagologie, "l'étude du discours sur la caractérisation nationale."

LERER, SETH, ed. Literary History and the Challenge of Philology: The Legacy of Erich Auerbach. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996.

Review: Peter F. Dembrowski in Rph 52 (Fall 98), 71–94: Review of a volume containing the papers given at a conference on the "Legacy of Erich Auerbach", and some additional ones, titled: "Literary History and the Challenge of Philology: the Legacy of Erich Auerbach." Dembrowski in his review divides the material as follows: Auerbach's life, Early and contemporary reception, and Problems related to the editing of Old French texts. The author regrets that the "fondo italiano" of Auerbach's thought was not better reflected in "Legacy."

LESLIE, MARINA. Renaissance Utopias and the Problem of History. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998.

Review: E. J. Green in Choice 36.11/12 (1999), 1994: "When historians assess utopian traditions, their assumptions usually include the idea that literary creations reflect what has existed more than what could have been. L. applies this basic notion to 16th- and 17th-century utopian writing. Utopian thought of the day was primarily European, and L.'s method... is distinctly Continental. Bibliographic sources are primarily historical, and she uses little of the other available utopian scholarship." Primary texts discussed are English. Includes "the beginnings of a framework for the vision of utopia as theater."

LEWIS, PHILIP. Seeing through the Mother Goose Tales: Visual Turns in the Writings of Charles Perrault. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.

Review: Felizitas Ringham in FS 53.2 (1999), 207: "Lewis's study is cogently argued and presented with clarity and precision. His wealth of critical and historical knowledge is impressive as are the illuminating textual and linguistic explorations." The greatest strength of the work lies in the fact that "it combines a detailed critical study of a major seventeenth-century writer with a composite view of the intellectual and literary history of his age."

LONGSTAFFE, MOYA. Metamorphosis of Passion and the Heroic in French Litterature-Corneille, Stendhal, Claudel. Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 1997.

Traces the literary evolution of the dual ideals of love and heroism in these three writers.

MARKS, JONATHAN. "The Charlatans of the Pont-Neuf." ThR 23.2 (1998), 133–141.

Excerpt from M. A. Katritzky's introduction to this issue of ThR summarizes the article as follows: M. "argues that the entertainments offered on the outdoor stages of the French and Italian charlatans active in seventeenth-century Paris are an integral part of the commedia dell'arte, and that an understanding of these street performers is essential to an understanding of the development of French comedy. Through an examination of some of the contemporary publications which comment on them, written by charlatans and others, he draws attention to the stage practice of charlatans, their rivalries and relationship to mainstream theatre, medicine, and each other, and traces the changing personnel of some of the better known charlatan troupes."

MERLIN, HELENE. "Decontextualizing Context." SubStance 28.1 (1999), 29–41.

Considers "the relation between text and context, and the question of the autonomy of literature. If this autonomy exists, where are we to locate it — within the text itself..., or within the socio-historical conditions of its production and reception?" Uses Pierre Bourdieu's Les règles de l'art to read the 17th c., with particular reference to Corneille's Horace, which "seems to require contextualization for its meaning. But if the operation of contextualization throws light on the text, it does not provide the key to it." The conclusion of the article asks, "Might the function of literature be to weave symbolism, in the non-capitalizable sense of this term, where context is lacking? We might consider this function as a contextual given, but each time in accordance with another historicity. We ought, therefore, when thinking of literary history, to think not only of different sorts of temporalites, but above all of different historicities."

MERLIN, HELENE. Public et littérature en France au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994.

Review: F. Briot in RSH 249 (1998): "[L]e livre d'H. Merlin est l'ouvrage précieux d'une littéraire pour des littéraires. Il permet en effet, par un biais comme de traverse, et une méthode rigoureuse, d'éclairer avec pénétration et sagacité ce qui fait l'axe central et la ligne de partage du champ littéraire du XVIIe siècle: le plaisir...[I]l s'agit de faire du public, et de son jugement, l'arbitre même des œuvres... . On y voit en effet comment, à partir des guerres du bien public menées sous Louis XIV, la notion politique du public va peu à peu se construire et se constituer, jusqu'à devenir — outre ses autres valeurs plus exclusivement politiques — l'élément essentiel de fonctionnement et de compréhension de la 'République des Lettres'.... [L]'apport essentiel de l'ouvrage: sans jamais rien de rébarbatif, aider à comprendre l'émergence d'une littérature en train de s'affranchir d'un champ discursif qui prétendait la régenter.... La richesse des analyses, l'ampleur documentaire, les solides appuis théoriques de cet ouvrage en font d'ores et déjà une référence inévitable, et lourde de réflexions à poursuivre et à relier."

MERLIN, HÉLÈNE, AND DINAH RIBARD. "Enfin vinrent Malherbe, Galilée, Descartes... périodisation littéraire et périodisation culturelle: problèmes théoriques, problèmes historiques." Littératures Classiques 34 (1998), 47–71.

The authors ask the question of the possibility of periodization from the standpoint of "nouveauté" ("Enfin Malherbe vint..."). Unique position of Descartes, who represents a "rupture qui aura permis longtemps d'oublier la philosophie médiévale et religieuse, c'est-à-dire notamment tout l'aristotélisme occidental et oriental."

MICHALOWSKY, ULRIKE, ed. Sur la plume des vents. Mélanges de littérature épistolaire offerts àBernard Bray. Paris: Klincksieck, 1996.

Review: Philip Wolf in PFSCL 25 (1998), 619–621: "Des vingt-trois articles contenus dans ce volume...neuf traitent de la lettre au Grand Siècle et intéresseront tout particulièrement les lecteurs de ces pages."

MOLINIÉ, GEORGES. "Peut-on périodiser un XVIIe siècle stylistique et esthétique?" Littératures Classiques 34 (1998), 131–138.

The author presents the idea that the years 1650–1660 saw inaugurated "une aire bi-séculaire" which would last until the middle of the nineteenth-century.

MONCOND'HUY, DOMINIQUE. "La tragédie de la conjuration et ses enjeux au XVIIe siècle." Vivres Lettres 4 (1997): 65–89.

Review: A. Arrigoni in SFr 42 (1998), 564: This article appears in a special edition of Vivres lettres, entitled "Complots et coups d'Etat sur la scène de théâtre, XVIe–XVIIIe siècles." Moncond'huy analyzes a group of tragedies, all published between 1630 and 1650 and based on the theme of the conspiracy, in order to define a dramatic sub-genre, the "tragédie de la conspiration", which is based on specific aesthetic principles and not merely on a common historical theme.

MOROT-SIR, EDOUARD. La raison et la grâce selon Pascal. Paris: PUF, 1996.

Review: C. Rosso in SFr 42 (1998), 343–4: A collection of essays by the late E. Morot-Sir, who had already devoted part of his critical production to Pascal. Contains "a brilliant preface" by J. Mesnard, which is an homage to the author. The methodology observed in the essays relies heavily on existentialism and modern theories of language, which fascinated Morot-Sir. R. praises the study as being "rich with suggestions and intuitions" which are, however, "not always rigorous" in their demonstration. However, it is at this point of extreme speculation that R. sees the most interesting elements of Morot-Sir's work. An appendix contains a study juxtaposing Pascal to writers of the 20th century (Wittgenstein, Beckett, Sartre, Camus, Bataille).

NEEMANN, HAROLD. Piercing the Magic Veil: Toward a Theory of the Conte. Foreword byJacques Barchilon. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 116 (1999).

Examination of the generic, sociocultural, historical, structural, narratological, semiotic, and psychological dimensions of the conte merveilleux. Neemann concludes by showing that, just as the authors of contes in the 17th century experimented with a new genre, "their tales have become an object of experimentation for theoretical scholarship in the twentieth century.

OLIENSIS, ELLEN. Horace and the Rhetoric of Authority. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Review: William-Fitzgerald in TLS 4988 (6 Nov, 1998), 32: "Dense and elegant book" using the sociological concept of "face" to analyze how Horace in the mastered poetry of Book III of the Odes constructs aesthetic detachment, a monumental face that will deflect envy and criticism and present poetic and social authority for posterity.

PAPASOGLI, BENEDETTA. "L'espace intérieur et l'anatomie de l'âme." DSS 202 (1999), 125–134. A review of recent research on the "culture de l'intériorité." Analyzes the ways in which scientific metaphors and notions of "space" inform conceptions of the invisible inner universe of the soul.

PAPASOGLI, BENEDETTA et BARBARA PIQUE, eds. Il Prisma dei Moralisti. Per Il Tricentenario di La Bruyère. Rome: Salerne Editrice, 1997.

Review: Bérengère Parmentier in DSS 202 (1999), 201–202: In its deliberate effort to juxtapose the work of La Bruyère and that of other authors, genres and national traditions, this book distinguishes itself from other books prompted by tricentenial of Caractères, according to the reviewer. Reviewer recommends this somme for "la précision de ses analyses, l'étendue et la nouveauté des perspectives qu'elle ouvre." Articles in French and Italian.

PARMENTIER, BERENGERE. "Entre l'écrit et l'oral." DSS 202 (1999), 135–146.

An analysis of the complex interdependence of parole and écriture in the production and reception of moralists' work.

PARTNOW, ELAINE T. with LESLEY ANNE HYATT. The Female Dramatist: Profiles of Women Playwrights from the Middle Ages to Contemporary Times. New York: Facts on File, 1998.

Review: P. Palmer in Choice 36.4 (1998), 664: "P. lightly covers more than 200 women playwrights throughout history. Though American and English writers dominate, many other nationalities are represented." Also features "a time line and a supplemental index that briefly mentions 140 additional women playwrights."

PASQUIER, PIERRE. "Les âges de Protée: la périodisation de la vie théâtrale au XVIIe siècle." Littératures Classiques 34 (1998), 139–160.

Periodization of theatrical life, according to theories, genres, generations, stage techniques, and the "querelles", to conclude that these various periods do not parallel each other, and that the accepted ideas about dramatic periodization might, after all, be sound.

PAVEL, THOMAS. L'art de l'éloignement. Essai sur l'imagination classique. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.

Review: J.-P. Collinet in SFr 42 (1998), 136–7: C.'s review of this "captivant ouvrage" is highly favorable, praising the wide range of genres and texts commented by Pavel (aside from the "surprising" and deliberate omission of La Fontaine), the "profusion d'approches variées" and the "audacieuses spéculations" that result from Pavel's analyses. C. commends in particular the pages devoted to narrative fiction, as well as the ability Pavel displays in unifying such a vast array of texts while still respecting "la pluralité [et] la variété des projets tant intellectuels qu'artistiques."

PELLAT, J.-C. "Les mots graphiques dans des manuscrits et des imprimés du XVIIe siècle." LFr 119 (1998), 88–104.

Pellat demonstrates that the handwritten manuscripts of 17th-century authors present a large number of idiosyncracies (joined forms, few external markers of word-boundaries), whereas the printed works of the same authors between 1630 and 1710 display remarkably homogeneous uses (use of spaces, apostrophes, hyphens); he then contrasts these latter uses with contemporary standards.

PELLEGRINI, ROSA GALLI, IDA MERELLO, FRANCA ROBELLO and SERGIO POLI, eds. La 'Guirlande' di Cecilia: Studi in onore di Cecilia Rizza. Paris: Nizet, 1996.

Review: D.J. Culpin in FS 53.1 (1999), 58–59: This volume contains forty-three essays (in French and Italian) devoted to seventeenth-century topics. The material is divided into four sections: poetry, theatre, novel and short story, and language, culture and society. Most of the best known seventeenth-century French writers are the subject of investigation. This is a first-class collection. However there is no overarching theme except that of the 'garland' presented to Cecilia Rizza. "This diversity is both the book's strength and its weakness."

PELLEGRINI, ROSA GALLI, et al., ed. La "guirlande" di Cecilia. Studi in onore di Cecilia Rizza. Paris: Schena-Nizet, 1996.

Review: Jean Marmier in PFSCL 25 (1998), 607–610.

PICARD, RAYMOND et JEAN LAFOND, éds. Nouvelles du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Gallimard, 1997.

Review: P. France in MLR 94.2 (1999), 538: " . . . a rich and fascinating volume, bringing together texts as familiar as La Princesse de Montpensier and stories known only to a handful of specialists. A total of twenty-two authors (plus the Mercure galant) are represented here, and there are forty-seven stories in all, ranging from the eighty-page Voyage de Falaise of Eustache Le Noble to texts of four pages by Jean-Pierre Camus...." Bibliographical notices, introductions to the texts, and extensive notes.

PICARD, RAYMOND, et al., eds. Nouvelles françaises du XVIIe siècles. Paris: Gallimard, 1997.

Review: S. Poli in SFr 42 (1998), 125–6: An "outstanding" Pléiade edition which manages to do justice to a complex and widely varying genre, with its "excellent" introduction, wisely-chosen texts, and exhaustive documentation (chronology, appendices, notices, notes and variantes).

PIOFFET, MARIE-CHRISTINE. "Le pays inventé ou la fiction géographique au temps des précieux." SFr 42 (1998), 434–50.

Pioffet explores the wide spectrum of "fictions géographiques" that were so popular during the mid-17th century (in Mlle de Scudéry, Bussy-Rabutin and Sorel among others), comparing the concrete, topographical details of each fictional landscape, noting that they reveal the ambivalences and contradictions present in classical authors' attitudes towards their own society.

PONS, ALAIN. "Réflexion moraliste et sources italiennes." DSS 202 (1999), 147–156.

Discusses recent French translations of 16th-c. conduct manuals by Baldassar Castiglione, Giovanni Della Casa, and Stefano Guazzo; examines the nature of their influence on French classical moralists.

PREVOT, JACQUES, avec la collaboration de THIERRY BEDOUELLE et d'ETIENNE WOLF. Libertins du XVIIe siècle. Tome I. Paris: La Pléiade, Gallimard, 1998.

Review: N. Casanova in QL 754 (1999), 13: "L'excellente, la lumineuse introduction de J.P. demeurera comme une porte d'entrée essentielle dans ce monde mal connu aujourd'hui.... J.P. déploie un panorama où des légions de penseurs oeuvraient pour la liberté, et de telle manière qu'aussitôt leur actualité s'imposent. 'Le libertinage n'est pas dans les idées, il est dans les audaces. Il n'est pas dans les réponses; il est dans les questions. Et j'y vois un modèle pour tous les temps.' Et pourtant, J.P. décèle chez ces 'philosophes,' un 'inengagement personnel dans la société du temps.' Il en dégage les motifs voire les excuses.... L'action de ces intellectuels prendra d'autres formes, celle d'une abondante création littéraire, appliquée en grande partie à dénoncer toutes les formes de l'imposture.... Ce riche, émouvant et vigoureux volume pourrait servir de clé de voûte de toute la littérature française." Auteurs étudiés: Théophile de Viau, Gabriel Naudé, Tristan l'Hermite, Gassendi, Cyrano de Bergerac, Charles Dassoucy; et en plus L'Ecole des filles.

Review: S. Taussig in Corpus 35 (1999), 169–174: Ce volume "vient combler une lacune de l'édition française." Contains not only libertine texts but also an interpretation of the libertine phenomenon that goes against traditional interpretations. "Entreprise audacieuse et riche de perspectives, permettant de faire le départ entre l'air du temps, le contexte dans lequel ils ont composé leurs œuvres respectives, et leur originalité, leur singularité irréductibles: c'est qu'ils refusent toute forme d'autorité et aspirent, sinon à la vérité, du moins à la plus grande vraisemblance, tâchant de reconstruire le savoir autour d'un 'je' qui, pour décrire les incertitudes, les errances et les doutes, invente des formes nouvelles."

PREVOT, JACQUES, avec la collaboration de THIERRY BEDOUELLE et d'ETIENNE WOLF. Libertins du XVIIe siècle. Tome I. Paris: La Pléiade, Gallimard, 1998.

Review: J.-P. Amette in Le Point 1367 (1998), 124–125: Article summarizing life and publications of 17th c. libertines. Les libertins "sont tous comme des post-soixante-huitards qui retomberaient dans un régime petit-bourgeois pompidolien. Leurs persécuteurs viennent de l'antichambre de Mme de Maintenon. Mais, grâce aux travaux de J.P., formidable raconteur de leur histoire et de leur sensibilité, on peut lire et aimer ces jeunes gens, leur couleur, leur joie, leur talent, leur diversité, leur intelligence. Ils restent vifs et fous. On attend le volume II avec impatience. "

PUCCI, JOSEPH. The Full-Knowing Reader: Allusion and the Power of the Reader in the Western Literary Tradition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.

Review: E. D. Hill in Choice 36.3 (1998), 516: P. "defends the literary imagination from Homer to hip-hop by way of an account of how allusions work. His view of allusions differs from those of prior studies because of his insistence on the primary role of the reader in generating meaning. For P., an allusion marks a diminution of authorial control over the reader, a control reasserted in nonallusive passages.... P. is at his best when he lays aside his big subject of reader freedom and fortitude and demonstrates in traditional but powerful fashion how one lyric transshapes a predecessor lyric."

QUEMADA, BERNARD. Les préfaces du Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française 1694–1992. Paris: Champion, 1997.

Review: C. Wionet in RSH 252 (1998), 200–201: "Le volume comporte, outre les préfaces des neuf éditions successives du Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (1694, 1718 ... ) et les épîtres au Roi pour la partie qui concerne l'ancien régime, des documents comme des 'essais' non publiés de préfaces, et surtout un appareil critique fort développé. Des notes très précieuses, une bibliographie importante, des index qui rendent possible une lecture transversale du volume."

REYNOLDS-CORNELL, REGINE. Fiction and réalité in the Mémoires of the notorious Anne-Marguerite Petit Du Noyer. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 115 (1999).

The amazing life of a unique woman born during the reign of Louis XIV, who, during her career as a woman journalist, acquired a vast number of enemies. The author studies the play of fiction and reality in the self-portrait Du Noyer proposes of herself in her Mémoires, as well as in the texts written by others about her.

RIZZA, CECILIA, Libertinage et litterature. Paris/Rome: Nizet/ Schena, 1996.

Review: Nancy Arenberg in FR 72 (1999), 1111–12: Series of essays that profile the libertin (in the sense of the free spirit) in Saint-Amant, Cyrano, Gaffarel but which are concentrated in three studies of Théophile: on his idealogy (without assigning a specific philosophical filiation); stylistic traits of his poetry that innovatively transform religious lyricism; and on the relationship of "metamorphosis" to his philosophy of nature.

See French 17 (1998).

RIZZA, CECILIA. Libertinage et littérature. Paris: Schéna-Nizet, 1996.

Review: F. Deschamps in RSH 251 (1998), 206–208: "Pour [C. Rizza], ... le libertinage se définit avant tout comme 'une attitude mentale, une façon de se situer dans la vie et par rapport au monde,' car 'à la base il y a une revendication tenace de liberté.' Il faut comprendre par le terme 'liberté,' esprit d'indépendance face à des principes établis depuis longtemps, ce qui explique l'effervescence intellectuelle caractéristique du début du XVIIe siècle et l'intérêt d'une partie des érudits pour la révolution héliocentrique de Copernic et pour les travaux de Galilée. L'auteur s'emploie à illustrer sa thèse par l'examen attentif des œuvres de Théophile de Viau.... L'analyse précise des textes met ainsi en valeur le détournement profane du lexique religieux dans le domaine des sentiments amoureux. Aucune intention blasphématoire n'anime le poète, mais la volonté de pousser le langage hors de ses limites pour aboutir à la création de métaphores audacieuses. De même, pour C. Rizza, l'utilisation récurrente de la mythologie ne relève pas d'une pure ornementation dénuée d'originalité mais procède d'un système tendant à placer le mythe à la confluence de correspondances entre la nature et le monde des humains, à l'image du cosmos copernicien qui englobe l'homme. Vision poétique qui permet ainsi de s'inscrire dans l'idéologie libertine." Other articles on Saint-Amant, where she maintains that "l'absence de traces d'impiété et ... la sincérité du sentiment religieux...." On Cyrano: demonstrates "le réseau d'échos et de coïncidences tissé entre L'Autre monde et les Essais." Essay on Jacques Gaffarel's Les Curiosités inouyes "met en valeur l'engagement de cet homme de science féru d'astrologie et de Kabbale dans la mouvance de la pensée libertine."

ROHOU JEAN. "Plaidoyer pour une périodisation critique." Littératures classiques 34 (1998), 5–12.

Analysis of the difficulties, on the ideological and the methodological levels, of historical periodization.

ROHOU, JEAN. La tragédie classique (1550–1793). Paris: SEDES, 1996.

Review: L. Benatti in SFr 42 (1998), 132–3: This study is devoted to the description of the classical tragedy, analyzed across a wide span of time. It is divided into six sections, the 3rd-5th of which will be most interesting to 17th century scholars. Includes a 110-page anthology of excerpts, 2 chronologies and a quite complete bibliography.

ROHOU, JEAN, ed. "La périodisation de l'âge classique." Littératures classiques, 34 (1998).

Review: François Lagarde in PFSCL 26 (1999), 493–495: "Ce volume est touffu, riche, plusieurs articles feront référence en histoire littéraire...".

ROHOU, JEAN. La Tragédie classique (1550–1793). Paris: Sedes, 1996.

Review: Liliane Picciola in RHL 99.3 (1999) 537–39: A favorable review in which P. especially commends R. for covering works typically ignored during the period in question. For R., the definition of tragedy stems from "...[tout ce] qui relève dans ses traits essentiels des principes mimétiques de la Poétique d'Aristote." The number of tragedies discussed is quite large, but the grouping is broken down into several thematic categories such as "tragédies de l'énergie, tragédies politiques, tragédies romanesques, [et] tragédies tragiques." Nonetheless, L. claims that one classification is missing, i.e., the "tragédie épique" which applies to some of Corneille's major works. With respect to lesser-known dramatists, L. applauds R.'s mention of Garnier and Théophile, and also praises R. for discussing Voltaire's reaction to seventeenth-century drama. Concluding her review, L. suggests that R. has rendered a large service to the discipline, stating: "on ne peut qu'être reconnaissant à l'auteur de ce volumineux ouvrage d'avoir brassé...tant de connaissances, de textes, de théories, et de réflexions...pour nous en procurer...une lecture agréable et instructive."

RORTY, AMELIE OKSENBERG. "Witnessing Philosophers." P&L 22.2 (1998), 309–327.

Article examines autobiographies written by philosophers, and the theatrical nature of such texts. Includes some references to Descartes, Pascal, Arnauld, Gassendi, Mme d'Epinay. R. concludes that philosophers' autobiograhies do not differ in essence from other autobiographies in the writers' degree of self-knowledge. However, "philosophical autobiography is set apart by the expectations of some of its authors and some of its readers.... Read aright, philosophers' autobiographies reveal the work of philosophers attempting to forge—and to understand—their undertaking.... Philosophers' autobiographies help demystify claims to a special access to truthful insight.... They are not texts, but works-in-progress."

ROSTECK, THOMAS, ed. At the Intersection: Cultural studies and Rhetorical Studies. New York/London: Guilford Press, 1999. Collection of essays listed in Isis 90 (1998), 167.

ROUKHOMOVSKY, BERNARD et LOUIS VAN DELFT. "La question du fragment." DSS 202 (1999), 157–167.

Begins by identifying the various reasons why French scholars, unlike their German counterparts, have traditionally favored the notion of forme brève rather than fragment; argues for the relevance of the latter term. Includes a useful bibliography featuring critical studies on the fragment.

RUBIN, DAVID LEE, ed. Signs of the Early Modern 2–17th Century and Beyond. EMF: Studies in Early Modern France. Vol 3. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 1997.

Review: Nathalie Grande in RHL 99.1 (1999), 125: Reviewer summarizes the contributions to this volume which is the second of two works, "consacrés à de nouvelles approches des débuts de l'époque moderne." Among the topics examined are, "la question du sujet chez Descartes," "la modernité du discours politique de Marie de Gournay," "...[la manière dont] les textes orientalistes ont contribué à l'idéologie de l'Etat en Europe," and the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes.

SCHAPIRA, CHARLOTTE. Le maxime et le discours d'autorité. Paris: Sedes, 1997.

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 99.1 (1999), 128: Generally favorable review in which E. states that until this book, there had been no "ouvrage synthétique (en français) sur la maxime considérée comme un genre littéraire." S.'s focus is primarily on the seventeenth century, with particular emphasis on the linguistic and semantic contexts in which the maxim situates itself. The study also seeks to define the maxim in part by distinguishing it from its "formes apparentées que sont le proverbe, l'apophtegme, et le lieu commun." Despite these strengths, E. points out that S.'s effort overlooks the maxim's "structure dialogique (para-doxale)" as well as the role the maxim plays in narrative texts.

RUBIN, DAVID LEE, ed. EMF: Studies in Early Modern France. Volume 3. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 1997.

Review: Laurence A. Gregorio in PFSCL 26 (1999), 497–500: "This volume, like the rest of the series to date, is eclectic, informative, enjoyable and thought provoking."

SAFTY, ESSAM. "La déchéance physique et la perspective de la mort dans la poésie de l'âge baroque." DSS 196 (1997), 567–89.

Review: A. Arrigoni in SFr 42 (1998), 561: Safty analyzes the rise of a form of poetic imagery which replaces the Petrarchist concept of suffering with its new emphasis on physical decay and the presence of death in a study which A. characterizes as "timely and interesting".

SALAZAR, PHILIPPE-JOSEPH. "'L'Eclat et la catastrophe' or Sceptic Independence." SCFS 20 (1998), 1–16.

Far-reaching and carefully argued presentation of texts by La Mothe le Vayer, Saint Evremond, and La Rochefoucauld as documents in a mid-century "dispositif" whereby the concept of diversité allows for "some sort of balance between individuals' private needs and the public insertion of their literary practices" (including notably the need to dissent).

SATORI, EVA MARTIN, ed. The Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999.

Rich collection edited by Perry Gethner) of individual lives and of articles on general topics. Contains in appendices a general bibliography and a chronology of French Women Writers.

SCOTT, VIRGINIA. "La virtu et la volupté. Models for the Actress in Early Modern Italy and France." ThR 23.2 (1998), 152–158.

An excerpt from M. A. Katritzky's introduction to this issue of ThR summarizes the article as follows: "V.S. ranges from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries in her examination of two opposing models for early modern French and Italian actresses. The dominant model of the courtesan actress, trained in the arts of music, dance, and conversation, was in France typified by women who followed their husbands onto the stage, and were encouraged by them to entice other men with their lively erotic charms, both on and off stage. S., who calls this the 'Gaillarde' model, discusses it in relation to actresses such as Marie Champmeslé and Armande Béjart, and opposes it to the 'virtuous' model typified in its highest expression by the renowned actress and humanist Isabella Andreini."

SCOTT, CLIVE. The Poetics of French Verse: Studies in Reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Review: D. O'Connell in Choice 36.4 (1998), 696: "[T]his volume is divided into two parts: one — descriptive and, to a certain extent, theoretical — looks at the 'poetics of French verse'; the other, resolutely practical, at 'studies in reading.' In the first section, S. ... makes useful comparisons between French and English poetics. He also devotes many illuminating pages to the analysis of the 12-syllable French verse line, the alexandrine, and in so doing takes his reader beneath the surface, laying bare the nuts and bolts that go into the making of some of Racine's most famous lines. In the second part, the author's choice of poems varies widely" and includes primarily 19th- and 20th-century writers.

SIGURET, FRANÇOISE. "Baroque et théâtre, ou l'invention du monde." Littératures Classiques 36 (1999), 253–270.

From 1589, date of the great festivals of the Medici in Florence, to 1711, when Jean Berain, designer for Louis XIV, dies, the author analyzes baroque scenography ("formidable instrument d'appropriation du monde"), the theater as "lieu de civilité", and the question of the "theatrum mundi" which allows the spectator to set his gaze on "la vision microcosmique du macrocosme."

SOARE, ANTOINE, ed. Et in Arcadia Ego: Actes du 27e congrès annuel de la North American Society for XVIIth-Century Literature. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 100 (1997).

Review: Terence Allott in FS 52.4 (1998), 460–461: "United in commemorating the birth of Poussin (1595) and the death of La Fontaine (1695), the many contributors to this illustrated volume centre their attention on Arcadia, an imaginary land of harmonious simplicity yet haunted by thoughts of death, as implied by the enigmatic tomb inscription — the conference's title — in Poussin's famous painting." Contributors discuss the arcadian myth, study the pastoral drama of Hardy and Mairet, and map out La Fontaine's exploration of Arcadia.

SOARE, ANTOINE, ed. Et in Arcadia ego. Actes du XXVIIe congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Université de Montréal — Université McGill, 20–22 avril 1995. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 100 (1997).

Review: Jean Marmier in PFSCL 26 (1999), 239–241: "Ne cherchons pas d'autre conclusion à ces foisonnants apports que celle dont se réjouit Christine McCall Probes: 'Les études dix-septiémistes se portent bien'."

SOARE, ATNOINE, éd. Et in Arcadia Ego: Actes du XVIIe congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 100 (1997).

Review: T. Alliott in MLR 93.4, 1109: "A notable coincidence of anniversaries, commemorating Poussin's birth and La Fontaine's death, gave the Montreal conference an opportunity to explore the arcadian scene, particularly in the writing and painting of seventeenth-century France. A wide range of papers (together with some responses) takes in aspects of the theatre, royal propaganda, or mémoires, as well as the central figures of the painter and the poet. Surprisingly, a review of current trends in critical writing on French literature 1654–79 is included: Philippe Sellier detects, among francophone critics at any rate, a deepening shadow of complexity impinging on the 'arcadian' image of French classicism."

SOUILLER, DIDIER. "D'un art poétique baroque." Littératures Classiques 36 (1999), 45–61.

The author sees in the mass of theoretical reflections of the period some constant affirmations, which compose the principles of a "baroque poetics" centered around the notion of persuasion through feelings and emotion, rather than analysis.

SOUILLER, DIDIER. "Le baroque en question(s)." Littératures Classiques 36 (1999), 5–13.

Introduction to issue 36 of Littératures Classiques, devoted to the "Baroque", a notion which the author values as "an instrument de travail commode." He defines the goals of this collection: "poser des questions à propos du baroque, assurément; remettre en question l'existence du baroque comme fait de civilisation, certainement pas."

SOUILLER, DIDIER. "Périodes du XVIIe siècle français et périodes du XVIIe siècle européen." Littératures Classiques 34 (1998), 27–46.

The author analyzes the century from a European perspective, following three separate tracks: the influence of "conjoncture", the intellectual and ideological evolution, and the comparison of the various moments of French and European literary evolution. He concludes by asserting that France had come back to the forefront, economically, politically and culturally after the collapse which followed the wars of religion.

SPENCER, CATHERINE. "'O grès suspends ton vol!' L'Ecole des femmes ou l'esprit de la lettre." DSS 200 (1998), 483–489.

Author reads the grès-lettre as a trope "qui confirme leur commune nature langagière et permet de repérer, à l'œuvre dans l'un comme dans l'autre, un même déplacement: comme le grès, la lettre se donne comme un 'dit' (niveau littéral), mais se révèle concurremment (niveau dérivé) comme le lieu et le produit d'un certain 'faire'."

SPICA, ANNE-ELIZABETH. "Emblématique et périodisation du XVIIe siècle." Littératures Classiques 34 (1998), 191–204.

From the standpoint of "emblématique", the cultural break is seen around the 1660's.

SPICA, ANNE-ELISABETH. "Moralistes et emblématique." DSS 202 (1999), 169–180.

Outlines the points of convergence between moralist literature and emblems—including their "vocation morale," their shared purpose of explaining "l'énigme du monde," and their formal similarities—and suggests the ways in which studying them conjointly may produce fruitful results.

SPICA, ANNE-ELIZABETH. Symbolique humaniste et emblématique: l'évolution et les genres (1580–1700) Paris: Champion, 1999.

Review: Daniel Russell in PFSCL 26 (1999), 231–242: "...this is an important book that brings much new material and several new perspectives to the study of the emblematics...".

TATAR, MARIA. The Classical Fairy Tales. Texts and Criticism. New York: Norton, 1999.

Review: Carolyne Larrington in TLS 5009 (2 Apr. 1999), 25: Efficiently and thoughtfully produced with many new translations, a "fine introduction" with "intelligent wideranging" treatment of types of tales allowing for a diversity of critical approaches.

TAYLOR, PAUL A. "Imaginative Writing and the Disclosure of the Self." JAAC 57.1 (1999), 27–39.

Opaque activities, such as pretending to do something or concealing oneself behind a mask, provide a means of investigating a question about imaginative writing that is of great interest in literary theory. T. questions whether we should limit ourselves to more cautious claims about the feelings and attitudes of an implied author. He removes some of the "supposed obstacles to the relational view, by opposing a number of analogies and arguments advanced in support of the claim that the author is not accessible through her work."

THIROUIN, LAURENT, ed. Pierre Nicole, Traité de la Comédie et autres pièces d'un procès du théâtre. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: Marco Baschera in PFSCL 26 (1999), 500–501: "Vu l'importance de ce texte capital pour la querelle du théâtre, il faut saluer de bon coeur cet appareil critique qui contient en plus des annotations abondantes."

THIROUIN, LAURENT. "Littérature morale et spiritualité." DSS 202 (1999), 181–192.

Provides a useful definition of the difference between spiritualité and religion and explores the "préoccupations spirituelles" of moralist literature.

THIROUIN, LAURENT. L'aveuglement salutaire: le réquisitoire contre le théâtre dans la France classique. Paris: Champion, 1997.

Review: François Lagarde in PFSCL 26 (1999), 243–244: "Cet essai, toujours clair et méthodique, est un précieux travail d'érudition ... la réflexion est sans cesse élargie à des considérations sur les théories dramatiques de Diderot et de Rousseau ainsi qu'à des auteurs contemporains, d'Artaud à Guy Debord."

TRUCHET, JACQUES. La tragédie classique en France. 3ème édition corrigée. Paris: PUF, 1997.

Review: Marie-Odile Sweetser in PFSCL 25 (1998), 622–623: "Cette mise à jour sera très bienvenue et permettra d'attendre une quatrième rédition qui tiendra compte des travaux suscités par le tricentenaire de la mort de Racine en 1999 et qui marquera l'entrée des études dix-septiémistes dans le troisième millénaire."

TRUCHET, JACQUES. La tragédie classique en France. 3e éd. Paris: PUF, 1997.

Review: J.-P. Collinet in SFr 42 (1998), 567: C. reaffirms the very positive opinion of G. Couton (who reviewed this volume for SFr in 1976 when it first came out), calling Truchet's book "une synthèse quasi-définitive et l'état le plus actuel de la recherche," and drawing special attention to the updated bibliography.

UOMINI, STEVE. "Clio chez Calliope: éléments doctrinaux et critiques de l'historiographie romanesque française du premier XVIIe siècle." DSS 201 (1998), 669–679.

Claims that "le développement de l'histoire romanesque était tributaire d'un important corpus théorique;" along with rules governing formal perfection, this corpus offered theoretical grounds for recourse to "procédés fantastiques."

URL:http://ps.theatre.tulane.edu/Period.Styles/PeriodStyles.html.

Review: G. F. Hisel in Choice 36.3 (1998), 512: "Tulane University's Web site is a predictable blend of student marketing and educational course work, with the theater's period styles being typical. Upon arrival one is presented with an art history stylistic outline (text only), which lists the following categories: Ancient World, Early Christian Period, Gothic Period, The Renaissance, The Baroque, ... [etc.]. Choosing a subcategory ... will bring up a one-page synopsis of the period and the choice of slides or an index. Going into the image area, one finds a series of still images, each with the pertinent data always found in the college textbooks. Image quality is good, though detail can often be lost in the larger slides. Hot links are sometimes provided, with a paragraph below each image that allows further jumps to related or in-depth images. In some stylistic periods, additional aides such as maps are included along with links to other disciplines such as costume design."

URL: http://www.coh.arizona.edu/spanish/comedia. Comedia.

Review: O. B. González in Choice Supplement 36 (1999), 91: Includes "a bulletin board for those interested in ongoing comedia discussions; an easy-to-access collection of unannotated primary texts that can be read on screen or downloaded; a database with graphics; and ... an essential general bibliography featuring primary textual material and comedia catalogs.... Written in English, Spanish and French, many of the links originate in other countries."

VIALA, A. "Institution littéraire, champ littéraire et périodisation: l'institution du siècle." Littératures Classiques 34 (1998), 119–130.

Using the concept of "champ littéraire" borrowed from Bourdieu, the author rejects artificial chronological boundaries, to replace them with "configurations", "massifs", and "conjonctures historiques."

WEIMANN, ROBERT. Authority and Representation in Early Modern Discourse. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

Review: T. Hampton in MP 96.3 (1999), 377–381: An "Anglo-telic history" which "could be countered with a history privileging Descartes, Tasso, or Battasar Gracián." However, "This book is very successful at what it sets out to do."

WOOD, ALLEN G., ed. Le mythe de Phèdre. Les Hyppolyte français du XVIIe siècle. Textes des éditions originales deLa Pinelière,de Gilbert etde Bidar. Paris: Champion, 1996.

Review: J.-P. Collinet in SFr 42 (1998), 133: C. commends "ce corpus restreint, rédité de façon soignée, en dépit de quelques très rares inadvertances, présenté sobrement et pourvu d'une annotation succincte," as an interesting survey of three variations on the theme that Racine would treat definitively in 1677. C. notes in passing, on his own account, that there is perhaps more of intertextual interest to note between Racine's Phèdre and certain passages from La Fontaine than between Racine and La Pinelière.

WORTH-STYLIANOU, VALERIE. Confidential Strategies: The Confident in French Tragic Drama. Geneva: Droz, 1999.

ZIPES, JACK. When Dreams Come True. Classic Fairy Tales and their Tradition. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Review: Carolyn Larrington in TLS 5009 (2 Apr, 1999), 25: Republication of this "prolific and illuminating" scholar of the fairy tale of ten prefaces published since 1983 intended as a "sociohistorical framework." Distrusts psychoanalytic traditions of interpretation and prefers historicist contexts. Among these is a chapter on 17th-century French fairy tales placed in the contexts of précieuses "marginalized by their genre." "An unsatisfactory book according to its aims, casually edited and outrageously priced."

"L'HISTOIRE AU XVIIe SIECLE." Littératures classiques 30 (1997): 1–260.

Review: C. Rizza in SFr 42 (1998), 123–5: A special edition of Littératures classiques, containing articles by A. Niderst, A Duchesne, E. Bury, S. Mazauric, among others. Edited/presented by S. Guellouz, with an important bibliography; addresses the problem of history and historiography from widely differing perspectives.