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2002 Number 50
FAYE, EMMANUEL, ed. Examen du traité de l'essence du corps contre Descartes. Paris: Fayard, 1999.
Review: R. Texier in DSS 213 (2001), 726–728: Written in 1680 (published in 1780), Arnauld's text undertakes a philosophical/theological debate in response to P. le Moyne's attacks against the Cartesian definition of the body, viewed by Le Moine as heretical on a number of levels. For the reviewer, Arnauld's highly esoteric text retains its interest today for the light it sheds on "l'acte de philosopher en toute indépendance. . .. Et la profession de foi—philosophique—à laquelle se livre Arnauld d'entrée de jeu est là-dessus d'une clarté et d'une précision sans égales. . ."
KREMER, E.J. and MOREAU, DENIS, eds. Oeuvres philosophiques d'Arnauld. Bristol, U.K.: Thoemmes Press, 2002, 6 vols.
Arnauld's key philosophical writings and correspondence with Malebranche, Leibniz and others. <info@thoemmes.com>.
AMATUZZI, ANTONELLA, ed. La correspondance d'Albert Bailly. Publiée sous la direction de G. Mombello. Volume III; année 1651. Aoste: Académie Saint-Anselme, 1999.
Review: M. Pavesio in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 243–244: Correspondence in particular with Marie-Christine de France, this volume represents a "témoignage précieux de la période comprise entre la Fronde et les premières années du règne effectif de Louis XIV," "une veritable banque de données à la disposition des historiens qui pourront dénicher ici des détails introuvables ailleurs." With "l'appareil de notes, riche et précis," including references to memoirs, journals, manuscript gazettes. Reviewer highlights "la valeur littéraire non-négligeable de cette correspondance qui se révèle une source historique irremplaçable dont toute étude sérieuse sur la période de la Fronde devrait tenir compte." Each letter is preceded by "une fiche avec indication des données diplomatiques essentielles." With an extensive bibliography.
LABROUSSE, ELISABETH, EDWARD JAMES, ANTHONY MCKENNA, MARIA-CRISTINA PITASSI, & RUTH WHELAN, eds. Pierre Bayle, Correspondance de Pierre Bayle, Tome 1, 1662–1674. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1999.
Review: M. Chevallier in DSS 213 (2001), 725–726: This amply annotated and illustrated correspondence includes a substantial introduction by Bayle scholar Labrousse, a "personal chronology" in Latin penned by Bayle, glossary, bibliography, and index of names. "Voilà à tous égards un bel ouvrage," concludes the reviewer.
Review: P. Rétat in RHL 101.4 (2001), 1290: A superbly edited and produced volume of letters which "permettent d'entrer ... dans l'intimité du jeune Bayle."
LEIBACHER-OUVRARD, LISE. "Le Conforme et l'Incongru: L'Eclaircissement de Pierre Bayle sur les Obscénités (1701)." PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 451–463.
Studies Bayle's reflexion on obscenity, calling it fundamental "parce qu'elle s'inscrit dans le débat de moralité qui sous-tend les guerres culturelles de la fin du siècle, mais aussi parce qu'en remettant en cause l'idéologie de l'Honnêteté et l'arbitraire de la censure, elle témoigne de la dimension théologique et politique de la question." Studies Bayle's 9 categories of "obscénités livresques," concluding that "c'est surtout par son style 《 plein de choses 》. . . et par un conformisme prétendu qui insinue partout l'incongru, que Bayle démontre la gageure de prétendre à une langue univoque, 《 honnête 》 et innocente dans un monde qui, pour lui, est foncièrement duplice et déchu."
MCKENNA, ANTONY, éd. Pierre Bayle, témoin et conscience de son temps: un choix d'articles du Dictionnaire historique et critique. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: J. Charnley in MLR 97.2 (2002), 429: Ninety edited articles from the Dictionnaire historique et critique "represent a useful addition to modern editions of Bayle's writing. . ." Reviewer cites lack of supporting appareil critique as a challenge to non-specialists.
Review: E. James in FS 56.2 (2002), 240: "Antony McKenna's new and very convenient single volume comprises eighty-eight articles and/or selected Remarques" from the Dictionnaire historique et critique. "His choice is designed to be widely representative of Bayle's diverse interests, political, cultural, philosophical and religious....The selected articles are preceded by a lucid and comprehensive Introduction of nineteen pages covering the significant features of Bayle's career and works and his philosophico-religious orientation." Includes "a very helpful bibliography."
Review: n.a. in BCLF 633 (2002), 1109: "Une anthologie légère et décevante."
MORI, GIANLUCA. Bayle Philosophe. Paris: Champion, 1999.
Review: P. Rétat in RHL 101.4 (2001), 1291. A refutation of E. Labrousse's interpretation of Bayle, which shows that "l'athéisme est la conclusion nécessaire et inévitable de ses raisonnements." Reviewer finds book largely convincing and finely argued, though wonders if it is truly possible to separate Bayle's "philosophy" from his "rhetoric."
Review: R. Whelan in FS 56.2 (2002), 240–241: A "challenging book" containing "seven meticulously erudite essays." Three of these are "comparative studies in historical philosophy"; three others focus on the interpretation of certain aspects of Bayle's writing, "particularly his speculative atheism, fideism, and flawed theory of toleration. A final shorter essay revisits Bayle's problematic Augustinianism and is published here for the first time."
AULOTTE, ROBERT, éd. Jean Benech de Cantenac: Les Marguerites. Exeter, University of Exeter Press, 1999.
Review: V. Worth-Stylianou in MLR 97.2 (2002), 428–29: "Les Marguerites, an epic poem of 1626 alexandrines, which appeared in Bordeaux in 1676, must rank among the least well-known works to appear in the Exeter Textes Littéraires series." Reviewer views the work as of interest to seventeenth-century scholars "not least for its sophisticated views on the relationship between art and nature and on the representation of perspective. However, despite Aulotte's generous footnotes. . ., one suspects that it is destined to remain marginal."
CLIN-LALANDE, ANNE-MARIE, ed. Jean Benech de Cantenac. Satyres nouvelles. Exeter: U of Exeter Press, 2001.
Review: B. Beugnot in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 529–530: Volume includes 17 satires and a dozen "pièces de circonstance, madrigaux ou requêtes." Reviewer notes that "Le texte en a été établi avec soin, sur les copies manuscrites lorsqu'elles étaient disponibles; ont été ajoutées un argument en tête de chaque pièce et un glossaire à visée plus pédagogique que savante." Also includes a 20-page introduction and an up-to-date bibliography. Benech de Cantenac's work resounds with well-known themes: "la rêverie utopique, la misère de l'homme et les malheurs du temps, la condition des grands, les masques sociaux, les faux dévots, la solitude, les femmes, l'éloge du roi." Clin-Lalande's annotation of the text is limited to "des éclaircissements indispensables et des sources ou échos évidents." A welcome contribution to our knowledge of provincial literature in the 17th c.
PIVA, FRANCO, éd. Catherine Bernard, Oeuvres, tome 2: Théâtre et poésie. Fasano-Paris: Schena-Didier Erudition, 1999.
Review: R. Godenne in LR 54 (2000) 190: Piva continues his work of editing and rehabilitating Bernard (in 1993 he had published her Romans et nouvelles and in 1996 her Commerce galant. . . ). Includes complete text of two plays and some 72 poems, the latter responsible for Bernard's renown in her time.
BLUM, CHARLES, ed. Beroalde de Verville. L'Histoire des vers qui file la soye. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: I. Zinguer in BHR 64.2 (2002), 484–85: "Heureuse initiative que cette étude et édition de l'Histoire des vers qui filent la soye. Elle permet d'appréhender et d'apprécier les caractéristiques de l'écriture béroaldienne ainsi que sa vision de la création où chaque manifestation de vie est signe de 'présence divine'. . ."
MORGAIN, STEPHANE-MARIE. La Théologie politique de Pierre de Bérulle (1598–1629). Paris: Publisud, 2001.
Review: BCLF 632 (2001), 850–51: "Cette interprétation politique du vocabulaire et des thèmes thélogiques de Bérulle constitue une perspective indéniablement nouvelle, ne serait-ce que par son exhaustivité."
FOUCART-WALTER, ELISABETH. Pieter Boel (1622–1674): Peintre des animaux de Louis XIV. Le fonds des études peintes des Gobelins. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2001.
Review: BCLF 635 (2002), 76–77: Catalogue "des reproductions des quatre-vingt-une études qui constituent le fonds Pieter Boel" publiée à l'occasion d'une exposition au Louvre (12 septembre–17 décembre 2001).
BEN MASSAOUD, SAMY. "Une nouvelle source d'étude de Boileau: les papiers Brossette." SFr 135 (2001), 581–596.
Detailed and animated account of the history of the "papiers Brossette" demonstrates their importance due to Brossette's exceptional collection of manuscripts, his "science de l'édition," and "parfaite connaissance de l'oeuvre du satirique" (595–596).
CORUM, ROBERT T., JR. Reading Boileau: An Integrative Study of the Early Satires. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue UP, 1998.
Review: C. Grisé in EMF 8 (2002), 266–67. Focusing of the first nine Satires, study emphasizes Boileau as young poet, prior to his role as codifier of French Classicism. Shows how the Satires dramatize the personal plight of the poet-speaker, reflect on various types of human folly, and argue for the superiority of satire itself with respect to other genres.
ROBERTS, WILLIAM. "Saint-Amant's and Boisrobert's Pont-Neuf Poems," PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2000), 135–152.
Saint-Amant's "Gazette du Pont-Neuf" and "Poète crotté" are compared in considerable detail, and shown to be part of a complex poetic evolution deriving from Théophile. "The scenes of early 17th century Parisian cityscape so deftly and colorfully evoked by Saint-Amant in his well-known poems 'la Gazette du Pont-Neuf' and 'le Poète crotté' can be seen, upon close examination, as constituting stages in a complex poetic progression that includes Théophile de Viau and Boisrobert." Boisrobert's "Hyver de Paris" is envisioned as a ballet scene, and in well-known passages Saint-Amant targets poetaster Marc de Maillet and also Marie de Gournay for picturesque ridicule. In Saint-Amant's poems, many topographical references to the Paris of 1620–1630 are seen to be systematically organized. Concludes that Saint-Amant "did work from specific texts. . . which were either directly before him or else very close at hand."
BOSSUET, JACQUES BENIGNE. La Vie cachée. Orbey: Arfuyen, 2001.
Review: BCLF 634 (2002), 117: La maison d'édition Arfuyen "republie un texte court composé par l'évêque de Meaux en 1691 et publié à titre posthume en 1731 à la suite des Méditations sur l'Evangile." Manque de préface qui aurait pu permettre une meilleure appréciation du texte.
ROUGET, FRANÇOIS & COLETTE H. WINN, eds. Louise Boursier. Récit véritable de la naissance de messeigneurs et dames les enfants de France. Fidelle relation de l'accouchement, maladie et ouverture du corps de feu Madame, suivi du Rapport de l'ouverture du corps de feu Madame. Remonstrance à Madame Boursier, touchant son apologie. Instruction à ma fille. Geneva: Droz, 2000.
Review: V. Worth-Stylianou in FS 56.2 (2002), 235: This collection of writings by Louise Bourgeois (dite Boursier), midwife to Marie de Médicis, includes autobiographical, polemical and instructional texts. This edition offers a "fairly thorough introduction" and is "helpfully annotated."
DUBU, JEAN. "Campistron émule de Corneille." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 449–460.
Biographical summary, with particular reference to Campistron's Arminius, Alcibiade, Acis et Galatée, Phocion, Adrien, and Tiridate, and an analysis of Pierre Corneille's influence on this relatively unknown dramatist.
FERRARI, STEPHAN, ed. Jean-Pierre Camus. L'Amphithéâtre sanglant. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: J. Conroy in FS 56.3 (2002), 393–394: The reviewer praises Ferrari's "splendid introduction," which "situates Camus as the very model of a Counter-Reformation 'évêque de choc,' a Tridentine activist both in his life and his writing. Ferrari is particularly good at analysing [Camus's] complex intellectual heritage.... After a valuable analysis of the poetics of the genre and of Camus's work in general, Ferrari provides an excellent examination of the particular collection, skillfully combining stylistic, narratological and philosophical commentary."
JOUHAUD, CHRISTIAN. "Roman historié et histoire romancée: Jean-Pierre Camus et Charles Sorel." DSS 215 (2002), 307–316.
Jouhaud argues that Camus and Sorel were both proponents of the socio-political utility of the novelistic form (as opposed to those who proclaimed literature's autonomy), the one deploying it as an instrument of evangelization, the other as a political tool.
ROBIC-DE BAECQUE, SYLVIE. Le Salut par l'excès: Jean-Pierre Camus (1584–1652), la poétique d'un évêque romancier. Paris: Champion, 1999.
Review: N. Grande in RHL 102.1 (2002), 153–54. Work tries to understand "comment fonctionnait l'articulation entre écriture romanesque et sensibilité dévote dans le contexte des nouvelles relations qu'instaura le Concile de Trente entre littérature et religion." Analyzes how Camus defines his reader, opts for fact over fiction, and updates the allegorical tradition.
Review: E. Henein in FS 54.4 (2001), 541: "Madame Robic-de Baecque analyse tous les écrits de Camus pour cerner la 'lecture dévote' qui prétend 'divertir d'elle-même la lecture de divertissement' (p. 120) et qui 'relève d'une véritable expérience de dévotion (p. 145)." Dans ce travail "important," cohérent et bien fondé, "les stratégies narratives camusiennes sont analysées d'une manière lumineuse. . .."
Review: M. Vernet in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 549–556: The first French thesis devoted to the literary work of Jean-Pierre Camus. Thanks to the vastness of his œuvre, a publication of just a fraction of his works would qualify him as "un des auteurs importants de ce premier demi-siècle." According to Vernet, "On se convaincra aisément, en lisant Le Salut par l'excès. . . de l'importance de Camus dans tout son siècle. La mise en contexte de cet étrange évêque-auteur est faite de façon exemplaire dans cette excellente étude dont la lecture apportera beaucoup, même aux dix-septiémistes chevronnés." This is "enfin une étude qui prend l'œuvre de Camus dans le bon sens, c'est-à-dire à la fois à partir des conditions historiques réelles qui informent l'univers intellectuel de l'auteur, mais aussi à partir d'un examen sérieux et convaincant de la place de cette position d'auteur dans la hiérarchie personnelle des relations de Camus à son temps." The study is "solide, bien conduite, très intéressante. . . [Elle] servira de guide à de nombreuses générations de chercheurs."
VERNET, MAX. Jean-Pierre Camus: théorie de la contre-littérature. Paris-Sainte-Foy: Nizet-Editions Le Griffon d'argile, 1995.
Review: G. Jucquois in LR 54 (2000), 390–391: Welcome volume on Camus's voluminous œuvre of some 265 titles. Camus, desirous of reaching a wide public, does not oppose works of literature to those of "contre-littérature." Contrary to Sorel, for example, Camus insists on the vraisemblable and strives to keep "une vision unifiée de la science et de la sagesse" (reviewer, 391). Vernet treats questions relative to civilization, dominant ideologies, as well as the nature and limits of literature and art (the volume opens with a fascinating analysis of a painting from 1614 of flowers for a scientific work).
DELOFFRE, FREDERIC & FRANÇOIS MOUREAU, eds. Robert Challe. Difficultés sur la religion proposées au Père Malebranche. Edition nouvelle, d'après le manuscrit complet et fidèle de la Staatsbibliothek de Munich. Geneva: Droz, 2000.
Review: M. Moriarty in FS 54.4 (2001), 544–545: "This splendid edition reveals that, even more belatedly than as a major novelist, Challe deserves recognition as a thinker of originality and power, whose place in the history of eighteenth-century deism deserves careful consideration."
MARTIN, CAROLE. Imposture utopique et procès colonial: Denis de Veiras-Robert Challe. Charlotteville: Rockwood Press, 2000.
Review: A. de Sola in FS 56.3 (2002), 398–399: "En somme, cette étude comparée de Veiras et de Challe, souligne que la spéculation utopique du premier dérive dans le romanesque, tandis que la fiction romanesque du second débouche sur une vision utopique." The reviewer concludes that Martin's examination of utopia and utopianism in Veiras's Histoire des Sévarambes and Challe's Journal de voyages aux Indes, Mémoires and Les Illustres Françaises is "méticuleuse, méthodiquement fouillée et riche de références."
CHAMPLAIN
CERASI, CLAIRE. Pierre Corneille à l'image et semblance de François de Sales. Paris: Beauchesne, 2000.
Review: R. Baustert in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 248–251: Proposes "une lecture inédite appuyée sur les personnages ou les pieces méconnues et opérée sous un éclairage nouveau." First section presents Corneille's Christian outlook, with a comparison of the language of Corneille and François de Sales. Corneille's late heroes benefit from a Salesian reading, particularly in terms of sacrifice, générosité, and obedience. Cérasi links the notions of Roman grandeur and Christian virtue in Corneille. The second half studies Cornelian traits of François de Sales, and in particular, "ce joyeux dépassement de soi-même qui est aussi, mais encore dans l'immanence, celui des héros cornéliens." "Ce qu[e Corneille] représente, au même titre que François de Sales, c'est cet humanisme chrétien fait des meilleurs apports de l'antiquité et de l'Ecriture." Reviewer cites the "nouveauté" of the approach and the originality of its ideas.
CIVARDI, JEAN-MARC. "Quelques critiques adressées au Cid de Corneille en 1637–38 et les réponses apportées" IL 54.1 (2002), 12–26.
Analyzes the attacks made on Corneille, and the defenses mounted by his partisans, in the famous Quarrel.
DOSMOND, SIMONE. "Corneille, Molière et Thalie." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 403–412.
Study compares Corneille's comedies to Molière's comic œuvre in an attempt to identify "ce qui fait la spécificité de deux auteurs" with particular attention to each dramatist's characters, style, and comic devices.
DOSMOND, SIMONE. "Le Vers libre dans l'Agésilas de Corneille et l'Amphitryon de Molière." CAIEF no. 52 (2000), 279–293.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 133 (2001), 140–141: A communication from the AIEF's day devoted to versification of theatrical works, Dosmond's analysis underscores the originality of Agésilas and the audacity of Amphitryon.
DUTERTRE, EVELINE. "L'influence de Scudéry sur Corneille." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 327–343.
Posits an undeniable influence of Georges de Scudéry on Corneille who, although he does imitate Scudéry, nevertheless always remains faithful to his own dramatic vision. Compares Le Cid and Le Prince déguisé, La Mort de César and Cinna, and Sertorius and Arminius, with extensive discussion of Scudéry's Observations sur le Cid. Claims Scudéry's influence to have been beneficial to Corneille's own theorizing.
EKSTEIN, NINA. "Metaphors of Mathematics in Corneille's Theater." Neophil 86 (2002), 197–214.
Analysis finds particularly helpful two groups of mathematical metaphors: identities, which deals with equations-helpful both for its relationship to plot and the search for identity, and combinatorics, which deals with arrangements of elements-"the characters constitute the variables in the different combinations. . . of marriageable individuals" (202). Ekstein's stimulating and wide-ranging study (for "identities" she refers to some twelve plays, while for "combinatorics" she considers some fourteen) also includes a close reading, informed by the analysis of these mathematical metaphors, of one of Corneille's plays, Don Sanche d'Aragon. The play possesses to a striking degree both identities and combinatorics, arriving "at two perfectly balanced equations after passing through a dizzying array of combinations and variants" (210). Original and highly illuminating for Corneille's aesthetics, Ekstein suggests that, as time and space structure Racine's plays, these figures structure Corneille's.
EKSTEIN, NINA. "Sophonisbe's Seduction: Corneille Writing Against Mairet." EMF 8 (2002), 104–18.
Reads Corneille's Sophonisbe as a deliberate attempt to write around and against Mairet's version of the play.
FERNEY, FREDERIC. Performance review of Le menteur, mise en scène, Nicolas Briançon, Théâtre Hébertot, mai–juin 2002. Le Point 1549 (2002), 109.
"Nicolas Briançon a transposé la comédie dans le Paris de Proust. . . Tout cela est gai, léger, fantasque, fringant, c'est-à-dire—français."
GOODKIN, RICHARD. "Changing Classes, Changing Characters: Noblesse d'épée and noblesse de robe in Corneille's Le Menteur." PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 419–428.
Studies the way in which Dorante "embodies. . . the conflict between the noblesse de robe. . .and the noblesse d'épée" at a time when the former found it "socially advantageous to present themselves as" the latter. Goodkin concludes, "What is perhaps original in this play is the idea that this is a society in which the most prestigious social position is becoming a fiction.. In a sense, then, neither group can truly be said to occupy the position of highest prestige."
GOSSIP, C. J. Corneille: Cinna. Valencia: Grant & Cutler, Ltd., 1998.
Review: n.a. in FMLS 37 (2001), 100: Gossip's focus is the text yet he also takes into account "the physical realities of the theatre of the time" (reviewer). Chapters on structure, character analyses, include "novel and engaging" exploration of Auguste and his clemency as well as of the genre itself (a tragedy which ends "happily").
GREWE, ASTRID. "Vertu" im Sprachgebrauch Corneilles und seiner Zeit. Ein Beitrag zur Geistes- und Sozialgeschichte des französischen 17. Jahrhunderts. Heidelberg: Winter, 1999.
Review: S. Dieckmann in ZRP 116 (2000), 801–802: This linguistic, literary and social analysis of the concept of "vertu" chez Corneille considers a wide spectrum of meanings from the military to comparisons of the concept with "générosité", "gloire" and "humanité" (801). Other considerations include the heroic and comparisons with the moral philosophy of Descartes, as well as the world view of Racine, Lafayette and Molière.
HENSHAW, AMY. "Descartes and Corneille: A Re-examination." Neophil 86 (2002), 45–56.
Investigates Jesuit teaching, in particular as it relates to the will, culpability and love, as a source for the similarities found in Corneille and in Descartes's Traité des passions. Advances, with numerous examples from Descartes and Corneille as well as from St. François de Sales and d'Urfé, Louis Rivaille's thesis (1936) that the fact that "all went to Jesuit schools might explain their similarities in thinking" (45).
KERR, CYNTHIA B. Corneille à l'affiche. Vingt ans de créations théâtrales, 1980–2000. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2000.
Review: F. Lasserre in DSS 213 (2001), 735–737: Informed by an expansive knowledge of Corneille's theatre and and an avid curiosity about "les secrets de la technique théâtrale," notes the reviewer, this book looks at a range of recent productions of Corneille's plays. Kerr examines several popular successes—Miquel's Sertorius, Strehler's l'Illusion comique, Huster's Le Cid, and Lavelli's Polyeucte—and attempts to understand the reasons for some of the more "unconventional" interpretations. A number of chapters are devoted to productions by directors "qui s'étaient plus spécialement consacrés à notre XVIIe siècle," Brigitte Jacques, Christian Rist, and Jean-Marie Villégier. Here, Kerr skillfully brings together "le monde du commentaire" and that of practioners of the theatre; she demonstrates that the practioner "a toujours été le maître de ce que nous considérons comme notre compréhension des ouvrages" and reveals "de quelle accumulation de matériel mental, psychologique et physique est faite une représentation" (emphasis in the original). Kerr's study, concludes the reviewer, points to the "évolution très importante, appliquée à Corneille, dans l'approche culturelle des ouvrages dramatiques."
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 135 (2001), 635–636: Amply demonstrates a diverse Corneille, an author "à la mesure de notre temps" as Kerr focuses on certain noteworthy mises en scène, such as Strehler's Illusion (we remember that Strehler's interpretation relies heavily on Jean Rousset's understanding of the baroque qualities of the play) (636).
Review: M.-O. Sweetser in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 533–535: "Dans son Avant-propos l'auteur présente son ouvrage, recueil d'articles précédemment publiés dans diverses revues européennes et internationales, mais remaniés en vue de créer un ensemble auquel s'ajoutent des illustrations, une chronologique des principales représentations des pièces cornéliennes à Paris (1980–2000), un palmarès de trois metteurs en scène. . ., une liste de références de première publication de ces articles, et une utile bibliographie comprenant éditions complètes et individuelles, études sur Corneille et son théâtre. Ce qui relie ces études est l'intention de mettre en valeur l'originalité et la modernité des interprétations présentées." Includes chapters on various metteurs en scène and on specific representations of plays such as Sertorius, Le Cid, and Polyeucte. "On recommandera chaleureusement cet ouvrage très informé et stimulant, écrit dans un style alerte, à tous les historiens du théâtre et aux spécialistes de Corneille."
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS, éd. Alidor ou l'Indifférent. (n.p.): L'épangialiste, 2000.
Review: A. Niderst in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 537–538: This is Lasserre's edition of a text found by E. Fraser in 1946 and attributed since then to Corneille. Includes a bibliography, an index, and a literal transcription of the manuscrit, as well as a version of the pastoral with modernized spelling. Lasserre dates the play at 1628, before Mélite. Niderst maintains: "Nous pensons, comme François Lasserre, qu'il est difficile d'imaginer une superchérie littéraire et un faux Corneille adroitement fabriqué aux XIXe ou au XXe siècles." Niderst cites in particular the main character's verve, imagination and presence of mind. Niderst therefore concludes, "Mais enfin nous croyons souvent reconnaître la voix de Corneille. . . Nous sommes donc entraîné à nous rallier aux affirmations (d'ailleurs fort prudentes) de François Lasserre, et nous ne pouvons que rendre hommage à la méticuleuse sagacité de sa démarche."
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 135 (2001), 635: Lasserre's "extremely prudent and solid" work leads to new and convincing conclusions about this anonymous pastoral attributed to P. Corneille. Modernized version with rich critical apparatus, a faithful reproduction of the manuscript in the National Library of Scotland and an ample and well-documented study.
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS. "La dédicace de La Suivante ne s'adresserait-elle pas à un poète dramatique?" PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 279–291.
Lasserre identifies the subject of the dedicatory epistle as Nicolas Gougenot, a fellow dramatist. "Selon notre point de vue, Corneille a eu, au cours de sa formation, trois sources d'inspiration doctrinale: sa proper pratique. . ., ses modèles. . ., et puis maintenant la théorie d'un irrégulier, Gougenot."
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS. "Le 《 raisonnement 》 dans les débuts dramatiques de Corneille." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 487–507.
Compares Corneille's Mélite, Clitandre, and La Veuve to Mairet's Sylvie and Rotrou's L'Hypocondriaque, with particular attention to the raisonnements of each play, both in the monologues and in the scenic elements. Lasserre suggests Corneille's attention to raisonnements is innovative because they proceed "de la tournure d'esprit des personnages, de leur manière de négocier les situations."
LONGINO, MICHÈLE. "Médée and the Traveler Savant." EMF 7 (2001), 73–114.
Argues that Corneille's play "bears witness to and contests" the first stirrings of France's colonial power; sees in the character Pollux as a "traveler-savant" who is able to cast a critical eye on his own country. "Médée was the outsider woman, and as such the double victim, with whom marginalized women would empathize over the centuries; but how many women would recognize themselves in Creüse, the complicit insider woman, consumer of exotic commodities? Almost as an antidote to the nascent rampant materialism and exploitation Corneille detected taking hold, he traced out and idealized a new character, the traveler-savant, who would disinterestedly but usefully bring home knowledge of foreign people and offer it to local purposes, but who would at the same time cast a critical eye on his own society."
LONGINO, MICHELE. "Pollux: modèle cornélien du nouveau voyageur savant ou La "naissance" de l'anthropologie." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 271–283.
Longino maintains that, "Il est possible de lire dans la Médée de Corneille une mise en question des mouvements français dans le monde maritime de son époque, et d'y répérer un nouveau profil qui s'impose, à la suite de nouvelles conditions étatiques: celui du voyageur savant." According to Longino, "Pollux. . .n'écrira pas des mémoires ou des récits de voyage; mais sur scène il fera preuve de tous les réflexes d'un anthropologue précoce." Longino concludes, "La sagesse de Pollux est perdue pour ses concitoyens. Les intuitions et les conseils de l'anthropologue ne sauvent pas cet Etat, mais font paraître sa chute d'autant plus insensée."
LOUVAT, BÉNÉDICTE & MARC ESCOLA. Pierre Corneille. Trois discours sur le poème dramatique. Paris: Flammarion/GF, 1999.
Review: E. Minel in RHL 102.2 (2002), 343: The pocket edition of this text is the sign of a general "travail de relecture des théoriciens de la dramaturgie du XVIIe siècle." Text used is that of the 1660 edition, not the 1682 one used by Couton. Introduction places the Discours within their polemical context.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 133 (2001), 140: Useful tool for students and particularly important and ample presentation including a chronology, notes, commentaries, bibliography and glossary. In contrast to other theoreticians such as Chapelain, Corneille's rhetoric is born of his concrete experience as author of theatre. Text of 1660 is used, but variants from subsequent editions are found in the notes.
MINEL, EMMANUEL, éd. Longepierre. Médée. Parallèle de Monsieur Corneille et de Monsieur Racine. Dissertation sur la tragédie de Médée par l'abbé Pellegrin. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: P. Gethner in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 544–546: "This new critical edition makes available an eminently readable play that has been out of print for several decades. . . The extensive introduction is superb. Following a brief biography of the playwright, Emmanuel Minel analyzes in depth the dramaturgical problems posed by the story. . ., the three previous dramatic versions in France. . ., a balanced discussion of both Longepierre's dramaturgy. and his style. . . The discussion of the four main characters, and how Longepierre's depiction of them differs from previous versions, is detailed and perceptive." Gethner calls the inclusion of supplemental texts "an extra bonus." The appendix is deemed "useful." "The bibliography is unusually complete."
Review: B. Papàsogli in SFr 133 (2001), 148: Minel's edition of these texts includes an ample historical-philological apparatus focusing especially on Médée, a biographical notice on Longepierre and a study of the tragedy in relation to its preceding French versions, considering the dynamics of action, psychology of the characters, style and variants. Impressive bibliography and catalogue of editions of Médée.
Review: R. Tobin in ECr 41 (2001), 101: "Eminently readable and welcome edition of Longepierre's three texts for the "larger literate public." Finds the Dissertation by Pellegrin "insightful" for "early eighteenth-century perspectives on classical tragedy," but indicates certain oversights and inaccuracies.
NIDERST, ALAIN. Corneille et Racine. PFSCL, XXVII, 52 (2000), 9–292.
Review: C. Berrone in SFr 133 (2001), 141–142: These essays are the outgrowth of the 1998 colloque organized by the "Mouvement Corneille" in conjunction with l'URLF of the U de Rouen and the Société d'étude du XVIIe siècle. The volume is characterized by scrupulous examination of texts, a rejection of generalizations. As Niderst states, these guiding principles result in "comparaisons. . . audacieuses et. . . fécondes" (12). Wide-ranging, includes essays by renowned specialists on topics which include, among others: the political and the sentimental spheres, parallels between the two authors and their relation or debt to lesser known authors and their influence on other works such as l'Astrée.
PHILONENKO, ALEXIS. "Corneille et Schiller: Du héros." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 473–480.
Comparative study of the theory of the hero in Corneille's and Schiller's œuvres, with particular attention to the ways in which they seek a common goal, to wit: "l'élucidation du sublime dynamique au sens kantien, caractérisé par la tension (Spannung), des facultés de connaître au sein du mouvement élémentaire de la vie gigantesque."
PICCIOLA, LILIANE. Corneille et la dramaturgie espagnole. Tübingen: Narr (Biblio 17), 2002.
Review: Fr. Lasserre in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 563–567: Picciola adopts "un point de vue global" with analyses which delve into the "contexte sociologique des actions et. . . les sentiments des personnages." Work represents "une connaissance extrêmement circonstanciée de l'ensemble du théâtre du Siècle d'or" which "en exploite la variété avec la sûreté d'une fréquentation de longue main, et en expose de nombreuses particularités, au fur et à mesure des besoins de la recherche." Particular emphasis is paid to L'Illusion comique, Le Cid, and Don Sanche d'Aragon, with further chapters on"la comédie urbaine," the influence of la comedia on Corneille, the role of the valet, and different forms of tragedy in Corneille (tragédie d'horreur, tragédies sacrées, tragédie philosophique). Picciola systematically rejects any "emprunts" which was not explicitly acknowledged by Corneille himself; for Lasserre, this rejection limits the interest of the study. Lasserre also regrets the paucity of dramaturgical commentary.
PICCIOLA, LILIANE. "Héraclius, récriture hispano-cornélienne de La Rueda de la fortuna." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 345–357.
Compares Héraclius to Mira de Amezcua's La Rueda de la fortuna (1625), with reference also to Calderón de la Barca's play on a similar topic. Picciola concludes, "Corneille a su tirer un grand profit de sa lecture des comedias, qu'il a realisé entre son expérience propre et les pratiques espagnoles une synthèse remarquable, qui constitue sa manière proper et dont le reste de son œuvre se ressent."
RAUSEO, CHRIS. "Allégorisme cornélien et européen." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 269–277.
A comparative study of "quelques catégories de représentation allégoriques communes à Corneille et à des dramaturges tells que Shakespeare, Calderón et Andreas Gryphius," including (1) "le double sens, ou l'ambiguïté voulue et assumée"; (2) "l'expansion conséquente d'une métaphore"; and (3)"l'iconographie du theatre."
REBEYKOW, JEAN-CHRISTOPHE. "Diderot devant Pierre Corneille." RHT 53.4 (2001), 299–316.
A study of the "singularly complex" relationship between Diderot's theater criticism and the works of Pierre Corneille. Concludes, "Selon Diderot, les limites de Corneille sont pour une grande partie celles de la tragédie française du XVIIe siècle"—for example, the exclusive use of noble characters and the "absence de naturel."
RONZEAUD, PIERRE. Pierre Corneille. Le Cid. Anthologie critique. Paris: Klincksieck, 2001.
Review: M. Margitic in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 568–570: A "Parcours critique" which offers "a variety of — often, but not always, complementary — modern readings of Le Cid," which "range from the erudite to the theatrical and from the rhetorical to the psychocritical, among others. They are arranged topically, instead of chronologically," and include P. Bénichou, S. Doubrovsky, M. Bertaud, Ph. Sellier, J. Serroy, M. Margitic, R. Pintard, P. Voltz, M. Vuillermoz, J. Garagnon, P. Pavis, and R. Albanese, Jr. Overall, these selections "offer the reader a broad spectrum of modern scholarly contributions to the study of Le Cid." Also included is "an examination of Corneille's responses to Le Cid's critics during the famous Querelle." Ronzeaud's own reading stresses the importance of reading the play in its original version, an important tactic, according to Margitic. Sizable bibliography.
SAFTY, ESSAM. "Le corps mort dans la tragédie baroque: de l'anonymat au spectacle." PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 305–322.
Studies the way in which "le corps mort. . . obéit à un certain nombre d'impératifs où se reconnaissent tout à la fois l'idéologie d'une époque et les exigences du genre." Subsections include: "Le corps anonyme," "La découverte du corps mort," "Les belles morts," "Le spectacle du corps mort," Studied in the context of Racine, La Calprenède, Guérin de Bouscal, Benserade, Du Ryer, Corneille, B. de Courgenay, Tristan l'Hermite, and others. Concludes that the "corps mort" eventually earns "un rôle pédagogique dans la direction des âmes."
SERROY, JEAN, ed. Pierre Corneille. L'Illusion comique. Paris: Gallimard, 2000.
Review: C. Kerr in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 556–558: "Le présent ouvrage témoigne une fois de plus des remarquables qualités d'éditeur et de critique de Jean Serroy qui nous guide de main sûre à travers les aspects essentiels de la pièce et de la vie de Corneille. Ce qui rend cette édition exemplaire est la façon dont Jean Serroy arrive à dompter l'《 étrange monstre 》 sans le priver de son mystère. Il éclaire le texte tout en y laissant des zones d'obscurité. Il ouvre des pistes de réfléxion. Il explique. Il contribue, par ses observations judicieuses, à l'inépuisable plaisir que procure L'Illusion. Ce volume reproduit le texte original de 1639 ainsi que toutes les modifications que le dramaturge y a apportées en 1664." Volume also contains "une table de concordance" of the 1639 & 1682 editions. "Le dossier comprend une chronologie, une notice, une courte histoire de la mise en scène et du jeu des acteurs, une bibliographie et un résumé de la pièce acte par acte." Kerr concludes, "Tout le mérite de cette édition, si bien conçue et présentée, consiste justement à faire valoir le génie de Corneille: sa 《 couleur propre 》."
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 134 (2001), 390: Highly useful "Folio edition" is characterized by Serroy's usual careful criteria. The original edition is the basis of this edition which also includes a preface and notes on the linguistic character of the text. A general chronology, list of variants and a bibliography are included. Of particular interest is the notice on the circumstances of the play's composition and first representation. Clear and original interpretation by Serroy of this play which, in the last decade of the 20th c., saw renewed critical and dramatic interest.
SERROY, JEAN, ed. Pierre Corneille. Le Menteur. La Suite du Menteur. Paris: Gallimard, 2000.
Review: C. Gossip in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 558–560: Contains une "Préface judicieuse" in which "[l]es deux volets d'un diptyque théâtral sur le mensonge créateur contiennent des indices qui les rattachent au cœur même des préoccupations cornéliennes." The text reproduced is that of the 1682 edition, along with a selection of variants; reviewer would have liked to see less edited versions of the plays (from 1644 and 1645, for example.)
Review: A. Howe in FS 56.3 (2002), 395–396: "In presenting the two comedies side by side, this welcome edition invites a reassessment of La Suite at the same time as a comparison between the two plays." The reviewer praises "Jean Serroy's elegantly written introduction and informative notice," as well as the following interesting and useful features: "an account of stage performances down the centuries (mainly of Le Menteur), a fairly full bibliography, and some forty pages of significant variants and explanatory notes...." The reviewer's one major reservation concerns the choice of base texts (Corneille's last revised versions of 1682): "It would have been preferable to follow the recent trend among editors of Corneille's earlier comedies of presenting the versions first offered to his public."
SOARE, ANTOINE. "Du Cid à Horace en passant par la tragi-comédie." PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 65–102.
Defines tragi-comedy before and after 1635 with an examination of "la tragédie morale de l'action," "l'Amour tyrannique et la surthéâtralisation," "sujets romanesques et sujets historiques," "la hiérarchie des épreuves héroïques," "l'intertextualité," and "remords ou fermeté." Compares Corneille to Mairet, Rotrou, Georges de Scudéry, La Calprenède, and Racine. Appendix offers a list of "sujets et types d'intrigue tragi-comiques de 1634 à 1641."
VUILLEMIN, JEAN-CLAUDE. "Illusions comiques et dramaturgie baroque: Corneille, Rotrou et quelques autres." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 307–325.
Article revisits the mechanism of "le théâtre dans le théâtre," and the notion of "le jeu de rôle." Studies three major functions of this notion with reference to reception studies, including a "fonction didactique," a "fonction de focalisation," and a "fonction d'illusion." Makes a claim for the "prodigieuse efficacité" of the mechanism, particularly in the case of L'Illusion comique.
ZOTOS, ALEXANDRE. "D'une Sophonisbe l'autre ou le roman comique de deux tragédies rivales." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 359–373.
Article explores Corneille's "refus de la dispute" regarding the relative merits of his own Sophonisbe and Mairet's play on the same topic. "[T]out prouve que [la] Sophonisbe [de Corneille], donnée pour intrinsèquement 《 autre 》, se voulait aussi, par là même, une Sophonisbe 《 contre 》." Examines in detail "l'enjeu proprement esthétique de la controverse" and cites reasons for the failure of Corneille's play.
CUCHE, FRANÇOIS-XAVIER. "Les deux Médée des deux Corneille." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 433–447.
Studies Thomas Corneille's choice of the story of Médée for a libretto written for Charpentier in 1693, particularly in light of his brother's tragedy on the same topic. "Du pathétique de la grandeur, même criminelle [de la pièce de son frère, Thomas] passe à un pathétique du 《 sensible 》,. . . et de la suprématie de la terreur à celle de la pitié." The later libretto is both a hommage to his older brother and an affirmation of Thomas's own originality.
GIBSON, WENDY, éd. Thomas Corneille. Le Comte d'Essex. Exeter: UEP, 2000.
Review: A. Howe in FS 56.2 (2002), 239: "The editor wisely... makes no exaggerated claims for the play as a neglected masterpiece. Her Introduction does, however, succinctly explicate the enduring interest that Essex holds for the modern reader, not least as a treatment of fairly recent historical events which daringly contradicted its audience's expectations of the personages involved, while also perhaps implying comment on contemporary Franco-British relations...." The edition contains "a full complement of endnotes and a useful bibliography."
Review: n.a. in BCLF 634 (2002), 115–16: Excellente édition critique de la tragédie de Thomas Corneille publiée en 1678: "Ce n'est pas un chef-d'oeuvre méconnu qu'on est invité à redécouvrir, mais plutôt une pièce ayant joué dignement son rôle dans la vie théâtrale française."
MINEL, EMMANUEL. "Thomas Corneille sur les traces de son frère Pierre Corneille: une écriture de cadet fraternel. Antiochus (1666) et Rodogune, La Mort d'Annibal (1669) et Nicomède." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 413–431.
Comparative study which concludes: "si le théâtre de Pierre est un théâtre de la grandeur: de l'héroïsme et du tour de force. . ., le théâtre de son cadet, Thomas, peut passer pour un théâtre de bonheur — même dans la tragédie malheureuse—: bonheur d'un rapport à l'autre, à l'écriture, à l'inspiration; référentialité qui se construit comme connivence, familiarité, humour libre mais permis.
NIDERST, ALAIN, éd. Thomas Corneille. Le Festin de pierre. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: J. Carson in FS 56.2 (2002), 238–239: This "welcome" edition makes it easier for scholars to assess how Thomas Corneille "[took] the Molière original, very artfully versified it, rendered it more classically rigorous, and, essentially, neutered it." The Introduction contains an interesting discussion of the reasons behind the composition of this version of Dom Juan, as well as "a brief analysis of Corneille's 'Accommodements avec le Ciel' in his treatment of the text [...]."
Review: J.-P. Collinet in SFr 135 (2001), 639: Praises "l'heureuse initiative" of Niderst in this publication; his perspective is to judge the play on its own merits rather than in comparison with Molière's corresponding play. Niderst's multifaceted introduction complements this edition of "une nouvelle comédie. . . non sans charme ni mérite."
Review: P. Gethner in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 546–547: A "fine new critical edition," with careful attention to Thomas Corneille's additions and suppressions of Molière's work. "Alain Niderst provides a useful introduction that briefly reviews the career of Thomas Corneille, discusses the Don Juan plays in France prior to 1665, shows how innovative Molière was in his treatment of the subject, notes what sort of changes Thomas made and why, and gives the performance history of both versions." "Although not a masterpiece or a replacement for Molière, this revision is both enjoyable to read and a significant document in literary history."
PETEY-GIRARD, BRUNO. "De l'oraison mentale au sermon intérieur: la petite rhétorique du révérend père Coton." PFSCL XXVIII, 54 (2001), 45–60.
Review: S. Costa in SFr 135 (2001), 632: This study demonstrates the importance of persuasion through reading, spiritual practice and through acquisition of knowledge. Coton's guide to meditation gives direction to the seeker through an "inquadramento spirituali" accompanied by sacred texts (632).
KRAMER, M. "La Comédie des proverbes et les Curiositez françaises d'A. Oudin; un lien privilégié." PFSCL XXVII, 53 (2000), 489–499.
Review: C. Bernazzoli in SFr 133 (2001), 139: Convincing analysis of the two works, both quantitative and qualitative, demonstrates that the Comédie is the direct and immediate source of the Curiositez.
ALCOVER, MADELEINE, ed. Cyrano de Bergerac. Oeuvres complètes I. L'Autre monde ou les Etats et Empires de la lune, Les Etats et Empires du soleil, Fragment de physique. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: P. M. Harry in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 511–515: A "handsome critical edition" which the reviewer cites as "reliable." All three texts are "supported by a rich critical apparatus," including a biography of Cyrano, "together with illustrations of key figures and documents; a physical and textual bibliographical study of the three manuscripts and first edition of La Lune; an analysis of both novels, comprising a discussion of their possible dates of composition, a synopsis, and a critical study of them. All three texts are accompanied by a full set of explanatory notes, and the Fragment is provided with its own introduction also. Texts and variants are followed by useful appendices," including historical documents, family trees, épîtres and préfaces to the first editions, correspondence, a glossary of terms, and a bibliography. "This volume is an immense and highly impressive achievement."
Review: A. Mothu in DSS 213 (2001), 723–725: The extensive three-part introduction consists of a biographie, containing new data largely the fruit of the editor's research; critique textuelle, a meticulous and "methodologically excellent" description of the various manuscripts and editions; and finally an analyse, in which Alcover deals with key questions raised by the novels, including the relationship of Cyrano's sexual preference to his work. Summarizing Alcover's thesis, the revewer writes "l'homosexualité innerve toute l'œuvre romanesque de Cyrano et nous en fournit la clef, étant l'inversion première qui suscita et dynamisa toues les autres (scientifiques, philosophiques ou morales). The critical appartus for each work is equally impeccable. For the reviewer, this volume constitutes the definitive reference on Cyrano.
Review: B. Parmentier in RHL 102.3 (2002), 474–75. Long awaited critical edition, based on manuscripts or original editions, that is also "le témoignage d'une recherche en cours." Contains, in annex, archival documents on Cyrano, as well as abundant information on the transmission of the texts. Editor's introduction proposes an interpretation of the "double roman" based on "la dynamique de déplacement des lieux communs" (MA), and rejects esoteric readings of the text.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 134 (2001), 392: This first of three volumes in the Sources classiques collections directed by Philippe Sellier is edited by an eminent Cyrano specialist known for her critical acumen and her 1977 edition of Autre monde. Includes an ample and authoritative introduction with biographical documentation (the result of archival research), analyses relating to dating, structure, utopia and numerous other socio-cultural and textual concerns, appendices indicating variants and an imposing bibliography.
DARMON, JEAN-CHARLES & ALAIN MOTHO, eds. Cyrano de Bergerac. Lettres satiriques et amoureuses, précédées de lettres diverses. Paris: Desjonquères, 1999.
Review: P. Ronzeaud in RHL 102.1 (2002), 158–59: "Le tableau le plus complet de l'imagination épistolaire de Cyrano," in an edition that respects punctuation while modernizing spelling. Gives texts of the 47 letters from the 1654 edition, 17 extras from 1662, and 2 manuscript letters published in 1933. Contains an important introduction "qui, en 28 pages, livre une éblouissante analyse des problèmes que posent les textes de Cyrano," and places them within the libertine "culte de l'ironie" (J.-C. Darmon) and "anthropologie négative."
DONETZKOFF, DENIS. "Défense et illustration d'une orthodoxie spirituelle: Robert Arnauld d'Andilly, éditeur des lettres de Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, abbé de Saint-Cyran." TL 14 (2001), 215–232.
Highly informative exploration allows us insight into the conditions and stages of letter writing in the 17th c. and in particular that of Saint-Cyran. Reflections on the choice of letters shows the part Nicole played. Demonstrates the editor's work on content, colorful images, counsel and theology. Donetzkoff concludes that not only did the Port-Royal circle choose, polish and adapt Saint-Cyran's correspondence, but the resultant text does not convey Saint-Cyran's thought "dans son immédiateté."
PETERS, JEFFREY N. "Telling Time: Rewriting as Allegorical Violence in d'Aubignac's Histoire du temps." EMF 8 (2002), 119–33.
Shows how d'Aubignac's work rewrites Scudéry's "Carte de Tendre" so as to emphasize the continuity between seventeenth-century France and antiquity; d'Aubignac proposes "a genealogy of Western allegory that prioritizes discursive continuity over originality."
BANDERIER, GILLES. "Un Chapitre inédit du Debvoir mutuel d'Agrippa D'Aubigné." BHR 64.2 (2002), 369–75:
"On peut supposer qu'il s'agit d'un chapitre isolé et autonome, voire d'une première version de l'ensemble du traité, hâtivement dicté à un secrétaire, selon l'habitude d'Agrippa." Banderier rectifie la foliotation capricieuse de ces feuillets de la collection Tronchin (Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Genève) et les rejoint au Debvoir mutuel.
POT, OLIVIER, ed. Poétiques d'Aubigné. Actes du colloque de Genève (mai 1996). Geneva: Droz, 1999.
Review: D. Bjaï in RHL 102.3 (2002), 473–74: Various studies of 1) violence, 2) the link between text and image, 3) poetics and graphics, and 4) intertextuality in the Tragiques. Also contains contributions on the Confession catholique du Sieur de Sancy and Sa vie à ses enfants, as well as an itemization of the contents of the fonds Tronchin in Geneva.
PRAT, MARIE-HELENE. Les Mots du corps. Un imaginaire lexical dans Les Tragiques d'Agrippa d'Aubigné. Genève: Droz, 1996.
Review: O. Pot in BHR 64.1 (2002), 141–46: Riche analyse rhétorique, sémantique, sémiologique jointe à une méthode rigoureuse "fait de cette étude. . . une véritable encyclopédie des représentations du corps au XVIe siècle. . ."
THIERRY, ANDRE, éd. Agrippa d'Aubigné. Histoire Universelle, T. X., 1620–1622. Genève: Droz, 1999.
Review: B. Boudou in RHL 102.3 (2002), 472–73. The last volume of the incomplete Histoire. "On ne peut que saluer la qualité de cette édition, agrémentée de notes d'un index."
Review: P. De Lajarte in BHR 63.3 (2001), 669–71: "Ce dixième et dernier tome de l'Histoire universelle par quoi se trouve parachevée la monumentale entreprise éditoriale d'A. Thierry, débutée il y a vingt ans en 1981, nous offre le texte, inachevé par Aubigné du fait de sa mort et demeuré longtemps manuscrit, de ce qui aurait dû, si l'écrivain avait eu le temps de donner à son projet son plein aboutissement, constituer le quatrième tome de son Histoire, suite et complément des trois précédents."
DUGGAN, ANNE E. "Nature and Culture in the Fairy Tales of Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy." M&T 15.2 (2001), 149–167.
Uses an analysis of the relationship between nature and culture to situate d'Aulnoy's tales, particularly "The Bee and the Orange Tree," within the trend of "aristocratic romanticism." Posits that d'Aulnoy prefigures Rousseau, opposes Perrault and the salon tradition in her treatment of gender and society. By juxtaposing d'Aulnoy's "The Bee and the Orange Tree" and Perrault's "Patient Griselda," Duggan analyzes the ways in which d'Aulnoy deploys "'nature' to legitimate the equality of the sexes. . .and situates her ideal society. . .in ways that anticipate the theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau."
MAINIL, JEAN. Madame d'Aulnoy et le rire des fées. Essai sur la subversion féerique et le merveilleux comique sous l'ancien régime. Paris: Kimé, 2001.
Review: M.-A. Thirard in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 262–266: Mainil characterizes d'Aulnoy's art "par la mise en place d'une 《 écriture ironique 》, impliquant une forme de distanciation, voire de sedition qui annoncerait les contes parodiques du XVIIIe siècle." Mainil posits "une probable contamination entre le monde des contes et le monde de Versailles," and demonstrates that "le conte avait tout pour plaire au public. The notion of 《 écriture ironique 》 "est. . . essentiellement basée sur un décalage entre le conte et le roman," a thesis which Mainil supports by a study of multiple rewritings of the same story, which demonstrates d'Aulnoy's conscious reflection on the reading of her stories. In particular, "Il s'ensuit pour une femme de lettres comme Mme d'Aulnoy la nécessité de pratiquer dans ses contes une forme de sedition cachée qualifiée par l'auteur de 《 sedition oblique 》, tout en prétendant correspondre aux stéréotypes relevant d'une écriture naïve du genre" which renders Mme d'Aulnoy's work "profondément 《 moderne 》." Reviewer suggests that Mainil's work will contribute "à une nouvelle forme de réception de l'œuvre de Mme d'Aulnoy."
THIRARD, MARIE-AGNES. "Les contes de Madame d'Aulnoy: La tentation du merveilleux." PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 197–221.
Attempts to "cerner par quelles techniques privilégiées Mme d'Aulnoy parvient à créer un univers merveilleux, mais aussi par quels procédés subtils elle prend parfois ses distances à l'égard même de ses creations." Sections on "La creation du merveilleux," include "le mélange des univers," "la déformation de la réalité," "la monstruosité," "la metamorphose," "le parti-pris d'excellence," and "le thème du pays merveilleux," while sections on "La destruction du merveilleux" include "les phénomènes de distanciation," "l'humour destructeur," "la subversion de la fin du conte," and "la parodie du conte férique" which studies "La Princesse Printanière" in particular.
THIRARD, MARIE-AGNES. "Le Génie familier de Madame d'Auneuil, un art du conte à la croisée des chemins." PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 477–498.
Article includes a short biography of d'Auneuil, followed by a brief analysis of her œuvre, particularly in terms of the evolution of le merveilleux and the status of the woman writer at the beginning of the 18th c. Includes a consideration of the notion of translation in the text, a study of places, an analysis of secondary narratives, a consideration of love relationships, and the themes of le rencontre, l'esclavage, l'emprisonnement, le rapt, le séquestration. Article is followed by the reedited text of the story (see below).
THIRARD, MARIE-AGNES, ed. Madame d'Auneuil. Le Génie familier, nouvelles persanes, traduites de l'arabe. PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 499–520.
Text of d'Auneuil's conte, annotated by M.-A. Thirard.
SCHRENCK, GILBERT. Nicolas de Harlay, sieur de Sancy (1546–1629), l'antagoniste d'Agrippa d'Aubigné. Etude biographique et contexte pamphlétaire. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: G. Banderier in BHR 63.3 (2001), 675–78: "M. Schrenck nous propose un travail de grande importance: la première biographie de Sancy. Plusieurs difficultés le menaçaient. Il fallait commencer par faire table rase des préjugés albinéens et accepter de regarder Sancy tel qu'il fut et non plus à travers le prisme déformant du pamphlet. La parfaite objectivité de M. Schrenck est à louer, même si d'Aubigné ne sort pas grandi de l'affaire."
Review: A. Arrigoni in SFr 135 (2001), 631–632: A careful examination of the historical and cultural context of his time informs Schrenck's biography of this statesman who served the monarchy from 1589 to 1600. A revendication countering d'Aubigné's characterization of de Harlay as an "homme sans foi et sans scrupule" (631).
SCHRENCK, GILBERT, éd. Nicolas de Harlay, sieur de Sancy. Discours sur l'occurrence de ses affaires. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: G. Banderier in BHR 63.3 (2001), 678–80: Edition critique d'un texte qui sert d'annexe à la biographie de Sancy par G. Schrenck. Relatant des événements de 1589 à 1600, le Discours fut rédigée au printemps 1611. La préface de G. Schrenck "éclaire l'arrière-plan du Discours en le replaçant au sein de la production des mémorialistes et en précisant les mécanismes sociaux qui conduisirent Sancy à s'endetter. . ."
LIM, SEUNG-HWI. "Mathieu de Morgues, Bon Français ou Bon catholique?" DSS 213 (2001), 655–672.
By looking at the ever-changing thought and career of de Morgues, pamphleteer active between 1631–1643, Lim seeks to understand more fully the complexity of the "Bons catholiques" camp, affiliated with the parti dévot, which opposed Richelieu and the "Bons Français."
BAVEREL-CROISSANT, MARIE-FRANÇOISE. "Une personnalité contestée. Des Barreaux." Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France sept.–oct. 2000, 1285–1295.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 134 (2001), 388: Praiseworthy article by Baverel-Croissant who is preparing an edition of Des Barreaux's poetry. First-hand study of documents and correspondence permits the reader to appreciate the familial and cultural environment of this friend of Théophile.
BAVEREL-CROISSANT, MARIE-FRANÇOISE. La Vie et les œuvres complètes de Jacques Vallée Des Barreaux (1599–1673). Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: C. Rizza in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 244–246: Study attempts to correct previous commentaries on the works of Des Barreaux while offering a complete version of his mostly unedited work. The first, biographical section includes information on his family, his education, and his relationship with the more erudite milieux of his era, as well as photographs. The second section is an edition of his works, including previously unedited poetry inspired by his relationship with Marion de L'Orme and his libertine poems. In general, the poems "traitent les thèmes de la condition humaine et de la mort: ils révèlent une sensibilité et une profondeur comparables aux meilleurs poèmes de Théophile, confirmant . . . l'influence durable exercée par ce poète sur notre auteur." Reviewer would have liked more comparison of Des Barreaux with libertines of the period, as this would have contributed to a more general understanding of libertinage in the 17th c.
AZOUVI, FRANÇOIS. Descartes et la France. Histoire d'une passion nationale. Paris: Fayard, 2002.
Review: F. de Buzon in QL 830 (du 1er au 15 mai 2002), 8–9: L'ouvrage commence à la mort de Descartes (1650) et termine avec la première moitié du XXe siècle. "L'analyse des nuances individuelles menée par François Azouvi est telle que l'on échappe à l'imagerie qui voudrait que le cartésien soit toujours de gauche (contra Maurras) et l'anticartésien de droite (contra Nizan), même si une bonne partie de la droite et de l'extrême-droite a joué Pascal contre Descartes. Cette histoire si riche et documentée s'interrompt précisément au moment où la technicité des études cartésiennes fait désormais apparaître à l'évidence la très grande complexité du philosophe et son irréductibilité à un système simpliste, même si les échos des anciennes querelles résonnent toujours."
Review: B. Wilson in TLS 5170 (May 3 2002), 8–9: Treats question of how Descartes became archetypal of the French nation. Argues that even before Voltaire's critique of Descartes made the philosopher a cause, "Descartes had been a prism through which the great conflicts of French thought were played out." Descartes is constantly distorted to fit contemporary prejudices, and accordingly may be a "philosopher of order" who teaches the "principles of universal hierarchy" or an anti-fascist. Book closes with 1946 and shows how the end of the war becomes "a victory for Descartes as well as France."
CLEMENSON, DAVID LEE. "Species, Ideas and Idealism: The Scholastic and Cartesian Background of Berkeley's Master Argument." DAI 62/07 (2002), 2448.
Looks at Berkeley's idealism in the context of Descartes; argues specifically that "Descartes' theory of ideas was not representationalist, as is often supposed, but a kind of direct realism; Cartesian ideas render intelligible individuals directly present to the intellect."
FAYE, EMMANUEL, ed. Descartes et la Renaissance. Actes du colloque international de Tours des 22–24 mars 1996. Paris: Champion, 1999.
Review: E. J. Campion in FR 75, 3 (2002), 597–98: Contains the proceedings of a conference that explored "how Descartes made creative use of Renaissance philosophers, theologians, and writers in order to formulate his own views on such diverse topics as God's existence, the dignity of humanity, and the scientific method." Essays examine the religious dimensions of Descartes's writings, his intellectual debt to Montaigne, the originality of Les Passions de l'âme, and areas of his thought that anticipated Pascal. Essays of "consistently excellent" quality that make "an important contribution to the history of European philosophy and the history of ideas during the early modern period."
HENSHAW, AMY. ""Descartes and Corneille: A Re-examination." Neophil 86 (2002), 45–56.
Investigates Jesuit teaching, in particular as it relates to the will, culpability and love, as a source for the similarities found in Corneille and in Descartes's Traité des passions. Advances, with numerous examples from Descartes and Corneille as well as from St. François de Sales and d'Urfé, Louis Rivaille's thesis (1936) that the fact that "all went to Jesuit schools might explain their similarities in thinking" (45).
HERTICH, ALEXANDER CHARLES. "The Moebius Strip: Intertextual Turns in Raymond Queneau's 'Le Chiendent'." DAI 62/04 (2001), 1432.
Argues that Descartes' Discours de la méthode was central to the construction of Queneau's novel.
JULLIEN, VINCENT. "De la fortuna du cartésianisme napolitain." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 337–347.
Jullien demonstrates how "Descartes et son œuvre vont en effet constituer une bannière susceptible d'unifier la philosophie et la science dite 'moderne' puis, presque aussitôt, le cartésianisme sera vivement critiqué, voire mis en pièces par ses propres enfants." He concludes, "Descartes et son œuvre, d'une part servent bien l'œcuménisme moderniste du XVIIe siècle et de l'autre ouvrent un domaine de controverses profondes et nombreuses."
WATSON, RICHARD. Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Life of René Descartes. Godine, 2002.
Review: n.a. in The New Yorker (12 August 2002), 81: "Probably the strangest biography of the year, this volume is the product of more than forty years of obsession by Watson. . . He is less interested in the revered philosopher and mathematician than in the diminutive, arrogrant Frenchman who fathered a child out of wedlock, probably dabbled in drugs, and practiced vivisection on animals. . . This excessively colloquial, willfully eccentric book is as infuriating as it is entertaining. . ."
KADDOUR, HEDI. Performance review of Desmaret's Les Visionnaires mise en scène par Christian Schiaretti, la Comédie de Reims, Centre dramatique national. NRF 558 (juin 2001), 252–255.
"C'est cela le parti pris de Schiaretti: avoir fait réinvestir cette comédie par les rythmes et le comique de la farce et de la Commedia dell'Arte. . ..Plaisirs du gag et de l'anachronisme, dans la grande tradition des tréteaux."
PETEY-GIRARD, BRUNO. "'Il a escrit en prose plusieurs tres doctes et bien sainctes prieres. . .'; Remarques sur le formulaire de prières de Philippe Desportes." SFr 133 (2001), 3–17.
Divided into three parts, Petey-Girard analyzes Desportes's prayers, "un ensemble de textes qui n'était pas originellement destiné au grand public" and which put at the service of devotion "une parole 'littéraire' qui sait dire les besoins des croyants" (17). A section on the relation of the prayers to civic life on one hand and spiritual life on the other is followed by a second on prayer and literary qualities and concludes with a consideration of the 1594 "formulaire de prières." Reveals Desportes's engagement in the spiritual dimension of the royal politic.
BLANC, ANDRE, éd. Pierre du Ryer, Esther, Thémistocle. Paris: Klincksieck, 2000.
Review: C. Bernazzoli in SFr 135 (2001), 634: This edition of a sacred and profane plays by Du Ryer includes a short biography of the dramatist as well as an assessment of his dramatic production. Particularly noteworthy are Blanc's observations on Du Ryer's originality, dramatic construction, characters, dialogue and a comparison with Racine's Esther.
MAZOUER, CHARLES. "Pierre Du Ryer, contemporain de Corneille." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001):293–305.
Reads six Du Ryer against Corneille's tragic universe as an "éclairage lateral." "Toute la première moitié de sa production tragique crée un monde passablement étranger à Corneille, il semble bien qu'on puisse faire deux parts dans cette production, la seconde rejoignant seule la problématique cornélienne, surtout avec Scévole et Thémistocle, qui marquent le triomphe de l'héroïsme dans des tragédies à fin heureuse."
LARCADE, VERONIQUE. "Les Vies parallèles de Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully et de Jean-Louis Nogaret de la Valette, duc d'Epernon, ou réussir en politique à l'aube du XVIIe siècle." XVIIe siècle no. 204 (juillet-sept. 1999), 419–448.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 133 (2001), 138: Demonstrates that the diversity of character rather than religious faith accounts for the rivalry between Sully and Epernon. While the former announced the triumph of the emerging class and birth of absolute monarchy, Epernon reaffirmed the ancient role of the nobility (138).
GIORGI, GIORGETTO. "La fonction des lieux méditerranéens dans les Aventures de Télémaque." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 109–119.
Examines the figure of l'allusion in Fénelon's descriptions of la Sicile, l'Egypte, Tyr, Chypre, la Crète, l'île d'Ogygie, et l'Italie, with a particular focus on the political nature of the allusions in question.
LE BRUN, JACQUES, éd. Fénelon: Oeuvres II. Paris: Gallimard, 1997.
Review: V. Kapp in RF 113 (2001), 270–272: Containing Télémaque, the Lettre à l'Académie as well as philosophical and political writings, this volume upholds high standards of quality as it includes exceedingly useful commentary of a historical and literary nature as well as Le Brun's perspective on Fénelon's life and work. Le Brun finds that the heart of Fénelon's thought is the "mise en cause du moi . . . [un] effacement à la fois involontaire et volontaire" (272).
ORCIBAL, JEAN, éd. et collaborateurs. Correspondance de Fénelon: les dernières années, 1712–1715. Vols. XVI and XVII. Genève: Droz, 1999.
Review: R. Parish in MLR 96.4 (2001), 1076: "The final volumes in this major editorial enterprise contain the output from the last years of Fénelon's life, coinciding poignantly with those of Louis XIV, and conveying overall a strong atmosphere of the fin de règne." Letters fall in to four main categories: the battle against Jansenism, friendship and spiritual direction, the administration of Fénelon's diocese, and literary matters.
LESNE-JAFRO, EMMANUELE, ed. Fléchier et les Grands Jours d'Auvergne. Actes d'une Journée d'étude, Université Blaise Pascal — Clermont-Ferrand, 3 octobre 1997. Tübingen: Narr (Biblio 17), 2000.
Review: J.-P. Collinet in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 545–547: Reviewer praises volume for its interdisciplinarity. Volume begins with a biography of Fléchier as well a short overview of his work (by Lesne-Jafro). Includes contributions by historians: P. Charbonnier on 《 une volonté politique antiseigneuriale. . . et centralisatrice 》; A. Lebrigre on the history of judicial reform; B. Dompnier on the role of the diocese of Clermont-Ferrand in the avant-garde of the Reform; R. Sauzet on Fléchier as seen by his notary E. Borelly. Also includes articles by literary critics: J. Garapon, who offers 《 une promenade en littérature 》, citing the numerous "références et emprunts" found in Fléchier's work; A. Fontvieille on Fléchier's criticisms of rhetoric; Fr.-X. Cuche on le Panégyrique de Saint-Louis; and C. Cagnat-Debœuf on Fléchier's flagrant plagiarism of Pascal. Lesne-Jafro concludes the volume by studying the question of why Fléchier didn't edit his own memoirs. Reviewer lauds the "contenu dense et substantiel" of this volume which "ouvre des perspectives plus larges sur le règne personnel de Louis XIV."
THOUVENIN, PASCALE, éd. Nicolas Fontaine. Mémoires ou Histoire des solitaires de Port Royal. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: W. Doyle in FS 56.1 (2002), 94: "In 210 pages of learned introduction [Thouvenin] traces the vicissitudes of the manuscript and, even more importantly, sets out the context in which it was written and first appeared in its best-known but now superseded form.... Stripped of the hagiographic accretions of polemical eighteenth-century editors, with its Latin quotations and Biblical allusions fully restored, this magnificent edition gives us the authentic Fontaine for the historian of both religion and literature to work on."
Review: BCLF 632 (2001), 950–51: ". . .un texte fondamental sur le jansénisme, écrit par un homme, Nicolas Fontaine, qui côtoya tous les proches de ce mouvment religieux, philosophique et politique si particulier du XVIIe siècle." Edition critique rigoureusement documentée qui s'appuie sur un manuscrit original complet.
CASTONGUAY-BELANGER, JOëL. "L'auréole de l'homme de science dans les éloges académiques de Fontenelle." PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 347–359.
Posits that "ce qu[e Fontenelle] souhaite avant tout démontrer, c'est que la connaissance scientifique est une connaissance utile, et que derrière la réflexion pure et abstraite point toujours une retombée technologique bien concrète." Fontenelle eventually writes a kind of laicized hagiography of the scientist meant to reduce suspicion of this oft-considered 'heretical' group.
CERASI, CLAIRE. Pierre Corneille à l'image et semblance de François de Sales. Paris: Beauchesne, 2000.
Review: R. Baustert in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 248–251: Proposes "une lecture inédite appuyée sur les personnages ou les pieces méconnues et opérée sous un éclairage nouveau." First section presents Corneille's Christian outlook, with a comparison of the language of Corneille and François de Sales. Corneille's late heroes benefit from a Salesian reading, particularly in terms of sacrifice, générosité, and obedience. Cérasi links the notions of Roman grandeur and Christian virtue in Corneille. The second half studies Cornelian traits of François de Sales, and in particular, "ce joyeux dépassement de soi-même qui est aussi, mais encore dans l'immanence, celui des héros cornéliens." "Ce qu[e Corneille] représente, au même titre que François de Sales, c'est cet humanisme chrétien fait des meilleurs apports de l'antiquité et de l'Ecriture." Reviewer cites the "nouveauté" of the approach and the originality of its ideas.
GUIDERDONI-BRUSLE, AGNES. "Images et emblèmes dans la spiritualité de saint François de Sales." DSS 214 (2002), 35–54.
Author details the integration of emblems and images into de Sales' discursive style and his "active spirituality." Eschewing ornamental and esthetic uses of the emblem, de Sales claims its intimate role in the subject's relationship with God.
MELLINGHOFF-BOURGERIE, VIVIANE. François de Sales (1567–1622). Un homme de lettres spirituelles. Genève: Droz, 1999.
Review: J. Balsamo in RF 113 (2001), 533–535: Extremely laudable and comprehensive work emphasizes "les dynamiques, entre les modèles français et italien, mondain et religieux, qui animent la vie savante de l'époque" (534). François de Sales's correspondence is the "lieu privilégié" of Mellinghoff-Bourgerie's investigation which demonstrates remarkably the bishop's cultural and linguistic competencies, finds the letters to be "le creuset d'une spiritualité. . . complexe, . . .religieuse et politique" (534). Balsamo singles out for highest praise of its innovative qualities the four chapters on the style and enjeux of the letters where Mellinghoff-Bourgerie illuminates mystical connotations as well as codes of rhetoric and civility. Includes a very useful "Registre des lettres autographes de François de Sales" where each of the 262 correspondents receives a detailed bio-bibliography.
TERREAUX, LOUIS. "Sur un livre récent: François de Sales un homme de lettres spirituelles par Viviane Mellinghoff-Bourgerie (Genève: Droz, 1999)." SFr 135 (2001), 555–558.
This review article of Mellinghoff-Bourgerie's book praises her careful and wide-ranging analyses, as reflected in her subtitle: "culture, tradition, épistolarité." Rejecting the "appartenance montaniste" of François de Sales, Mellinghoff-Bourgerie details his Erasmian heritage (555); her linguistic analyses focus on his "plurilinguisme" and "culture ultramontaine" (555). For Mellinghoff-Bougerie, François de Sales "n'est pas un écrivain du Grand Siècle. Il est bien plus proche de l'Edit de Nantes que de sa Révocation" (557). Mellinghoff-Bougerie's "Registre des lettres autographes" with notices on destinataires will be used with profit along with the "grande édition d'Annecy" (558).
SCHEFER, CHARLES, éd. Antoine Galland. Voyage à Constantinople (1672–1673). Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 2002.
Review: BCLF 637 (2002), 145–46: "Du journal qu'il a rédigé tout au long de sa vie, riche en voyages, ne subsistent que deux parties, celle qui concerne sa vie à Paris et couvre les années 1708 à 1715, et celle qui fait le récit de ses voyages en Orient de 1670 à 1675. Le journal publié ici va de 1672 à 1673, et correspond à une partie seulement de ce que devait être l'original."
DARMON, JEAN-CHARLES. "Le Jardin et la loi: de l'utilité comme fondement du Droit et du Politique chez Gassendi." Littératures classiques no. 40 (2000), 53–73.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 135 (2000), 633: This article in Littératures classique's volume of essays on "Droit et Littérature" traces the current of Gassendi's thoughts on utility and justice by a consideration of certain crucial moments. Darmon's important analysis demonstrates that Gassendi's position is "tutt'altro che apolitica o incerta" (633).
CHAPLIN, PEGGY E., ed. Gillet de la Tessonerie. Le Triompe des cinq passions. Exeter: U of Exeter Press, 2000.
Review: F. Lasserre in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 253–255: Second Gillet de la Tessonerie play re-edited by P. Chaplin. 15-page introduction with 12 pages of notes, offers a biography of Gillet, and then an analysis of this play. "Deux problèmes principaux s'offrent à l'examen critique, celui de la structure dramatique, et celui de la doctrine." Chaplin demonstrates "que Gillet parvient à créer avec vraisemblance les retournements ou les effets dramatiques necessaries. Elle conclut donc l'examen des deux problèmes par une appréciation d'une équitable bienveillance." Reviewer criticizes the quantity of typographical errors and the failure to cite corrections to the original text, as well as faulty "corrections" and substitutions. However, "Globalement, l'intérêt porté à Gillet de la Tessonerie sera servi, de manière très positive, par l'édition de P. Chaplin, qui a des qualités, signalées plus haut."
GIRAUD, YVES. "Antoine Godeau et les Samedis du Maris." Vie des salons et activités littéraires, de Marguerite de Valois à Mme de Staël. Actes du colloque de Nancy. Nancy: PU de Nancy, 2001.
THOMPSON, JOHN JAY. "Transferts culturels et littéraires de la Méditerranée en Lorraine: L'exemple du Richecourt de Simplicien Gody (1628)." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 209–217.
Thompson examines "la ferveur renouvelée qui, au début du XVIIe siècle, s'est cristallisée autour du transfert de [Saint] Nicolas, de son lieu de sépulture méditerréanéen à son sanctuaire à Port, près de Nancy," with a comparison to the miraculous instantaneous tranferral of Cunon de Richecourt. Thompson demonstrates "comment Simplicien Gody. . . décrit les Lorrains face à leurs ennemis, dans le contexte de la Guerre de Trente Ans, comme des Chrétiens aux prises avec les Turcs, son intention étant de signifier que les Lorrains doivent se garder de la Vengeance Divine et de son possible instrument, les malheurs de la guerre."
D'ASCENZO, FREDERICA. "L'espace marin dans la fiction narrative de Gomberville." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 179–191.
A study of Polexandre which posits that, "Le décor exotique dans lequel nous plongent les voyages maritimes, leur implication politique, la recherche de soi à travers la quête d'un absolu, font de cette dernière de Polexandre un véritable creuset où fusionnent tradition et connaissances d'une époque charnière, imagination poétique et exigences romanesques." The sea is never described, but Gomberville pays particular attention to wind and islands, and spatial and temporal details are precise and accurate, resulting in "un subtil mélange entre le réel authentique et documenté et l'imagination poétique." D'Ascenzo concludes with a discussion of "l'homologie entre l'espace marin et la forme romanesque."
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS, ed. La Comédie des comédiens et Le Discours à Cliton. Biblio 17 Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2000.
Review: P. Pasquier in DSS 213 (2001), 729–731: For the reviewer, Lasserre's edition of these two texts clearly constitutes an effort to "rehabilitate" this lesser-known author. Lasserre asserts that the merit of La Comédie des comédiens is found not in any "realistic" portrait of the Hôtel de Bourgogne acting company but rather in its unique staging of a play-within-a-play "où pièce-cadre et pièce intérieure contribuent également au jeu subtil de l'illusion. . .." Lasserre studies the Discours à Cliton as one of major treatises on French dramatic esthetics. The reviewer disagrees, however, with Lasserre's attempt to defend Gougenot as the author of Discours à Cliton. Both texts are presented with their original spelling and punctuation.
RILEY, PATRICK. "Blaise Pascal, Jeanne Guyon, and the Paradoxes of the moi haïssable." PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 223–240.
Considers "the relation between religious ideologies of the self in Pascal and Madame Guyon, and the practice of autobiography." Asks "how it is possible to produce such a thing as a Quietist autobiography, how it is possible to write about a self whose very existence is denied in principle, how it is possible to create a first-person narrative recounting the erasure of subjectivity and its purported replacement in the soul by the presence of God." Concludes that Guyon writes "the self's epitaph."
SMITH, SARAH JANE NIX. "Balaam's She-ass Speaks: Madame Jeanne Guyon and her 'Justifications'." DAI 62/03 (2001), 1075.
Shows how Guyon mounts a defense against charges of Quietism by inventing a double-edged voice of submission and assertion.
BEAREZ, BERNADETTE Alexandre Hardy, témoin de son époque. Milano: La Nuova Italia, 2000.
Review: C. Bernazzoli in SFr 135 (2001), 632–633: An ample and well articulated bibliography complements this socio-politically oriented analysis of Hardy. Focus is on the conception of the monarchy and the aristocratic ideal, as well as the situation of the peuple.
Review: A. Howe in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 246–248: "Béarez's thesis is that Hardy's theatre reflects the social and political climate prevalent in France during its emergence from the upheavals and devastation of the Wars of Religion. In particular, from a close reading of Hardy's works, she demonstrates that they engage in debates of strong contemporary relevance, concerning, for example, the role and conception of the monarchy, the desirability of practising severity or clemency, and the permissibility of tyrannicide." Contrasts with Hardy's unfavorable treatment of the lower classes. "All but a handful of his 34 extant plays are discussed." Reviewer cites as a shortcoming "that the contextualizing of Hardy's plays is achieved exclusively in relation to modern historical scholarship." Includes an extensive bibliography of modern historical works. Lacks an index.
PEYROCHE D'ARNAUD, GUILLAUME, éd. Claude Hopil. Méditations sur le Cantique des Cantiques et Les Douces extases de l'âme spirituelle. Genève: Droz, 2000.
Review: C. Rolla in SFr 134 (2001), 387: This scholarly edition is part of the collection "Textes littéraires français" and will undoubtedly do much toward increasing critical attention to this author who merits it. Includes a brief biography, rich critical apparatus (numerous sources of Hopil are detailed), and a respectful reproduction of the original text.
PLANTIE, JACQUELINE, ed. Claude Hopil, Les Divins élancements d'amour, exprimés en cent cantiques faits en l'honneur de la Très-Sainte-Trinité. Paris: Champion, 1999.
Review: Y. Quetot in RHL 101.4 (2001), 1287–88: Enthusiastic review of Jacqueline Plantié's editorial work on poems whose comprehension and analysis is made possible by notes, glossary, index, bibliography, and information on the composition of the collection and its models. "La mise en lumière de 《 ces modèles ou précurseurs 》 permet de mieux cerner la singularité de l'oeuvre."
COHEN, MARK A. "La Bruyère and the 'Usage' of Childhood: The Idea of Pedagogy in the Caractères." FrF 26 (2001), 23–42.
Successfully fills a surprising lacuna in La Bruyère studies as well as in 17th c. studies in general. Argues that the Caractères "was intended to be a pedagogy for adults" (23) and proves the relevance to the work of La Bruyère's own pedagogical experiences as tutor to the duc Louis de Bourbon and his intellectual ties with the Petit Concile. Cohen pertinently analyzes La Bruyère's emphases including but not limited to language, education, "le naturel," childhood as "a time of enormous potential," and "attentiveness [as] the chief quality that the pedagogue must arouse and direct" (30–32, 36, 39). Demonstrates that "the striking language of the Caractères [is] an unmatched propaedeutic for understanding the truth about the things of the world" (41).
ESCOLA, MARC, ed. Jean de la Bruyère. Les Caractères de Théophraste traduits du grec, avec les Caractères ou les Moeurs de ce siècle.
Review: B. Papàsogli in SFr 133 (2001), 145–146: Numerous annexes, including a table of concordances of the Caractères' various editions complete this monumental (936-page) edition which impresses by its philological and critical apparatus. Escola's presentation is genetic and a "trouvaille" allows him to favor the hypothesis that the Caractères are an authentic example of "retorica del discontinuo" (145).
Review: B. Parmentier in RHL 102.3 (2002), 475–76: An edition that combines characteristics of two recent editions (Bury and Van Delft), and concentrates on the typography of the Caractères, which is not, Escola emphasizes, a "fragmentary" text in the romantic sense, in that it depends on sequential reading. The edition thus "propose une méthode d'analyse textuelle qui fait place non seulement à la pluralité de lectures possible, mais aussi à l'évaluation des formes matérielles de l'ouvrage, jusqu'aux corrections sous presse." Also reproduces the "keys" that circulated at the time, because they bear witness to a type of reading in vogue.
RICORD, MAXINE. Les Caractères de La Bruyère ou les exercices de l'esprit. Paris: PUF, 2000.
Review: E. J. Campion in FR 75, 4 (2002), 782–83: A "thought-provoking study" that examines the semantic field of the term esprit in the work of La Bruyère. Argues that although La Bruyère used the term in the traditional sense of "mind," he also associates it with "l'âme." Reveals the religious dimensions of Les Caractères.
Review: M. Escola in DSS 212 (2001), 558–559: A favorable review of this study of La Bruyère that seeks to understand the text through a comprehensive investigation of l'esprit. Ricord first offers an inventory and classification of the diverse uses of this term throughout Les Caractères and juxtaposes this with other relevant writings (by Bouhours, Méré, La Rochefoucauld, etc.). She provides thus "une topographie sémantique" the analyses of which derive from very attentive readings of the text. Ricord then examines "the stylistic practice of l'esprit," according special place to the use of irony, and finally considers the reader's reception of irony, "geste d'intelligence, l'ironie forcerait l'intelligence."
Review: B. Papàsogli in SFr 133 (2001), 145: Praiseworthy for the sensitivity of its interpretation, Ricord's study focuses on the key concept "spirit" which represents a wide-range of vast and nuanced meaning. The central section of her study consists of analyses of La Bruyère's style, in particular irony and rhetorical "jeux."
GANIM, RUSSELL. Renaissance Resonance: Lyric Modality in La Ceppède's Théorèmes. Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi, 1998.
Review: C. Grisé, in EMF 8 (2002), 262–63. Author maintains that the lyric tradition, as much as the devotional, shaped La Ceppède's work; shows how the orthodox Catholic poet appropriates, so as to sanctify, secular poetic genres. Close readings of lyric topoi in the Théorèmes are combined with comparisons between other devotional poets' use of lyric modes. "[A]n important contribution to the history of French lyric poetry."
GŒURY, JULIEN. L'Autopsie et le théorème poétique des Théorèmes spirituels (1613–1622) de Jean de La Ceppède. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: R. Ganim in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 539–541: Ganim calls this volume "une addition importante aux ouvrages récents sur le poète aixois." Taking "une perspective néo-structuraliste," the work can be divided into four parts: a section on "morphology" "met en exergue la construction générale du texte;" a section on "anatomy" considers primarily "l'élocution," privileging "les multiples voix narratives et les modèles variés que prend la muse;" a section on "physiology" studies "la composition de l'alexandrin, l'agencement et la 《 mélodie 》 des rimes, ainsi que 《 le principe de répétition 》. . . [et] le concept de 《 ressassement 》;" and finally a fourth section which "souligne le rôle du poète et du lecteur dans le processus contemplatif." Overall, Gœury's goal is "de scruter le langage et la construction de l'expérience dévote." However, Ganim faults the work for neglecting "les paradoxes et les portraits humains qui font des Théorèmes un des textes les plus pénétrants de la poésie baroque," and for only citing bits of La Ceppède's text when more complete citations would have illuminated the reader. Ganim is disappointed that Gœury "néglige le côté humaniste chez le poète aixois," stating, "Bref, le point de vue qu'adopte l'auteur apparaît souvent comme trop distant et abstrait pour un ouvrage qui a pour but l'engagement direct du lecteur." Nevertheless, "l'enquête de Julien Gœury pose des questions et ouvre des voies qui méritent notre exploration."
BEASLEY, F.S., & K.A. JENSEN, eds. Approaches to Teaching Lafayette's La Princesse de Clèves. New York: MLA, 1998.
Review: N. Grande in RHL 101.5 (2001), 1471–72. Contextual, thematic and pedagogical articles on the inimitable novel. Volume serves as a "témoignage d'une vitalité pédagogique qui ne peut que susciter l'admiration des enseignants français."
KUPPER, NELLY GROSSMAN. "A Woman's Choice: Duty and Desire in La Princesse de Clèves." SYM 55.2 (2001), 95–105.
Reading of the novel that rejects both traditional and feminist critical views of Mme de Clève's untimely death: " . . .it is a story of tragedy in which the Self is overcome by its attachment to the Other, where personal choice is overshadowed by family's wishes, and in which life is extinguished by the force of pre-history."
LETTS, JANET. Legendary Lives in La Princesse de Clèves. Charlottesville: Rookwood, 1998.
Review: M.-Fr. Hilgar in FR 76, 1 (2002), 119–20: The author reads La Princesse de Clèves from the perspective of its historical narratives. By examining closely the work of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century historians, Letts shows how the narrators of the novel revise the circumstances surrounding the lives of historical figures such as Marie de Lorraine, Marie Stuart, Anne Boleyn, Henri VIII, Diane de Poitier, Henri II, and Catherine de Médicis. The author demonstrates how narrators in the novel often revise history in the stories they tell in an effort to influence their listeners.
MOREAU, ISABELLE TRIVISANI. "Zaïde et l'altérité, histoire méditerranéenne." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 77–92.
Moreau posits that, "En regardant les lieux de la Méditerranée mentionnés par le texte on peut observer cmment leur place au sein de l'histoire principale ou des récits retrospectifs permet, par le passage du présent au passé, un élargissement du champ spatial de l'œuvre." Moreau concludes, "Le roman, par l'intermédiaire de Zaïde dont l'identité se découvre peu à peu, apprend à Consalve comme au lecteur à reconnaître une autre culture: la Méditerranée n'apparaît plus au terme du roman comme un espace contenant des pays inconnus dont le nom évoque le danger, l'éloignement, la fuite."
THOMAS, FRANCIS-NOëL. "Recent English Translations of La Princesse de Clèves." EMF 8 (2002), 268–83.
An examination of the five currently available English translations of Lafayette's novel. Singles out Terence Cave's for praise.
BAK, MARCEL. "Le Jardin des oliviers chez Jean de la Fontaine: une allégorie de l'ennui dans Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon." AJFS 39,1 (2002), 9–27.
A study of notions of "théâtralité" in Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon that shows how La Fontaine's poem is organized around an oscillation between ennui and divertissement. Linking the world of the court with a Christian, monastic tradition through the image of the garden, La Fontaine presents a heroine who follows a path from innocence to corruption to salvation.
BANDERIER, GILLES. "Le Poème du Quinquina et la poésie médicale de la Renaissance." Le Fablier: Revue des Amis de Jean de La Fontaine. La Fontaine et l'héritage de l'Europe humaniste. Actes du colloque de l'Institut de France. Première partie. 13 (2001): 37–44.
This study reevaluates a lesser-known text by La Fontaine. Banderier studies (1) "les postulats sur lesquels reposait jusqu'ici l'exégèse de l'œuvre"; (2) "les liens qui pouvaient unir le Poème du Quinquina à la tradition humaniste du poème medical"; and finally proposes "plusieurs rapprochements avec. . . le poème publié en 1530 par le médecin italien Girolamo Fracastoro."
BIRBERICK, ANNE L. Reading Undercover: Audience and Authority in Jean de La Fontaine. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 1998.
Review: C. Grisé, in EMF 8 (2002), 263–66: An analysis of author/audience relations in La Fontaine that argues for the existence of a new type of reading and writing, one that responds to "a rhetorical situation entailing dissimulation, dispersion, and indirection" (AB), and that necessitates the reader's active participation. Examines notably the Fables as metapoetics. Reviewer feels that some of the author's distinctions regarding types of readers blur together, that some significant examples of readers are ignored, and that the book lacks a strong concluding synthesis of the main thesis.
CALDER, ANDREW. The Fables of La Fontaine: Wisdom Brought Down to Earth. Geneva: Droz, 2001.
Review: J. Johnson in SCN 60:1 (2002), 75–77: A "well-documented work" that approaches the fables as skillful renderings of timeless wisdom about the human condition. Author insists on the necessity of situating the fables within the context discourses of wisdom offered by La Fontaine's precursors, including Aesop, Homer, Socrates, Horace, Erasmus, Montaigne and Rabelais. The reviewer notes that the analyses of certain fables are thin but concludes that the book "will prove especially useful for undergraduates, for scholars wishing to consider La Fontaine in a larger humanistic context, and for those seeking a quick introduction to particular fables and their thematic connections with other fables and texts in the Lafontainian corpus."
CIFARELLI, PAOLA. "Le fablier de Rinuccio d'Arezzo et ses traductions françaises au XVIe siècle." Le Fablier: Revue des Amis de Jean de La Fontaine. La Fontaine et l'héritage de l'Europe humaniste. Actes du colloque de l'Institut de France. Première partie. 13 (2001): 53–67.
Cifarelli details "les circonstances de la tradution latine" in the more general framework of the humanist fable of the Quattrocento, and then explores the French branch of this tradition. Cifarelli concludes: "Quant aux 'artisans de la fable' qui, au cours du XVIe siècle, ont publié des versions françaises de collections latines, ils ont joué un rôle considerable dans la preservation d'un patrimoine dont le génie de La Fontaine saura tirer le plus grand profit" (64). A table of French translations of Rinuccio follows.
DANDREY, PATRICK. "La Fontaine, poète humaniste?" Le Fablier: Revue des Amis de Jean de La Fontaine. La Fontaine et l'héritage de l'Europe humaniste. Actes du colloque de l'Institut de France. Première partie. 13 (2001): 9–15.
The Président de la Société de Jean de La Fontaine introduces this issue of Le Fablier with a succinct but trenchant summary of the organizing principles of the humanist tradition of the Renaissance, and of La Fontaine as heir of that tradition. These introductory remarks are followed by brief presentations of the 8 conference papers which follow.
DUFFY, BRIAN. "The Patient Ant and the Foolish Grasshopper: John Updike's Elaboration on La Fontaine." SYM 55.2 (2001), 59–77.
Duffy explores "the extent to which La Fontaine's short and condensed narrative exerts its influence" on Updike's "Brother Grasshopper."
FUMAROLI, MARC. "Allocution d'ouverture." Le Fablier: Revue des Amis de Jean de La Fontaine. La Fontaine et l'héritage de l'Europe humaniste. Actes du colloque de l'Institut de France. Première partie. 13 (2001): 100–101.
In his opening statement for the Colloque de l'Institut de France, Fumaroli interrogates La Fontaine's ambitions vis-à-vis the Académie Française and his eventual entry into this august body.
GONTHIER-FISHMAN, CATHERINE. "Un dialogue marginal au seuil et dans les mailles de 'Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon' de Jean de La Fontaine." DAI 62/12 (2002), 4191.
Analyzes La Fontaine's author-reader relationship, in both the paratext and text of Psyché, as part of the author's "unflinching aesthetical and political questioning."
GRIMM, JURGEN. "L'expression morale dans l'Heptaméron et dans les Fables." Le Fablier: Revue des Amis de Jean de La Fontaine. La Fontaine et l'héritage de l'Europe humaniste. Actes du colloque de l'Institut de France. Première partie. 13 (2001): 90–95.
Study seeks to fill a gap in La Fontainien criticism by comparing the Fables to the Heptameron, because of the eminently moral nature of the latter. Seeks not to find particular influences or similar morals, but "parallélismes" or "contraintes structurelles auxquelles les deux auteurs se voient confrontés dans des situations analogues" (95).
GRISE, CATHERINE M. Cognitive Space and Patterns of Deceit in La Fontaine's Contes. Charlottesville, VA: Rockwood Press, 1998.
Review: J.-P. Collinet in SFr 134 (2001), 397–398: Highly praiseworthy and on a par with but in a different spirit than the study of John C. Lapp, Esthetics of Negligence. Grisé's volume deserves to be counted "parmi les plus importantes contributions nord-américaines. . . de La Fontaine et de son oeuvre en tant que conteur" (198). Grisé substitutes for the usual motif index of folklorists, a grill specifically adapted to La Fontaine and founded by her on the most recent and promising developments of narratology (397).
GRISÉ, CATHERINE M. "La Fontaine's Little Red Riding Hood: 'La Clochette' and the Pastourelle Genre." EMF 8 (2002), 244–67.
Proposes that some of the contextual difficulties surrounding "La Clochette"—specifically, its seemingly light-hearted treatment of rape—can be resolved by viewing it as a continuation of the medieval pastourelle genre.
MATHIEU-CASTELLANI, GISELE. "L'écriture à la première personne et le modèle de la narration humaniste." Le Fablier: Revue des Amis de Jean de La Fontaine. La Fontaine et l'héritage de l'Europe humaniste. Actes du colloque de l'Institut de France. Première partie. 13 (2001): 79–89.
"De la tradition narrative de la Renaissance, La Fontaine reprend un trait. . . --l'irruption dans le récit d'une écriture à la première personne. . . L'écriture de la fable est évidemment marquée par la subjectivité dans les sequences lyriques de confession et d'épanchement, mais aussi dans les insertions critiques sur le petit genre de la fable, ou encore dans le discours encomiastique. . . [L]'écriture à la première personne informe également. . . la glose, le commentaire, la digression." Examples studied with reference to the Amyot-Plutarque tradition and also to the Nouvelles Recréations et Joyeux Devis de Bonaventure des Périers.
MONFERRAN, JEAN-CHARLES. "Marot, le marotique et La Fontaine." Le Fablier: Revue des Amis de Jean de La Fontaine. La Fontaine et l'héritage de l'Europe humaniste. Actes du colloque de l'Institut de France. Première partie. 13 (2001): 25–35.
According to Monferran, "Mon approche . . . [est] de tenter de comprendre de qui ou peut-être même de quoi parle La Fontaine quand il évoque Marot" (25). Article includes a study of the reception of Marot in the 17th c., followed by an in-depth analysis of La Fontaine's "pieces de 'la pension poétique,' séquence unanimement reconnue pour relever de l'imitation de Marot." He concludes, "C'est cette figure-là du poète de l'Adolescence clémentine qui marque peut-être le plus profondément l'imaginaire de La Fontaine, plus encore que les tours de Clément" (35).
NEPOTE-DESMARRES, FANNY. La Fontaine: Fables. Paris: PUF, 1999.
Review: I. Landy-Houillon in DSS 212 (2001), 560–561: The author eschews biographical, historical, and lexical approaches to the Fables in favor of a purely "scriptural" reading, alone capable of conveying the "dynamique de métamorphose permanente des genres susceptibles d'abriter des moralités. . .." Although the reviewer takes issue with some of the author's interpretations and conclusions, she praises nonetheless "le sérieux et la précision d'une étude ambitieuse et originale qui n'exclut pas une approche plus ludique de la 'fabrique des Fables.'"
Review: R. Runte in FR 75, 2 (2001), 364–65: A compact study of the fables appropriate as an introduction to La Fontaine's work for undergraduate students. "[S]urprisingly complete and sophisticated" in this context, it examines "the history and definition of the fable genre, the life of the fabulist and the unity and meaning of the Fables choisies." Also includes a bibliography, a model explication de texte of "La Mort et le bûcheron," and discussions of La Fontaine's antecedents and successors.
NIDERST, ALAIN. "La Fontaine et Huet." Le Fablier: Revue des Amis de Jean de La Fontaine. La Fontaine et l'héritage de l'Europe humaniste. Actes du colloque de l'Institut de France. Première partie. 13 (2001): 45–50.
A reconsideration of La Fontaine's "Epître à Huet." Niderst reexamine's Huet's role in the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes, as well as resemblances between La Fontaine and Huet in sensibility, philosophy, attitudes toward Descartes, and an interest in Plato.
RUNYON, RANDOLPH PAUL. In La Fontaine's Labyrinth: A Thread Through the Fables. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2000.
Review: J. Chang in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 370–371: Runyon tackles "the open-ended and seemingly self-evident question of the sequencing of the fables," arguing "that what links the fables together is not an arbitrary order but precisely the key that determines how their meaning must be grasped." Runyon identifies a "surprising pattern" which offers "mosaic-like unity." Runyon's work leads "to the discovery that, if some of the words, images and events in a given fable should find their raison d'être in relation to counterparts in a neighboring fable, the individual poem would cease to be self-enclosed systems. What really interests Runyon, thus, is the tension and cohesion which characterize the sequencing of the fables."
Review: P. Dandrey in Le Fablier 13 (2001): 105–106: "Cet ouvrage revient utilement sur la difficile question de l'architecture du recueil des Fables, en s'interrogeant sur les principes de régulation et d'enchaînement des apologues au sein de chacun des douze livres. Son idée maîtresse réside paradoxalement dans la négation de la notion de 'principe', dans le refus de poser que l'architecture du recueil obéisse à une règle explicite ou secrète" (105). Book includes a review of La Fontainien criticism on this topic. For Runyon, "C'est la libre inspiration de l'analyste et sa subjectivité de goût qui gouvernent le jeu avec des bonheurs que son lecteur est, à son tour, libre d'évaluer avec la même latitude. . .L'ouvrage de M. Runyon relève moins, en somme, de l'analyse critique que de la lecture critique. Et c'est d'ailleurs un compliment que l'on peut lui faire: les fables sont faites pour être lues. . ." (105). Dandrey suggests Runyon would have done well to consult the recent edition of the Fables annotated by Yves Le Pestipon, whose point of departure is very similar to the labyrinth reconstructed by Runyon.
Review: W. Engel in SCN 59:3 (2001), 298–301: Runyon sets out to discover the underlying organization or connecting thread of the fables by looking at "the order of the fables La Fontaine has established, skipping none. . .." This study reveals that "four fifths of the 239 pairs of contiguous fables share at least one verbal link—all of the contiguous pairs have either a situational or verbal link." Runyon analyzes the quantity and nature of the links between contiguous fables and argues for an intentional and "subtle design" underlying the fables.
SHAPIRO, NORMAN R., trans.Jean de La Fontaine. Once Again, La Fontaine. Sixty More Fables. Illustrated byDavid Schorr, foreword byJohn Hollander. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2001.
Review: S. D. Blackford et al. in VQR 78.3 (Summer 2002), 83: "The fourth and so far best volume of Norman Shapiro's La Fontaine project (three of the Fables, one of the Contes et nouvelles), this is the first to be accompanied by a CD-ROM (on which Douglas Sills skillfully reads 26 translated texts). (...) John Hollander sums up the standard history of fable as a genre and La Fontaine's place in it... The volume is rather too lightly annotated and features a hit-or-miss bibliography of current studies in English. (...) Readers will find Shapiro at the height of his powers, giving a fluent yet accurate account of La Fontaine's most ironic, ambiguous, allusive, and metaphorically dense fables in a language that captures the poet's multiple registers and subtle rhythms."
SLATER, MAYA. The Craft of La Fontaine. Athlone/Farleigh Dickinson, 2000.
Review: A. Génetiot in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 574–576: "Une étude minutieuse et attentive à la lettre des Fables, qui se veut (p.X) à la fois 《 méfiante 》, avide de déceler les nuances cachées, et 《 naïve 》, abordant le grain du texte au sens littéral — cette fausse naïveté herméneutique visant à faire surgir des faits nouveaux derrière les évidences trompeuses du 《 bien connu 》 et à mettre en évidence les ambivalences de l'œuvre ainsi que la perpétuelle tension entre l'humour et le pessimisme moral." The first section discusses La Fontaine's style, and in particular two techniques: "la 《 compression 》" and his 《 excès stylistique 》. The second part discusses anthropomorphic metaphors, while the third part concentrates on the animals of the Fables and the fourth part focuses on the human characters. The final section deals with the intertextuality of the Fables. Slater's work is primarily an attempt at a thorough "compréhension analytique" of La Fontaine's work, and, as such, "constitue une stimulante invitation. . . à la relecture des Fables."
Review: L. Grove in MLR 97.3 (2002), 707–08: "Slater's text-based approach excels as a close critical reading and the careful dissection of chosen fables underpins each of the ten chapters."
Review: N.B. Palmer in CHOICE 39, 5 (2000), 887: A close, rigorous analysis of the fables that reveals concealed satire and literary allusions. Excellent bibliography and notes.
VAN DELFT, LOUIS. "L''ample comédie': La Fontaine et Lucien." Le Fablier: Revue des Amis de Jean de La Fontaine. La Fontaine et l'héritage de l'Europe humaniste. Actes du colloque de l'Institut de France. Première partie. 13 (2001): 19–23.
Van Delft elaborates a "point de contact" (21) or "filiation" (23) between La Fontaine and Lucien's "Icaroménippe" with a particular emphasis on the theatricality of the authors' approaches. Article also contains a summary of 17th c. scholarship on and translations of Lucien. The article is followed by a reproduction of the 1655 frontispiece of the Ablancourt translation of Lucien (24).
HEDLEY, JO. "Charles de la Fosse's 'Rinaldo and Armida' and 'Rape of Europa' at Basildon Park." Burlington 1189 (2002), 204–212.
Accepts that two paintings held at Basildon Park were commissioned from la Fosse by Ralph, Earl of Montagu, between 1690 and 1692, but argues that the subject of one of the paintings has long been misidentified. Author contends that the painting in question represents Rinaldo and Armida, not Mars and Venus; relates it to a painting by Bauïn at Versailles and an opera by Lully.
CHIHAIA, MATEI. "Anatomie einer Maxime: Wissen über den Menschen bei La Rochefoucauld und bei Knigge." ZFSCL 111 (2001), 165–182.
Close study of La Rochefoucauld's maxim on nature, man's body organs and his pride, comparing and contrasting it with the text of the 18th c. German writer Adolph Freiher von Knigge, Uber den Umgang mit Menschen (1788). Includes sections on the Augustinian quality of La Rochefoucauld's text and its dialogical, Jansenist character. Chihaia finds that Knigge transforms La Rochefoucauld's descriptions into prescriptions: "Was bei den Franzosen zu einem dialogischen Konflikt zugespitzt wird, mündet bei ihm [Knigge] durch geschickte Differenzierung in einer positiven Moral" (182).
FIORENTINO, FRANCESCO, éd. François de La Rochefoucauld. Massime. Venezia: Marsilio, 2000.
Review: B. Papàsogli in SFr 135 (2001), 640–641: Welcomes this new Italian edition of La Rochefoucauld's Maximes. Praiseworthy for its elegance and perspective (the Maximes were at their outset a divertissement for a worldly society). Introduction and annotations will stimulate the readers' interest.
HOPE, QUENTIN M. "La Rochefoucauld: The Moraliste as Moralizer and Mentor." RomN 42 (2001), 61–64.
While acknowledging that one attraction of the maxims is that they "do not teach or moralize," Hope argues that La Rochefoucauld does believe that individuals can correct their faults. Hope finds this belief in some of the maxims and especially in a critical letter which La Rochefoucauld wrote to his son.
LAFOND, JEAN. "Un duc et pair de France éditeur." TL 14 (2001), 243–255.
Multifaceted analysis clearly demonstrates that La Rochefoucauld was not "un écrivain de 'premier jet'", traces the adventures of pirated editions, details the care and precautions involved in the manuscrit de Liancourt and its production, reveals the code or convention prohibiting l'honnête homme to "faire métier d'écrire" (Montaigne, cited here, 244) and offers pertinent and highly informative observations on the order of the maximes, commenting as well on the difficulties of editing Pascal.
WARNER, STUART D. & STÉPHANE DOUARD, eds. and trans. La Rochefoucauld. Maxims. South Bend, IN: Saint Augustine Press, 2001.
Review: M. Slater in TLS 5173 (May 24 2002), 31: A bilingual edition. The translators are not up to the task of translating the maxims. Their English versions are at best serviceable and are sometimes ungrammatical or incomprehensible. Slater cites mistranslations of key words and one instance of an English translation having the opposite meaning of the French original.
DELOFFRE, FREDERIC. "Madame de La Sablière et ses familiers." Vie des salons et activités littéraires, de Marguerite de Valois à Mme de Staël. Actes du colloque de Nancy. Nancy: PU de Nancy, 2001.
LOSKOUTOFF, YVAN. L'Armorial de Calliope. L'Oeuvre du Père Le Moyne S.J. (1601–1671): Littérature, héraldique, spiritualité. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17 #125), 2000.
Review: C. Carlin in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 538–539: "Yvan Loskoutoff's detailed exploration of the use of heraldry in Le Moyne's corpus sensitizes the reader to the importance of heraldic symbols as a literary device in encomiastic texts and in the epic, notably in Le Moyne's Saint Louys." 31 plates. Carlin concurs with Loskoutoff's estimation of Le Moyne's originality: "in his combination of nationalistic and spiritual aims, Le Moyne exploits heraldry more profoundly than the other writers who make use of it." The last third of the book focuses on a topos to which Le Moyne returned often: "the ephemeral nature of earthly existence." "Yvan Loskoutoff convinces us that in its rich stock of images popular prior to 1660, heraldry as a figure de style deserves a closer look."
Review: D.J. Culpin in FS 56.1 (2002), 90–91: "Loskoutoff's approach is to consider... heraldry as a figure of speech or a trope, across the range of Le Moyne's work." Le Moyne's interest in heraldry is linked to the Jesuit taste for "exuberant visual display," to préciosité and the Hôtel de Rambouillet, and to aristocratic culture and ideology. This book "will fascinate all those who are interested in the poetry, emblems and moral thought of the Baroque and early Classical periods."
Review: G. Bosco in SFr 134 (2001), 391: Loskoutoff's focus is Le Moyne's fascination with and use of the heraldic as a figure of discourse, lending itself to edification and encomium. Richly informative, well-structured and up-to-date critically, Loskoutoff's study will be enriching to several disciplines.
Review: G. Demerson in RHL 101.6 (2001), 1655–56: Book aims at understanding heraldry as rhetorical figure using the case of Le Moyne. Examines the cultural/artistic context of heraldry, its functions (praise, propaganda, satire), and the way it also serves to denounce the illusions of "la gloire." Sympathetic review of a work on a maligned author; reviewer only takes exception to the "rigidity" of the book's structure.
PREAUD, MAXIME. Jean Lepautre (II) (Bibliothèque nationale de France. Inventaire du fonds français. Graveurs du XVIIe siècle. XII). Paris: BNF, 1999.
Review: S. Loire in Burlington 1184 (2001), 700–701: Follows a volume on the Lepautre family published in 1993 which featured Antoine Lepautre (1621–79), an important architect in the early years of Louis XIV's reign, as well as his nephew Jacques (c.1653/57–84) and half the prints by Jean (1618–82), whom the reviewer cites as "one of the most inventive and prolific seventeenth-century engravers." The present volume fills in many details of Jean Lepautre's biography, provides a thematic categorization of his ornament prints, and for the first time allows us fully "to appreciate the full extent of Lepautre's œuvre."
MINEL, EMMANUEL, éd. Hilaire de Longepierre. Médée. Suivie du Parallèle de Monsieur Corneille et de Monsieur Racine, et de la Dissertation sur la tragédie de Médée par l'abbé Pellegrin. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: P. Gethner in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 544–546: "This new critical edition makes available an eminently readable play that has been out of print for several decades. . . The extensive introduction is superb. Following a brief biography of the playwright, Emmanuel Minel analyzes in depth the dramaturgical problems posed by the story. . ., the three previous dramatic versions in France. . ., a balanced discussion of both Longepierre's dramaturgy. and his style. . . The discussion of the four main characters, and how Longepierre's depiction of them differs from previous versions, is detailed and perceptive." Gethner calls the inclusion of supplemental texts "an extra bonus." The appendix is deemed "useful." "The bibliography is unusually complete."
Review: B. Papàsogli in SFr 133 (2001), 148: Minel's edition of these texts includes an ample historical-philological apparatus focusing especially on Médée, a biographical notice on Longepierre and a study of the tragedy in relation to its preceding French versions, considering the dynamics of action, psychology of the characters, style and variants. Impressive bibliography and catalogue of editions of Médée.
Review: R. Tobin in E Cr 41 (2001), 101: "Eminently readable and welcome edition of Longepierre's three texts for the "larger literate public." Finds the Dissertation by Pellegrin "insightful" for "early eighteenth-century perspectives on classical tragedy," but indicates certain oversights and inaccuracies.
HEYER, JOHN HAJDU, ed. Lully Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.
Review: B. Gooch in SCN 60:1 (2002), 140–148: Eleven essays covering a range of subjects, including Lully's biography and style, reaction to his work, and theatre design. P. Ranum relates Lully's rise to power and efforts to maintain that power. B. Harris-Warwick studies phrase structure in dance music. B. Norman analyzes Quinault's libretto for Isis, outlining plot, tracing precursors, and identifying the work's uniqueness. Other essays deal with the role of the pastoral; the performance of Alceste in Strasbourg; and Lully's influence on subsequent artists. The reviewer praises all the essays as "superbly documented and well-written" and calls the book "a superlative addition" to Lully scholarship.
Review: P. Gethner in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 259–262: "The eleven essays are of very high quality and contain a huge amount of useful material." They include: a "foreword by the late James R. Anthony that briefly traces the evolution of Lully scholarship," as well as essays by J. de la Gorce on Lully's genealogy and his relationship with his family, P. Ranum on Lully's careful protection of his privilège, B. Norman on Isis as an experimental form, J. S. Powell on the pastoral elements in the collaborations of Lully and Molière, B. Coeyman, who offers a "detailed walk-through of the Palais Royal opera house," L. Rosow on Lully's techniques for heightening emotion, R. Harris-Warwick on Lully's treatment of standard dance forms, C. B. Schmidt on "the publication of Lully scores in Amsterdam," C. Cessac on the "concert performance of portions of Alceste in Strasbourg, H. Schneider's on Lully and Gluck, and M. Couvreur on Lully and Proust. "All in all, this is an enjoyable and informative collection that belongs in every academic library."
POISSON, GEORGES & FRANCOISE CHANDERNAGOR. Maintenon. Paris: Norma, 2001.
Review: BCLF 635 (2002), 84: Ouvrage "savant et distrayant" de G. Poisson, "conservateur général du patrimoine et expert en histoire de l'Architecture à l'âge classique," et de F. Chandernagor, auteur de L'Allée du roi (1981). "Maintenon repose sur l'idée heureuse d'associer l'histoire architecturale du château de Maintenon à celle de Françoise d'Aubigné, qui en fit l'acquisition en 1674, et qui se vit conférer peu de temps après, par le roi, le nom de Madame de Maintenon. Ce sont donc l'histoire politique et les Beaux Arts qui sont ici conjugués dans un livre dont la présentation n'est pas faite pour dissimuler le manque de rigueur scientifique."
SABA, GUIDO. "Georges de Scudéry et Jean Mairet, éditeurs de Théophile de Viau." TL 14 (2001), 189–203. Analysis, by today's preeminent editor and critic of Théophile, of the latter's two 17th c. editors, Scudéry for Théophile's oeuvres and Mairet for Théophile's correspondence. Saba carefully examines pertinent paratexts, provides complete descriptions of 17th c. editions, refers the reader to critics of Scudéry and Mairet for studies on the influence of Théophile on them, and declares that if Saba's efforts "sont d'un intérêt certain. . . la part qui revient à Jean Mairet est. . . plus importante" (201). Convincingly demonstrates that instead of being a recueil "monstrueux de désordre" (Antoine Adam), Mairet's edition was representative of 17th c. norms; thanks to Mairet, 72 letters in French and 23 in Latin as well as the heroic L'Epistre d'Actéon à Diane were preserved, texts which "se révèlent comme des documents précieux sur sa biographie morale et intellectuelle" (203).
TOMLINSON, PHILIP. "Jean Mairet and Henri II de Montmorency, or What's a Poet Worth?" Some New Evidence." PFSCL 28. 54 (2001), 31–44.
Review: S. Costa in SFr 135 (2001), 633–634: Presents a corrective to biographical and historical documentation on Mairet and his patron (Mairet was the duke's official poet and secretary). Mairet is seen as an atypical example of writers of his time (Tomlinson details his life of privation).
NADLER, STEVEN, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Malebranche. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Review: S. Peppers in PhQ 52 (April 2002), 258–261: "A welcome revival of Malebranche studies outside France." Content can be divided into three broad groupings: metaphysics / epistemology; moral theory, theodicy and philosophy of religion; and the philosophical and historical context for Malebranche's thought.
CARLIN, CLAIRE. "Les Sœurs Mancini en Méditerranée." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 321–335.
An account of Hortense and Marie Mancini's flight from their miserable marriages to the region of the Mediterranean, based on a study of the sisters' memoirs, and in particular Marie's La Vérité dans son jour. Carlin follows Marie to Paris, where she requests the king's permission to establish herself in the city, and her eventual departure from Paris for Marseille. According to Carlin, the account demonstrates that, "Ce ne sont pas des Françaises et leur conduite aberrante les marque comme Autre, et l'Autre doit être moqué et supprimé, car l'Autre fait peur-surtout si cet Autre est une femme qui refuse de se conformer aux normes sociales."
CARLIN, CLAIRE. "Les Sœurs Mancini en Méditerranée." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 321–335.
An account of Hortense and Marie Mancini's flight from their miserable marriages to the region of the Mediterranean, based on a study of the sisters' memoirs, and in particular Marie's La Vérité dans son jour. Carlin follows Marie to Paris, where she requests the king's permission to establish herself in the city, and her eventual departure from Paris for Marseille. According to Carlin, the account demonstrates that, "Ce ne sont pas des Françaises et leur conduite aberrante les marque comme Autre, et l'Autre doit être moqué et supprimé, car l'Autre fait peur—surtout si cet Autre est une femme qui refuse de se conformer aux normes sociales."
BRAY, BERNARD. "Entre le Grand Seigneur et Louis le Grand, L'Espion turc de Jean-Paul Marana et ses observations méditerranéennes." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 243–256.
A study of the first versions of Marana's work (1684), which contain thirty letters by the author, in which Marana, in his missives to Constantinople, regularly makes reference to the Franco-Spanish conflict taking place, at least in part, in the Mediterranean. Bray studies "les procédés qu'utilise Marana pour concilier deux vraisemblances en apparence incompatibles: d'une part celle des message que l'espion adresse au Grand Vizir, au Kaïmakan . . . ou au Capitan Bassa. . . et d'autre part la vraisemblance attachée au projet affiché par Marana en tête de son ouvrage: obtenir la protection de Louis XIV grâce à un récit mettant en valeur les victoires de ses soldats et de ses marins, et en fin de compte sa supériorité sur les autres souverains européens."
SCHRENCK, GILBERT. "Marguerite de Valois et son monde, ou la chambre bruissante." Vie des salons et activités littéraires, de Marguerite de Valois à Mme de Staël. Actes du colloque de Nancy. Nancy: PU de Nancy, 2001.
NIDERST, ALAIN. "Madeleine de Scudéry, Ménage et Pellisson, éditeurs de Sarasin." TL 14 (2001), 233–242.
Close commentary and analysis of the Sarasin edition reveals that it demonstrates "que les temps ont changé et qu'un nouveau monde commence" (242). By what is included and omitted and by the paratexts, the reader can also arrive at "une définition de la véritable préciosité" (241). Including a number of inédits and omitting several early obtainable texts, the edition's guiding principle seems to have been "plaire aux habitués des Samedis et à leur temps" (238).
MOMBELLO, GIANNI. "Le Recueil trilingue de Jean Meslier (Paris, 1629)." SFr 134 (2001), 222–250.
Impressively argued and documented ground-breaking study focuses on Jean Meslier's recueil of Aesop's fables, published five times during the 17th c. Mombello describes in detail the content of Meslier's volume, its focus (Meslier's intent was to "mettre en vedette" his French version), and its judicious pedagogical reflections. Mombello characterizes Meslier's style as "imagé et naturel" (231) and furnishes a list of particular locutions (searchable via FRANTEXT) (231–238). Although Mombello does not insist that Meslier's recueil was one of La Fontaine's sources, he suggests that further research might well demonstrate such an influence.
ARNAUD, VANESSA H. "Gossip as Surveillance in Molière's The Misanthrope." PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 407–416.
"This paper explores how gossip functions as an invisible force of surveillance in the fabricated world of Molière's Le Misanthrope," in particular, "the subtle use of gossip" to negotiate "relations of power. It functions as a means of discipline, serves as a form of art for self-enhancement, generates close alliances, or masks malice and jealousy." With particular reference to Louis XIV's Mémoires, Arnaud posits that the hidden king's power is "enacted through the surveillance and gossip of his subjects."
BAADER, RENATE, éd. and trans. Molière: Les Précieuses ridicules. Comédie. Die lächerlichen Preziösen. Komödie. Französisch/Deutsch. Mit einer Anthologie preziöser Texte von Mlle de Scudéry. Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun., 1997.
Review: B. Oetjen in Archiv 237 (2000), 445–447: Richly informative, Baader's volume includes her new distinguished translation of Molière's play as well as a translation of important précieux texts of Mlle de Scudéry. Baader's insightful inclusion of the latter and her commentary correctly differentiates Molière's characterization from "la véritable préciosité" of Scudéry which incorporates the ideal of honnêteté.
BASCHERA, MARCO. Théâtralité dans l'oeuvre de Molière. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17 #108), 1998.
Review: E. Minel in RHL 102.2 (2002), 340–41: Analyzes "la réflexion comique interne aux comédies de Molière," concentrating specifically on the tensions between Italian styles and the "textuality" of French theater, and between the dissimulating "mask" and identifying "character." Also insists that Molière's theater "marque la 《 brisure 》 ontologique entre texte et parole."
BOURQUI, CLAUDE. "Molière interprète de tragédies hagiographiques". Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France (jan.–fév. 2001), 21–35.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 135 (2001), 638: Reassessment of this body of work examines lexical keys and structure as well as public taste. Molière's l'Illustre Théâtre by its introduction of the comédien martyr may have provided a certain apology for the theatre.
BRAIDER, CHRISTOPHER. "Image and Imaginaire in Molière's Sganarelle, ou le cocu imaginaire." PMLA 117.5 (2002), 1142–1157.
"The image in Le cocu imaginaire thus occasions reflection on the comic and critical potential of the relation between things and pictures and thus between bodies and minds. . . The pertinacity with which. . . Molière's play challenges the dualist underpinnings of classical representation leads to still-wider issues, bearing on the status of royal imagery, on the image's ambiguous place in contemporary logic, and on its even more ambiguous role in early modern theology, an intellectual discipline to which, despite the era's growing secularism, all others remain subordinate."
CAINES, MICHAEL. Performance review of Tartuffe: A new translation by Ranjit Bolt. Dir. by Lindsay Posner. Lyttleton Theatre. TLS 5163 (Mar 15 2002), 20.
"Vibrant new translation" which is "quirkly energetic" and takes "some wonderfully irreverent liberties with the French." Performance reminds us that Tartuffe has something to say about stardom and that Orgon swaps one idol for another.
DANDREY, PATRICK. Molière et la maladie imaginaire ou De la mélancolie hypocondriaque. Vol. 2 of La Médecine et la maladie dans le théâtre de Molière. Paris: Klincksieck, 1998.
Review: J. P. Gilroy in FR 75, 6 (2002), 1275–76: Examines different forms of hypocondrie mélancolique as they are defined and discussed in medical authorities such as Hippocrates and Galen, and shows how Molière demonstrated a mastery of the science he ridiculed so often in his theater. Dandrey shows that the medical treatments recommended by Argan's physicians and the disguised Toinette are derived from contemporary medical literature. The volume contains thorough analyses of Le Malade imaginaire and Monsieur de Pourceaugnac in the context of sickness and monomanie, and suggests that Béralde's "comments about medicine's inability to uncover the secrets of nature might be part of a larger structure of skepticism in Molière concerning all traditional belief-systems."
Review: Ph.-J. Salazar in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 524–526: "Ouvrage monumental. . . [et] quasi 《 monstrueux 》 par ses dimensions, presque 1 700 pages de texte, de citations, de références, une Astrée d'érudition." Indeed, Salazar supposes that, because of its length, the book will never be translated into English. "D'où son importance accrue pour les études internationales sur le théâtre du XVIIe en général et sur l'esthétique de l'Early Modern period." First volume treats "les comédies dans lesquelles le personnage de Sganarelle fait travailler l'idéologie médicale. . . Pour Dandrey, Sganarelle est une culture de l'imposture dont les mécanismes linguistiques, idéologiques, culturels et sociaux sont à chercher dans la mise en scène d'un savoir de la médecine et des praticiens." Salazar lauds in particular Dandrey's work on "l'anthropologie classique des passions" in the second chapter of the second part of this work. The second volume concentrates on Le Malade imaginaire and Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, and Dandrey "fait remonter tout le fond carnavalesque d'une part et d'autre part cathartique du 《 concept improbable 》 de maladie imaginaire, afin d'exposer . . . l'idéologie classique du 《 Pouvoir de l'imagination 》. . . et celle 《 Du délire 》." State of the art bibliography.
DANDREY, PATRICK, ed. Molière. Trois comédies morales: Le Misanthrope, George Dandin, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. Paris: Klincksieck, 1999.
Review: E. Minel in RHL 102.2 (2002), 340: Anthology of 12 articles dating from 1968 or later on "la fabrique du texte comique," "la diversité des formes," "rapports du comique et de la société," and "rapports du théâtre et de la morale." Pro forma review lauds editor's clear presentation.
DEJEAN, JOAN, ed. Molière. Le Festin de pierre (Dom Juan). Edition du texte d'Amsterdam (1683). Genève: Droz, 1999.
Review: M.-Fr. Hilgar in FR 76, 1 (2002), 121–22: Reproduces for the first time since the seventeenth century the original, uncensored version of Dom Juan published in Amsterdam in 1683. In a lengthy introduction, DeJean traces the history of the play's alterations and publication, including Thomas Corneille's 1681 version in verse of the play under its original title, Le Festin de Pierre, the 1682 version under the new title Dom Juan, and the 1683 Dutch version. The introduction includes discussions of differences between multiple copies of the same 1682 edition, as well as the history of the 1683 Amsterdam reconstruction of the text. This 1999 edition includes in an appendix all of the scenes that were censored in 1682, as well as several of the scenes rewritten in verse by Thomas Corneille. "Cette nouvelle édition sera fort appréciée."
DOSMOND, SIMONE. "Corneille, Molière et Thalie." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 403–412.
Study compares Corneille's comedies to Molière's comic œuvre in an attempt to identify "ce qui fait la spécificité de deux auteurs" with particular attention to each dramatist's characters, style, and comic devices.
DOSMOND, SIMONE. "Le Vers libre dans l'Agésilas de Corneille et l'Amphitryon de Molière." CAIEF no. 52 (2000), 279–293.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 133 (2001), 140–141: A communication from the AIEF's day devoted to versification of theatrical works, Dosmond's analysis underscores the originality of Agésilas and the audacity of Amphitryon.
FERNEY, FREDERIC. Performance review of Amphitryon, mise-en-scène, Anatoli Vassiliev, Comédie Française, printemps 2002. Le Point 1538 (2002), 122.
"Vassiliev met de l'Orient, des rites et des simagrées dans la farce. Pis: il dévoie le matérialisme enchanté de Molière dans une parabole eucharistique."
FERNEY, FREDERIC. Performance review of Dom Juan, ou le festin de pierre, mise-en scène, Daniel Mesguich, Athénée-Théâtre Louis-Jouvet, mars–avril 2002. Le Point 1540 (2002), 120.
"S'il fait de Sganarelle un clown, s'il transforme Monsieur Dimanche en juif pieux, s'il assoit le Pierrot de Molière sur un croissant de lune et lance des sirènes aux trousses de Dom Juan, il parvient cette fois à nous surprendre et à nous émouvoir."
FINN, THOMAS P. "Dueling Capitalism in Molière: Cornering the Corner Markets." PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 23–32.
Presents Molière's characters as "emblematic" of the "shift from a feudalist mind set to a more capitalist society" because, in their world, "the law of supply and demand begins to supplant a social structure in which only one entity has the capacity to set value and eliminate competition of dissident voices." Particular reference to Arnolphe and Alceste. Includes analysis of cost/benefit analysis, the economics of absence, equitable exchange, etc.
GAINES, JAMES F. "Enlightenment Obfuscations: Molière Among the Philosophes." PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 397–405.
Studies the philosophes' "retrospective interpretation of Molière as a continuation of the obfuscation that prevailed in a nation that had already grown too used to statist economic subterfuge by the 1720's." With particular reference to Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau.
LE ROUX, MONIQUE. Performance review of Sganarelle ou le cocu imaginaire, mise en scène de Thierry Hancisse at the Studio-Théâtre of the Comédie Française, January–February 2002. QL 822 (du 1er au 15 janvier 2002).
Hancisse "donne un joli rôle à Julie Sicard, nouvelle jeune pensionnaire si douée. Surtout il confère au personnage de la suivante (Sylvie Bergé) une présence dense et muette, au-delà de ses brèves confidences de femme solitaire, qui est d'un vrai metteur en scène."
LIM, CHAE-KWANG. "Le jeu comique de Molière et de sa troupe, est-il naturel ou excessif? La contribution du langage corporel à l'intelligence dramatique de ses pièces." RHT 53.4 (2001), 283–298.
A study of how Molière creates "l'illusion du naturel dans des situations comiques invraisemblables" through the use of rhetoric, facial expression, gesture and "mimetic distance."
MALACHY, THERESE. "Les 'monstres' de Molière." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (juillet–sept. 2000), 235–240.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 135 (2001), 638: Supported by theories of Aristotle and Bergson on comedy, Malachy analyzes Molière's plays where extravagance is tied to monstrosity. Molière the actor is also taken into consideration, with gestures and grimaces revealing the folie in question.
MASKELL, DAVID. "Terence, Tabarin and Molière's Fourberies de Scapin." FS 56.3 (2002), 303–315.
Explores "the neglected Terentian elements in Les Fourberies de Scapin" through a rhetorical reading of the play; demonstrates that the work is "a joyful celebration of the power of words," and not merely Tabarinesque farce. Maskell concludes that Les Fourberies "implicitly asserts and actually demonstrates that Molière is attached to the alliance of Terence and Tabarin as a comic principle."
MAZOUER, CHARLES, ed. Trois comédies de Molière: Etudes sur Le Misanthrope, George Dandin, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. Paris: Klincksieck, 1999.
Review: J. Mallinson in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 543–544: Selection of texts "occasional. . . but not arbitrary." "Charles Mazouer's book serves two immediate aims: to indicate points of entry into these texts which will bring out the inherent interest and complexity of each, and to suggest what links them at thematic and aesthetic levels." Mazouer "covers much familiar territory," including literary background, themes, and other literary considerations, including performance. "Mazouer [also] raises other, more open-ended problems of analysis or interpretation. . . The result is a study which offers a good deal of insights into three specific texts, but which also, and more significantly, opens up many fertile and extensive areas to explore. . ."
Review: E. Minel in RHL 102.2 (2002), 340: Editor disagrees with the artificiality of the grouping of these three comedies, imposed by the Agrégation, and seeks to show "l'originalité de chaque oeuvre" (CM). Book consists, then, of 3 autonomous studies, and includes a copious bibliography, a discography, and references to Lully's partitions.
MCBRIDE, ROBERT, ed. Molière. L'imposteur de 1667 prédécesseur du Tartuffe. Durham: University of Durham Press, 1999.
Review: C. Bourqui in RHL 101.6 (2001), 1662–63: Editor proposes to reconstruct the missing 1667 version of Tartuffe using the Lettre sur la comédie de l'imposteur, which he previously edited, as a basis. While the result cannot, by the nature of the task, truly be an "edition critique," reviewer judges that the work — "la meilleure approximation possible ... de la seconde version du Tartuffe" — has "un intérêt incontestable," without saying exactly what this is. Lauds especially the annotation of the text, calling it "une mine d'informations."
Review: J.-P. Collinet in SFr 134 (2001), 396: An "entreprise risquée" but praiseworthy by this "fin connaisseur" of Molière attempts a reconstruction of the original production. Ingenious attempt and careful study also attributes, plausibly, the Lettre to François de la Mothe le Vayer.
Review: M.-Fr. Hilgar in FR 75, 6 (2002), 1276–77: Based on the precise and detailed description of L'Imposteur contained in the Lettre sur la comédie de l'Imposteur, this audacious, but convincing study demonstrates that L'Imposteur and the later Tartuffe were two very different works rather than the same play as critics have often suggested. McBride argues that the author of the Lettre was La Mothe Le Vayer, and that the 1667 version was more salacious than Tartuffe.
MERON, EVELYNE. "Molière et Corneille: Dom Garcie de Navarre." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 389–401.
Citing her preference for Molière's play over Corneille's Don Sanche d'Aragon, Méron seeks to "dégager quelques caractères originaux de la jalousie selon cette pièce." Méron then compares the play to Shakespeare's Othello, Lafayette's Princesse de Clèves, and Corneille's play.
NORMAN, LARRY F. The Public Mirror: Molière and the Social Commerce of Depiction. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
Review: C. Bourqui in RHL 101.6 (2001), 1665–67: Book examines the paradox of the much vaunted "corrective" function of comedy, which caused Molière's audience to "établir un rapport inédit avec la production d'un auteur comique." Starting from the observation that Molière's work contains a startling number of portraits of all kinds, including of himself, book tends to center on Le Misanthrope as an interrogation of the function an utility of portraits, which always end up being excessive or uncontrollable. Notes that the author has eschewed all diachronic or evoluative analysis, as well as a material approach to Molière's production, in favor of "un grand principe explicatif." Reviewer hypothesizes that the larger context of portraits—salon culture and Scudéry in particular—seems crucial to the subject, but is more or less ignored. Nonetheless, the book "servira de référence à chaque fois qu'il sera question de portrait et de public chez Molière," and notes that the book's "euro-compatibilité" (in its use of both French and American research) should ensure a French readership.
Review: K. Gounaridou in SCN 60:1 (2002), 69–72: An in-depth study of satire in Molière's œuvre, this book is divided into three parts: "Creation," "Recognition," and "Dramaturgy." The first section argues for the inextricable link between representation and reception, suggesting that the former may have been "the public's own portrait of their social commerce as a site of depiction," citing honnêteté as emblematic of this process. Part two examines the "spectacle of self-recognition" in Molière's work, and part three argues for satire as the driving force of dramatic conflict. "Intelligent and innovative," Norman's analysis sees Molière's comedy "as a baroque self-reflexive mirror in which the spectator becomes aware of the nature of self-discovery and the fashioning of his or her identity."
Review: R. Tobin in DSS 212 (2001), 560: Reviewer characterizes Norman's approach as innovative insofar as he transforms the commonplace about genres—that we identify with tragic characters and distance ourselves from comic characters. Norman argues rather that spectators identify with the actors "dans un acte de participation narcissique." Norman's analysis, beginning with Critique de l'Ecole des femmes, examines how "les specatateurs négocient l'espace qui les sépare intellectuellement et émotionnellement de la scène." Although the reviewer notes Norman devotes less attention to the plays following Le Misanthrope, he concludes "son livre reste une étude incontournable, dont les implications intéresseront les spécialistes du XVIIe siècle, les théoriciens de la comédie et tous ceux pour qui l'art est au fond un reflet de la société."
Review: E. Woodrough in MLR 97.1 (2002), 185–86: "The mirror, like the portrait, already one of the most fruitful areas of seventeenth-century research in recent years, is a convenient metaphor for Larry F. Norman's investigation of Molière's satirical purpose in the major and minor 'sitcoms' he writes about salon life, but is perhaps a little overplayed in the text."
PARENT, BRICE. Variations comiques ou les récritures de Molière par lui-même. Paris: Klincksieck, 2000.
Review: C. Bourqui in RHL 101.6 (2001), 1667–68: Examines the fact that "Molière se répète," not as proof of lack of inventiveness, but as a principle of variation and "récriture" which is Molière's "principe poétique" (BP). "[U]n ouvrage compact et dense" that is productive of key plays—Le Misanthrope, Dandin—which may not exploit fully all of the consequences of the thesis.
Review: J.-P. Collinet in SFr 134 (2001), 397. Collinet suggests that "retraitement" or "remploi" would be more exact for Parent's volume which is clearly and agreably written. The analyses are solid, stimulating and pertinent; Parent studies "micro récritures," "macro récritures" or "travail d'amélioration," and "motifs ou récritures scéniques." This rewriting is also developed in other sections which demonstrates its necessity, its creativity and its poetic principle. The critical apparatus includes tables of récritures and a bibliography.
PETERS, JEFFREY N. "The Rhetoric of Adornment in Le Misanthrope." FR 75.4 (2002), 708–719.
Argues that the central themes of Molière's play are organized around an ancient metaphor that compared eloquent expression to ostentatious attire. Described in the seventeenth century "as either a conceptually reliable conveyor of ideas or a suspicious form of vacuous decoration, eloquentia constituted the figural clothing of the body of speech." In the play, "Alceste's argument that truth can be located behind the duplicitous masks of social interaction invokes the early modern ambivalence with regard to this rhetorical tradition, and construes the ornatus as a form of linguistic apparel that deforms the literal and hides an absence of social merit."
PINEAU, JOSEPH. Le Théâtre de Molière: une dynamique de la liberté. Paris: Minard, 2000.
Review: C. Bourqui in RHL 101.6 (2001), 1668–69: A complete and chronological overview of Molière's production organized around the theme of dynamism. Taking up a familiar idea of Molière criticism, author puts forth a vision of the playwright as defender of comic sense, and adversary of pretension of all kinds. Lapidary summary of positions suggests reviewer may not agree. But "les propos tenus sont en constant dialogue avec la plupart des ouvrages phares de la critique molièresque," and book contains an exhaustive bibliography.
Review: J.-P. Collinet in SFr 135 (2001), 637–638: The subtitle represents the common denominator Pineau has found and elucidated throughout this "bel et suggestif essai" (637). Pineau analyzes the psychology of characters, the structure of dramatic action and dialogue, recapping in a vigorous synthesis his results.
Review: J. P. Gilroy in FR 75.4 (2002), 780–81: A "highly readable overview of the complete dramatic works of Molière" that "provides many valuable insights into themes and structural techniques that occur throughout the whole body of Molière's works." Argues that Molière's highest ideal is "an inner maturity and freedom that enable an individual to enter into fulfilling relationships with other people." Also provides "a very perceptive analysis of the typical structure of a Molière comedy, as fixed in Tartuffe."
Review: R. Horville in RSH 263.3 (2001), 265–267: The author has achieved the difficult goal of finding an original critical perspective on such an author. He follows the theme of the exaltation of liberty as a fundamental element in Molière's theater. He demonstrates how concepts of freedom come into play at different levels of Molière's creative process.
Review: R. McBride in FS 56.1 (2002), 93–94: "The Molière who emerges from this unpretentious, well-informed and lively study is... a perceptive observer of society whose comedy stems from infantilism in characters who exclude themselves from an art of civility knowing no class boundaries. Full of insight into characterization, with a succinct summary of the comic movement in each play, this study presents its theme in a cogent and attractive manner."
PREST, JULIA, éd. Molière. Le Mariage forcé. Exeter: UEP, 1999.
Review: C. Bourqui in RHL 101.6 (2001), 1664–65: Play presents an interesting editorial problem, because it has three different versions. Reproduces spelling and punctuation of the original, and presentation of text differs from Couton's Pléiade only in its chronological basis. Editor gives little information on choreography, but pays much attention to musical questions surrounding the comédie-ballet (while not reproducing the original partitions).
Review: W. Brooks in MLR 96.4 (2001), 1073–74: Welcome critical edition explores "what can be gleaned from the admittedly incomplete musical and choreographical evidence in respect of Le Mariage forcé, Molière's second comédie-ballet, and offers . . . the first holistic appreciation of it. In the course of her study, Prest not only demonstrates that Molière conceived it as an integrated whole, in other words, not as a play with crudely interpolated ballet interludes, but also shows how much its reliance on the fusion of different art forms was designed to please Louis XIV."
Review: J.-P. Collinet in SFr 134 (2001), 396–397: A study which is "minutieuse et bien informée" and which demonstrates the "malléabilité" of the play complements this edition. Of importance to specialists in fine arts (since the play knew three stages, accompanied by music successively by Lully and Charpentier, and in the first version, choreography by Beauchamp). Molière's own evolution is as remarkable as the play's.
Review: B. Norman in FR 75, 2 (2001), 365–66: Presents the three different versions of Molière's second comedy-ballet and first full-scale collaboration with Lully. Includes the complete text of both the livret and the 1668 edition, as well as the arrangement of the musical numbers in the 1672 version based on a thoughtful argument for one possible combination of Le Mariage forcé with La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas. This is "a useful compact edition . . . that presents or describes the major sources, summarizes the context in which they were created, and suggests many possibilities for fruitful future research."
Review: n.a. in FMLS 37 (2001), 476: Judged "an honest edition" within the limits of the Textes littéraires series format. Welcomes this edition of a text not so readily available otherwise, which also discusses textual evolutions. Missing is the musical score and commentary on the dances.
ROBIN, JEAN LUC. "La chute de la maison Orgon: mercantilisme et économie symbolique dans Tartuffe." PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 33–46.
"La présente analyse du Tartuffe a pour objet les rapports économiques envisages dans leur dimension symbolique." Posits a "double geste" on the part of Molière: in his theater, "Molière . . . met à jour l'essence de l'économie au XVIIe siècle;. . . [et] en offrant sur son theater une tribune au pouvoir, il dévoile la fonction authentique de l'économie dans l'édifice culturel de la civilisation classique."
SCOTT, VIRGINIA. Molière, A Theatrical Life. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.
Review: F. Assaf in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 571–573: Book "presents in highly detailed fashion the life of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin as a theatre man in seventeenth-century France." Scott's intent is "to introduce to her English-speaking readers Molière and those who came in contact with him. The book is clearly aimed at those with no familiarity with French literature or history." Scott argues "that Molière's plays do provide clues to his own life and passions, and, somehow, tell, or help tell, a story of his life." The book includes chapters on Molière's antecedents, "Madeline Béjart and her antecedents," the beginnings of Molière's troupe, the time spent in the provinces, and the difficulties upon returning to Paris. Various other chapters attempt to "correlate the plays' contents with the evolution of Molière's life and his relationship with Louis XIV, his fellow troupe members, and Lully." The book "offers a vivid picture of Molière as a living, breathing human being" the envoi at the end "deals with the aftermath of Molière's death. Reviewer laments "numerous typos" in this re-edition of Scott's 1999 work.
Review: W. D. Howarth in ThR 27 (2002), 216–217: Study "presents a rounded and sympathetic portrait of Molière the actor, the playwright and the human being." Chapters on Molière's early years require much speculation, and Scott is honest in distinguishing such speculation from fact. She handles the various cabals and relationships with men of letters well. Howarth particularly praises her treatment of Molière's marriage. "Scott succeeds in doing full justice to both partners."
SERROY, JEAN. "Molière méditerranéen." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 219–230.
Serroy reconsiders Molière's œuvre "en choisissant ce petit bout de la lorgnette que constitue le rétroviseur des années méditerranéennes." He concludes, "Certes, l'œuvre de Molière ne fait qu'une place secondaire à cette Méditerranée largement tributaire de stéréotypes, de références et de convention," asking, "Faut-il penser que [Molière] les a associés [ces stéréotypes, etc.], fut-ce inconsciemment, à l'image d'un bonheur vécu avec sa troupe, lors de ces longues années passées à sillonner les routes du midi?"
SLATER, MAYA, ed. and trans. Molière: The Misanthrope, Tartuffe and Other Plays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Review: D. Shaw in MLR 97.2 (2002), 427–428: "With its companion volume, this collection is clearly designed to compete with the two-volume translation of Molière's major plays published by Penguin Classics in 2000, and Maya Slater's attempt at translating Molière into verse generally works well. The collection contains translations of L'Ecole des Femmes, Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope, and Les Femmes savantes, as well as La Critique de L'Ecole des Femmes and L'Impromptu de Versailles."
WEBER, BRUCE. Performance review of Tartuffe, adapted and directed by Jeff Cohen, TriBeCa Playhouse, winter 2002. NYT 1-29-2002, Section E, Column 2, Page 5.
Set in 1930's Manhattan, the play, the reviewer notes, seems to fit well with the aftermath of Sept. 11, with its anti-fanatic message. "This is a genial 'Tartuffe,' full of flaws and a little on the sophomoric side but ingratiating nonetheless."
PITTS, VINCENT J. La Grande Mademoiselle at the Court of France (1627–1693). Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins UP, 2000.
Review: M. Stefanovska in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 269–271: Reviewer calls Pitts' work a "balanced, sensitive, scholarly yet readable biography" in which he "perfectly seizes" his subject's "idiosyncrasies." The work combines biography with historical and literary study, a combination that is not without tension, particularly in the struggle between thematic and chronological presentation. Pitts "provides a critical reassessment of the place that Mademoiselle's Memoirs should occupy in historical and literary scholarship," and the edition "fills a deplorable lack of a contemporary scholarly edition of Mademoiselle's collected works," including "references to countless contemporary documents, an extensive literary and historical bibliography, documentation on the reconstruction of Saint-Fargeau, and. . . a detailed Appendix" on Mademoiselle's fortune. Pitts' work has the merits of "objectivity and nuance" and is "a most welcome contribution both to studies on early modern historical memoirs and to contemporary scholarship on women's writing."
KRAMER, M. "La Comédie des proverbes et les Curiositez françaises d'A. Oudin; un lien privilégié." PFSCL XXVII, 53 (2000), 489–499.
Review: C. Bernazzoli in SFr 133 (2001), 139: Convincing analysis of the two works, both quantitative and qualitative, demonstrates that the Comédie is the direct and immediate source of the Curiositez.
BOUCHILLOUX, HELENE. "Apologie et théologie dans les Pensées de Pascal." RPFE 1142.1 (jan–mars 2002), 3–19.
Bouchilloux montre "1 / que la réflexion pascalienne sur l'art de persuader exclut une persuasion sans conversion, puis 2 / qu'en dissociant efficacité et utilité des preuves, les Pensées ne visent autre chose qu'à faire apercevoir une vérité qu'on ne saurait pourtant recevoir sans une humiliation de la raison et une conversion du cœur."
FERREYROLLES, GERARD, éd. Pascal. Pensées. Paris: Libraire générale française, 2000.
Review: B. Papàsogli in SFr 135 (2001), 639–640: Happy marriage of the text established by Philippe Sellier and Ferreyrolles's excellent philological study. The critical apparatus includes Ferreyrolles's "densa introduzione", abundant annotation, a chronology, a glossary, analytical index and a table of concordances. Vital and accessible edition for students and scholars alike.
FERREYROLLES, GERARD. "Les Païens dans la stratégie argumentative de Pascal." RPFE 1142.1 (jan–mars 2002), 21–40.
Ferreyrolles compare le statut des païens dans les Pensées et dans les Provinciales pour arriver à la conclusion que "les Pensées reconnaissent une valeur aux sentiments, aux lois, et même à la religion, des païens," ce qui signifie "la validité de l'instance naturelle" et ce qui établit entre les deux œuvres "une continuité qui met à mal la thèse de la prétendue 'rupture idéologique.'"
HILLEN, SABINE. "《 Je ne suis pas donc je cogite 》 : un face à face Pascal-Perec." Orbis Litterarum 57.1 (2002), 52–74.
A rapprochement of the apparently neutral writing of Pascal and Perec which refutes the substantialist notion of the subject. The author argues that Pascal hides behind the canvas of his thoughts, and when he does appear in Les Pensées, he admits the impossibility of knowing himself.
LE GUERN, MICHEL. "Le tri des papiers, le tri des arguments." RPFE 1142.1 (jan–mars 2002), 41–54.
"Le tri des papiers et le tri des arguments manifestent chez Pascal une attention constamment contrée sur le destinataire. Ce qui l'intéresse, ce n'est pas la virtuosité de la démonstration ou le plaisir d'avoir raison dans le débat. [...] Les arguments qui ont en eux-mêmes une valeur probante, mais qui ne sont pas adaptés à la psychologie du destinataire" sont écartés.
MAREK, HEIDI. "Pascal im Bade: Jean-Philippe Toussaints La Salle de bain und La télévision." RF 113 (2001), 38–58.
Argues against the prevalent view that Toussaint's work is "un roman ludique, dépourvu de profondeur" by developing the important intertextual relation with Pascal's Pensées. Marek demonstrates the key role of the latter, quoted in 10 extracts in the novel. Of particular importance are reflections on "mouvement" and "immobilité" (47).
MICHON, HÉLÈNE. "L'Irreprésentable dans les Pensées de Pascal." RHL 102.1 (2002), 33–43.
Author argues that Pascal modifies the traditional conception of the unrepresentable, which becomes the universe, and man himself, rather than God. For Pascal, the Incarnation is the model of representation, an act by which God's presence becomes comprehensible.
PASQUA, HERVE. Blaise Pascal, penseur de la grâce. Paris: Téqui, 2000.
Review: H. Michon in DSS 213 (2001), 728–729: A brief and accessible study of Les Pensées and Ecrits sur la grâce. The reviewer notes that Pasqua offers little that is new but commends the thematic organization (e.g., "la nature déchue," "liberté"), "préalable désormais très utile à l'étude suivie du texte." The reviewer also praises the author's detailed discussion and analysis of the key concepts at the heart of theological debates about grâce, citing a wide range of authors in addition to Pascal.
PECHARMAN, MARTINE, ed. Pascal: qu'est-ce que la vérité? Paris: PUF, 2000.
Review: N. Hammond in FS 56.2 (2002), 237–238: A collection of essays dealing with Pascal's treatment of truth. Articles by Pierre Magnard, Jean-Pierre Cléro, Hélène Bouchilloux, Christian Lazzeri, Bernard Sève and Martine Pécharman; subjects include Pascal's theory of fictions, phenomenal truth, pyrrhonism, and truth as a "destination morale." Missing are a bibliography and "reference to the not-inconsiderable secondary research in both French and English on precisely the book's subject," but otherwise the reviewer finds the collection "excellent."
RILEY, PATRICK. "Blaise Pascal, Jeanne Guyon, and the Paradoxes of the moi haïssable." PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 223–240.
Considers "the relation between religious ideologies of the self in Pascal and Madame Guyon, and the practice of autobiography." Asks "how it is possible to produce such a thing as a Quietist autobiography, how it is possible to write about a self whose very existence is denied in principle, how it is possible to create a first-person narrative recounting the erasure of subjectivity and its purported replacement in the soul by the presence of God." Concludes that Guyon writes "the self's epitaph."
STEINBERGER, DEBORAH, ed. Françoise Pascal. Le Commerce du Parnasse. Exeter: U of Exeter Press, 2001.
Review: P. Gethner in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 281–282: "This collection of letters (apparently a genuine correspondence) between Françoise Pascal and various acquaintances provides what is no doubt a faithful reflection of the tone of conversation and poetry produced in salon groups during the second half of the seventeenth century." Allows access to aspects of Pascal's personality. An appendix includes four poems by Pascal, "including an eloquent statement of the emotional response she has to theatrical performances. . . and a condemnation of beautiful women who fail to perceive how their lack of education and good sense detracts from their reputation. The editor also includes a liminary poem composed by Tersandre. . . for Pascal's tragicomedy Sésostris." "The useful introduction gives biographical information about Françoise Pascal, explains what is historically significant about this collection, and pinpoints the feminist component of her thought."
MILLER, PETER N. Peiresc's Europe: Learning and Virtue in the Seventeenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
Review: N. Hammerstein in HZ 273 (2001), 765–766: Scholarship and knowledge are considered as virtue in this study of Peiresc as a prototype of late Humanism. Peiresc's own literary production, ideals and character are examined, as are those of his circle.
Review: E. Reeves in RenQ 54 (2001), 1618–1621: Judged "an excellent contribution to early modern intellectual and social history," Miller's volume includes chapters which focus on Gassendi's biography of Peiresc, Peiresc's exemplarity and collegiality reflecting "the early modern ideal of 'civil conversation'" (Miller 57), the "importance of antiquarian knowledge for issues of early modern stagecraft" and both a philosophical and literary examination of "why the antiquaries did what they did" (Miller 131). Reeves recommends Miller's "persuasive and enjoyable study. . . to all students of early modern intellectual history" (1621).
Review: L. T. Sarasohn in Isis 93.1 (2002), 124–125. Emphasizes Peiresc's neo-Stoicism, using him "as a touchstone for his time but also as the point of departure for discussion of the thought of others, both before and after Peiresc." Reviewer finds the book doesn't problematize early modern stoicism enough.
Review: J. Tolbert in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 551–553: Unlike previous scholars of Peiresc, Miller "develops another facet of the portrait of Peiresc—that of antiquarian. . . Miller examines the concepts of learning and virtue as exemplified by the life of Peiresc, who represented an idea because of his willingness to share, his vast erudition and methods of research, and insistence on tolerance of disparate ideas at a time of conflict." This book "develops major themes such as the role of the antiquarian in society, religion and politics," with a "thorough examination of classical and early modern works that clearly influenced Peiresc and other antiquarians." Extensive use of primary sources. Extensive endnotes in the original. Clear and articulate.
MINEL, EMMANUEL, éd. Longepierre. Médée. Parallèle de Monsieur Corneille et de Monsieur Racine. Dissertation sur la tragédie de Médée par l'abbé Pellegrin. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: P. Gethner in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 544–546: "This new critical edition makes available an eminently readable play that has been out of print for several decades. . . The extensive introduction is superb. Following a brief biography of the playwright, Emmanuel Minel analyzes in depth the dramaturgical problems posed by the story. . ., the three previous dramatic versions in France. . ., a balanced discussion of both Longepierre's dramaturgy. and his style. . . The discussion of the four main characters, and how Longepierre's depiction of them differs from previous versions, is detailed and perceptive." Gethner calls the inclusion of supplemental texts "an extra bonus." The appendix is deemed "useful." "The bibliography is unusually complete."
Review: B. Papàsogli in SFr 133 (2001), 148: Minel's edition of these texts includes an ample historical-philological apparatus focusing especially on Médée, a biographical notice on Longepierre and a study of the tragedy in relation to its preceding French versions, considering the dynamics of action, psychology of the characters, style and variants. Impressive bibliography and catalogue of editions of Médée.
Review: R. Tobin in E Cr 41 (2001), 101: "Eminently readable and welcome edition of Longepierre's three texts for the "larger literate public." Finds the Dissertation by Pellegrin "insightful" for "early eighteenth-century perspectives on classical tragedy," but indicates certain oversights and inaccuracies.
NIDERST, ALAIN. "Madeleine de Scudéry, Ménage et Pellisson, éditeurs de Sarasin." TL 14 (2001), 233–242.
Close commentary and analysis of the Sarasin edition reveals that it demonstrates "que les temps ont changé et qu'un nouveau monde commence" (242). By what is included and omitted and by the paratexts, the reader can also arrive at "une définition de la véritable préciosité" (241). Including a number of inédits and omitting several early obtainable texts, the edition's guiding principle seems to have been "plaire aux habitués des Samedis et à leur temps" (238).
SAUPE, YVETTE, ed. Les Frères Perrault et Beaurain. Les Murs de Troye ou l'origine du burlesque, livre I. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2001.
Review: C. Nédélec in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 278–280: This re-edition of the first song of the Murs de Troye "a le mérite de rendre accessible un texte rare." Saupé demonstrates that Scarron is not the only 17th-c. author to have produced noteworthy "travestissements." Saupé's edition is "soigneusement édité et annoté." Reviewer regrets "les traces d'une vision un peu trop doxique dans les choses" and hopes the next edition of the work will be based on the Arsenal manuscript.
VILLARD, ANDREE, ed. Louis de Pontis. Mémoires (1676). Edition critique par Andrée Villard. Avec la totalité des modifications de 1678. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: E. Lesne-Jaffro in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 285–288: "[U]ne œuvre remarquable à plusieurs égards. . . Andrée Villard met admirablement en lumière l'aventure des Mémoires de Pontis et l'analyse avec pertinence, restituant toute l'importance de ces Mémoires dans un contexte beaucoup plus vaste que celui d'une vie récitée par un humble particulier retiré du monde." According to the reviewer, "les Mémoires de Pontis sont un moment et un instrument capital de la mémoire de Port-Royal." Based on the first version of the text, "la plus proche de l'impétuosité du récit original." Includes all the additions of 1678, either in footnotes or in appendices, thus resulting in two texts rather than just one. Moreover, "A travers l'étude systématique des variants Andrée Villard éclaire la norme linguistique imposée par Port-Royal." Reviewer also praises the final glossary and the final index of names and places." An "edition critique admirable."
FUMAROLI, MARC. Nicolas Poussin : Sainte Françoise Romaine. Paris: Service culturel du musée du Louvre, 2001.
Review: C. Dempsey in Burlington 1186 (2002), 31–32. A monograph published by the Louvre's Collection Solo series to accompany "a small didactic exhibition" on the rediscovery and recent acquisition of Poussin's Sainte Françoise Romaine. Dempsey: "No more appropriate an author could have been found, and Fumaroli has responded with an invaluable analysis of this painting and its full artistic, cultural, religious, and historical context." Although reviewer finds some of the author's conclusions speculative, he does not dispute them, as "[Fumaroli's] marshalling of the complex historical, literary, and cult evidence in support of his argument is nothing short of brilliant."
PEUREUX, GUILLAUME. "Lire le tableau, voir le poème: Poussin et Saint-Amant." SFr 133 (2001), 18–29.
Peureux's objective is to demonstrate Poussin's presence in Saint-Amant's life and work as well as to consider the latter's poétique and the "statut du paragone implicite qui la sous-tend" (19). Close analysis of texts such as "La chambre du desbauche" as well as historical facts (the Italian text of de Vinci's notebook circulated in Saint-Amant's milieu) would suggest "que son mode d'invention s'apparente à celui des peintres contemporains" (23). Similarly "le Moyse sauve" is tied to Poussin by its esthetics and convincing historical hypotheses.
BABY, HELENE & JEAN EMILINA, Eds. Racine et la Méditerranée: Soleil et mer, Neptune et Apollon. Actes du colloque de Nice, 19–20 mai 1999. Nice: Publications de la faculté des lettres, arts, et sciences humaines de Nice, 1999.
Review: J.-M. Civardi in IL 54.2 (2002), 52–54: Studies centering around the mythic presence of sea and sun in Racine's tragedies; also includes some genetic criticism, an account of translations of Racine in Greece, and a round-table on teaching Racine today.
Review: S. Hartwig in RF 113 (2001), 540–541: This wide-ranging volume, as part of the international commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Racine's death, testifies to the unbroken interest in the "großem Klassiker" (540). Eight essays treat pedagogical subjects, four zero in on the theme announced in the title of the volume; the remaining eleven provide analyses of particular plays or rhetorical concepts, treat the place of the colloque (Nice) or compare relevant literature and paintings. Taken as a whole, the volume opens new perspectives on Racine's corpus.
Review: E. Minel in RHL 102.2 (2002), 341–42. 15 articles devoted to plays or characters, to other artists, to dramaturgical notions, or to topoi. Also includes 50 pages on the round-table on how to teach Racine at the start of the 21st century, which seems to agree that the "mise en expérience" of the text is of primordial importance.
Review: L. Senna in SFr 134 (2001), 389–390: The Actes of an important moment of the Commemoration of the Tricentenary of Racine's death. Wide-ranging and perceptive studies, some of which illustrate the subtitle, focusing on the sea or sun or nature. Other essays treat historical ramifications of Racine's theatre, his poetics, pedagogical possibilities, as well as an opening essay on the Comté de Nice in Racine's time by M.-F. Hilgar.
Review: M.-O. Sweetser in FR 75, 4 (2002), 781–82: A collection of fifteen papers by specialists and pedagogues that treats the question: "comment enseigner Racine aujourd'hui à des jeunes, souvent mal préparés à aborder le style d'un écrivain classique et les mentalités du dix-septième siècle [?]." Examines issues of mythology and geography in the context of the theme of the sea, rhetoric, religion, and astrology in Racine.
BARNETT, RICHARD-LAURENT, ed. Les Epreuves du labyrinthe: essais de poétique et d'herméneutique raciniennes. Hommage tricentenaire. Dalhousie French Studies 49 (winter 1999).
Review: V. Schröder in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 515–519: This special number of Dalhousie French Studies represents a "[r]iche collection" of 15 articles on diverse topics of Racinian criticism. The first five articles treat the whole of Racine's theater, including J. Gaines on translatio imperii, R. Goodkin on viril women and feminine men in Racine's theater, A. Niderst on the esthetic harmony of Racine's work, L. Riggs on the subversive nature of Racine's theater, and C. Venesoen on adultery by women in the plays. The next five articles treat individual plays: R. Racevskis on temporality in Andromaque, T. Reiss on tyranny in Britannicus, H. T. Barnwell on elegiac passages in Bérénice, J. Campbell on the flaws of Bajazet, and W. D. Howard on the nature of tragedy in Iphigénie. Three articles deal specifically with Phèdre: L. K. Horowitz on political and judicial issues in the play, A. Soare on Racine's predecessors' treatment of the myth; and B. Woshinsky on Phèdre and Ourika. The final articles talk of Racine's posterity, A. Mazaoui making explicit reference to Proust and J. Baetens to contemporary poetry.
BERGER, FRANCINE. "Quatre regards sur Bérénice; Avec Roger Planchon: Bérénice à Versailles ou Le reflet des amours de Louis XIV et Marie-Mancini." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 377–390.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 401: F. Berger focuses on violence in Planchon's Bérénice.
BEZU, ALAIN et JOSEPH DANAN. "Britannicus chez Corneille" Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 347–376.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 400–401: Bézu and Danon search "le juste point d'équilibre" so that the spectator does not consider the play too strange.
BLANC, ANDRE. "Britannicus à la scène." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 347–376.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 400–401: Passing in review the highly varied productions of the last 50 plus years, Blanc concludes that this variety is due to the vigor of Racine's characters, his violence and dramatic efficacy.
BLANC, ANDRE. "Un effort de résurrection: La Thébaïde et Alexandre." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 299–306.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 399: Blanc traces La Thébaïde's representations since the mid-20th c. and notes the spectators' evolution of taste. Blanc willingly admits the creativity of the modern metteur en scène, opposing the play to what he considers the too sentimental analyses of Alexandre.
BOQUET, GUY. "Une Phèdre japonaise à Chaillot." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 391–404.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 401: Wantanabé found parallels with Japanese theatre in the characters and insisted on dramatic tension.
BOQUET, GUY. "Racine vivant 1945–1999." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 297–298.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 399: Boquet presents the objectives of this issue of the RHT in which are evoked diverse representations since the end of World War II.
BOURDET, GILDAS. "Britannicus à Versailles ou la prise de pouvoir par Néron." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 347–376.
Review: Bourdet analyzes his own production, its décor from three centuries and the emphasis on power which suggested the "gaullo-pompidolisme" and the "giscardisme" (401).
BRANTLEY, BEN. Performance review of To You, the Birdie! (Phèdre), directed by Elizabeth Le Compte (The Wooster Group), St. Ann's Warehouse, winter 2002. NYT 2-19-2002, Section E, Column 1, Page 1.
"An inspired diagnostic portrait of Racine's most miserable heroine. At the same time, the very form of Racine's play and the culture from which it emerged undergo serious exploratory surgery."
CALDICOTT, EDRIC & DERVAL CONROY, eds. Racine: The Power and the Pleasure. Acts from the International Conference, Dublin, 1999. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2001.
Review: R. Parish in FS 56.3 (2002), 396–397: "In this Franco-Irish celebration of the Racine tercentenary, a team of distinguished contributors delivers loosely-woven variations on the themes of power and pleasure over the full range of the corpus." The reviewer praises "ambitious pieces" by Louis van Delft (on modern productions of Racine) and Alain Viala (on the libidinous in Racine's theater) as well as contributions by D. Conroy, Chr. Biet, M.S. Rivière, G. Forestier, J. Conroy, E. Caldicott, R. McBride and J.-L. Backès. He also commends two "ground-breaking studies" on the music composed by Jean-Baptiste Moreau for Esther (G. Gormley; S. Hartwig and B. Warnecke). His only objection to the collection is the editors' decision to translate all the French articles into English: "However worthy the intention, learned articles on Racine are likely to remain the privileged domain of those who can read French."
Review: S. Toczyski in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 523–526: Volume containing "the finely edited proceedings of the Dublin tercentenary conference" is "thematically powerful and coherent," focused around the themes of power and pleasure. Includes articles on audience reception of Racine by G. Forestier (on Racine's characterization), J.-L. Backès (on Bajazet), and Chr. Biet (on the semiology of tears in Britannicus and Bérénice); articles on the role of women in Racine's theater by D. Conroy (on power and authority in Alexandre le Grand and Athalie) and J. Conroy (on female "otherness"); E. Caldicott on Racine's biblical sources, R. McBride on Jansenism and "la querelle du théâtre," M. S. Rivière on the reception of Racine's work in the 18th c., L. Van Delft on modern representations of Racine's plays, and J.-M. Delacomptée's focus on the political elements of Bérénice. Other articles examine Racine and music: S. Hartwig and B. Warnecke on the relationship between Jean-Baptiste Moreau and Racine, and G. Gormley on Moreau as teacher; the latter includes a musical appendix of 7 examples. The final article by A. Viala studies the topos of vanitas in Racine's work. Volume is promising for future exploration of Racine.
DALLA VALLE, DANIELA, éd. Racine. Fedra e Ippolito. Venezia: Marsilio, 2000.
Review: B. Papàsogli in SFr 135 (2001), 641: Based, as the Forestier edition, on the first edition during Racine's life and accompanied by an introduction focusing on the relation of the play and its predecessors, famous or obscure. Dalla Valle's edition and faithful translation is highly welcome. Her study makes evident Racine's originality on several fronts.
DELBEE, ANNE. "Métamorphoses de Phèdre." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 391–404.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 401: Delbée's several representations of Phèdre were at first filled with oppositions (burning passion and the décor's snow) later devoting more importance to text and song.
DE LORENZIS, ANGELA. "La Phèdre de Ronconi ou 'la longue vue à rebours'." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 391–404.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 401: Ronconi's interpretation is based on reticence.
DONNELLAN, DECLAN. "L'Andromaque du Cheek-By-Jowl." NOEL PEACOCK, "Perspectives d'Outre-Manche." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 307–321.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 399–400: Peacock and Donnellan pass in review numerous English adaptations of Racine's theatre since 1945. Problems of translation, décor and taste are discussed. This new reception of Racine is characterized by vitality if it lacks the original poetic quality of the plays.
EICHELBURG, JESSICA REGAN. "Racine's Definition of the Heroine and the Use of Euripides." DAI 62/10 (2002), 3379.
Dissertation "considers what constituted the determinants of heroism in French neoclassical tragedy, and whether the female protagonist is heroic in the same ways as her ancient forbear[er]s."
FORESTIER, GEORGES, ed. Racine. Œuvres complètes, I, Théâtre-Poésie. Paris: Gallimard, coll. "Bibliothèque de la Pléiade," 1999.
Review: G. Declercq in DSS 213 (2001), 731–734: Published in honor of the tricentenary of Racine's death, this lengthy tome adopts a chronological (as opposed to generic) organization. Forestier breaks with traditional Racinian editorial practice using primarily texts of the original edition, rather than the 1697 edition. Readers thus confront the text "performed by actors, heard by spectators, and read by critics" which, according to the reviewer, confers upon this edition "theatrical and historical authenticity" and renders it an invaluable tool for studying French tragic déclamation. Forestier's critical apparatus is extensive (approximately 700 pages of the 1800 page book are devoted to the introduction, notes and notices): Forestier situates the Racinian œuvre within "l'histoire de longue durée qui a permis l'élaboration de la tragédie française." The reviewer concludes, "loin de prétendre couvrir tout le champ des études raciniennes, Georges Forestier nous offre, fil directeur de son édition, une lecture dramaturgique du théâtre racinien, minutieuse, rigoureuse et probante."
GARCIA FOGEL, CECILE. "Trézène-Mélodies." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 391–404.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 401: Garcia Fogel's production emphasized the connection with Greek tragedy: a choir of villagers tells the story, singing portions of the play (401).
GIRARD, YVES. "Lire Racine, vraiment?" Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France (mars–avril 2001), 303–309.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 135 (2001), 641–642: This article in which Girard asks: "à qui incombe la responsabilité réelle de la ponctuation originale: l'auteur ou le typographe?", is in reaction to Forestier's Pléiade edition. Girard points out aberrant cases of punctuation which, in pages 310–311 following the article, Forestier contests.
KOUKOUI, TOLA. "Un Britannicus d'Afrique noire." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 347–376.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 400–401: Koukoui focuses on Racine's profound correspondences with African culture.
KRAEMER, JACQUES. "Extrémiste dans la nuance. . . Bérénice." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 377–390.
Review: Kraemer's mise en scène brought him the satisfaction of experimentation and working with Racine's language.
LAGARDE, FRANÇOIS. "La valeur et l'effet de nature: Réceptions de Racine après la Révolution." PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 117–134.
After the Revolution, "Racine importe pour les personnes cultivées et souvent engagées dans un pouvoir politique, académique, médiatique, culturel. Racine est alors lié à des enjeux idéologiques." Studies two kinds of reception of Racine: "idéologique" and "sensible," with reference to Stendhal, Sainte-Beuve, Schiller, Constant, Napoléon, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Chénier. Balzac.
LASSALLE, JACQUES. "Monstres innocents." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 377–390.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 401: For Lassalle "la thématique dominante est celle du masque et du secret."
LEGROS, PHILIPPE. "Aman et Mardochée ou les deux visages de Janus (Esther II, 1, vers 409–444)." PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 103–115.
Examines Racine's "modifications" which are "très significatives en ce qu'elles révèlent un imaginaire qui s'exprime par le travail qu'il opère sur le texte biblique." With particular attention to the parallel roles of Mardochée (reduced over the course of the play) and Aman, who together make up "les deux visages de Janus, dieu ambivalent."
LEINER, WOLFGANG, éd. Présences de Racine. (Oeuvres et Critiques XXIV,1). Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1999.
Review: D. Shaw in MLR 96.4 (2001), 1075–76: "Celebrating the three-hundredth anniversary of Racine's death, this volume sets out to give a comprehensive review of the status of Racine at the end of the twentieth century. It offers new perspectives on old problems of Racine criticism, articles relating to performance, some thoughts on the problem of teaching Racine and critical assessments of Italian, German, and English translations of the tragedies."
LOEHR, JOEL. "Le spectacle spéculaire (Racine à la lumière d'une mise en scène de Mesguich)." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 329–346.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 400: Loehr's approach to Racine's work is the reflect or "le principe spéculaire"; he makes important reference to Daniel Mesguich's mise en scène of Andromaque. A special feature of Mesguich's interpretation is numerous mises en abyme.
LOUVAT, BÉNÉDICTE & DOMINIQUE MONCOND'HUY, eds. Racine Poète. Poitiers: La Licorne, 1999.
Review: E. Minel in RHL 102.2 (2002), 341. Collection of articles approaching Racine from the dual angle of theater and music. Reviewer regrets that the editors avoid addressing the question of what they mean by "poetry"; but says there is much here, including 3 interviews (G. Forestier, E. Green, C. Rist) and articles on declamation, choruses, Port-Royal, the sublime, and more.
MAURER, KARL. "Iphigénie et La Jeune Parque: musicalité et prise de conscience tragique." PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 323–332.
Comparative study of the musicality of Phèdre and Paul Valéry's La Jeune Parque, with consideration of Racine's other protagonists as well, concluding that, "La 《 Jeune Parque 》 de Racine, si l'on veut, ce n'est pas Phèdre, c'est Iphigénie."
MICHELE MARQUAIS. "Athalie chez Roger Planchon ou Le pouvoir et la religion." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 405–411.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 410–402: Planchon's Athalie shared double billing with Dom Juan, emphasizing the relation between power and religion in the two plays.
MESGUICH, DANIEL. "A propos de Racine." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 322–328.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 400. Mesguich outlines the effort and risks involved in producing Racine. His reserve can be a problem; the spectator must discover himself/herself in the legendary and mythic figures, as Mesguich's notes on his mise en scène indicate.
MIKAëL, LUDMILA. "Avec Karl-Michaël Grüber: une Bérénice egyptienne." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 377–390.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 401: Mikaël played Grüber's Bérénice (his version underscored the shock of oriental and Roman cultures) and offers an actress's observations.
MINEL, EMMANUEL, éd. Longepierre. Médée. Parallèle de Monsieur Corneille et de Monsieur Racine. Dissertation sur la tragédie de Médée par l'abbé Pellegrin. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: P. Gethner in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 544–546: "This new critical edition makes available an eminently readable play that has been out of print for several decades. . . The extensive introduction is superb. Following a brief biography of the playwright, Emmanuel Minel analyzes in depth the dramaturgical problems posed by the story. . ., the three previous dramatic versions in France. . ., a balanced discussion of both Longepierre's dramaturgy. and his style. . . The discussion of the four main characters, and how Longepierre's depiction of them differs from previous versions, is detailed and perceptive." Gethner calls the inclusion of supplemental texts "an extra bonus." The appendix is deemed "useful." "The bibliography is unusually complete."
Review: B. Papàsogli in SFr 133 (2001), 148: Minel's edition of these texts includes an ample historical-philological apparatus focusing especially on Médée, a biographical notice on Longepierre and a study of the tragedy in relation to its preceding French versions, considering the dynamics of action, psychology of the characters, style and variants. Impressive bibliography and catalogue of editions of Médée.
Review: R. Tobin in E Cr 41 (2001), 101: "Eminently readable and welcome edition of Longepierre's three texts for the "larger literate public." Finds the Dissertation by Pellegrin "insightful" for "early eighteenth-century perspectives on classical tragedy," but indicates certain oversights and inaccuracies.
NIDERST, ALAIN. Corneille et Racine. PFSCL, 27.52 (2000), 9–292.
Review: C. Berrone in SFr 133 (2001), 141–142: These essays are the outgrowth of the 1998 colloque organized by the "Mouvement Corneille" in conjunction with l'URLF of the U de Rouen and the Société d'étude du XVIIe siècle. The volume is characterized by scrupulous examination of texts, a rejection of generalizations. As Niderst states, these guiding principles result in "comparaisons. . . audacieuses et. . . fécondes" (12). Wide-ranging, includes essays by renowned specialists on topics which include, among others: the political and the sentimental spheres, parallels between the two authors and their relation or debt to lesser known authors and their influence on other works such as l'Astrée.
PEACOCK, NOEL. "Perspectives d'Outre-Manche." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 307–321.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 399–400: Peacock and Donnellan pass in review numerous English adaptations of Racine's theaatre since 1945. Problems of translation, décor and taste are discussed. This new reception of Racine is characterized by vitality if it lacks the original poetic quality of the plays.
ROHOU, JEAN, éd. Album Racine. Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 1998.
Review: J. Grimm in RF 113 (2001), 538–540: Highly useful volume by renowned Racine specialist treats in five chapters the important stages of Racine's biography (539). A source of important material documentation on both Racine and the 17th c. theatre as well as reflections on certain modern mises en scène.
ROHOU, JEAN, ed. Jean Racine. Andromaque. Paris: PUF, 2000.
Review: V. Desnain in MLR 97.1 (2002), 187: Useful critical edition for undergraduates "offers some historical and biographical background, textual analysis and a critical survey." Rohou's critical approach "insists on the dramatic impetus of the play and warns against privileging psychological motives in the characters at the expense of recognising the dramatist's need to surprise and captivate his audience. . ." Very good chapter on modern criticism.
Review: H. Phillips in FS 56.3 (2002), 396: An overall favorable review: Within the limitations of the short-format, "total coverage" book, "Jean Rohou produces an often sparkling account of a play he considers to be of transitional form in Racine's career...." The work contains "an excellent definition of the function of structure in terms of 'relations actantielles,' and quite brilliant presentations of character." The reviewer objects, however, to "[Rohou's] failure to reconcile adequately an approach to the characters as 'acteurs' and not as real people, and an approach according to psychology."
Review: P. Ronzeaud in RHL 101.6 (2001), 1670–71: "Un remarquable outil de travail" with information on context, biography, classical poetics, sources ancient and modern, philology, reception, and mise-en-scène up to 2000. Singles out for praise the author's insistence on the "axiological" structure of the play (each "actant" considered as the representation of a moral value); and an analysis of the passions based on "une connaissance des moralistes du temps" that allows us to "écarter les lectures psychologisantes anachroniques." A work for all audiences.
Review: R. Tobin in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 274–276: Rohou "takes pains to explain the different levels [of the play] - psychological, poetic, philosophical, and especially dramaturgical. . ., and their interaction." Another strength of the edition lies in the fact that Rohou is also "a participant in the current debate about critical methodology." Tobin lauds Rohou for taking into consideration "the elements in the play that one typically finds in comedy." However, Tobin criticizes Rohou's negligence in citing others' work, especially as this is potentially a text to be used by amateurs of Racine. However, Tobin concludes by saying, "I can recommend this clear and concise study."
ROHOU, JEAN, ed. Avez-vous lu Racine? Mise au point polémique. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2000.
Review: M. Bouvier in RHL 101.6 (2001), 1671–73. This "somme" or "bilan" of a lifetime's reflection on Racine aims ultimately at a "reconstitution de la vision de l'homme qui s'exprime dans la structure signifiante de l'oeuvre" (JR)—an anthropological reading, then. Reviewer takes issue with the author's idea of the anthropology of the 17th century, however: the conception of Augustinianism is too pessimistically drawn, and based on an idealism that reduces Racine's characters to mere incarnations of moral values. Reviewer adduces his own research so as to suggest that "la morale classique" is in fact a realism, and produces characters capable of giving "l'illusion d'exister réellement et de vivre."
Review: M. Jaspers in RF 113 (2001), 542–544: Praiseworthy as a highly worthwhile, animated mise au point by a renowned Racine scholar, commemorating the 300th anniversary of Racine's death. Clearly articulated and often a convincing questioning and refutation of approaches to Racine criticism, for example, regarding brilliant but subjective interpretations that stray far from the text and anachronistic interpretations. Demonstrates the centrality of an "anthropologie augustinienne" for Racine and distinguishes five forms of love in Racine's tragedies.
Review: M.-O. Sweetser in FR 75, 3 (2002), 598–99: An impassioned study that resituates Racine's theater "dans le contexte des vues sur la nature humaine exprimées par théologiens et moralistes." Defends the thesis that Racine reveals "le tourment de la passion face à l'idéal inaccessible et à la réprobation de la conscience—toutes choses qui ne sont généralement pas dans ses sources." Argues that this theater must be considered in the context of the ideological and cultural phenomena that sharpened Racine's tragic vision rather than simply that of ancient and contemporary sources.
Review: R. Tobin in ECr 41 (2001), 115–116: Highly praiseworthy and welcome volume in which "Jean Rohou has decided to inaugurate the new millennium by charting an intellectual voyage that will avoid the Scyllas and Charybdes of approaches to the work of the master of French tragedy" (116). Rohou's work should appeal both to the general public and scholars; "high on historical context," it examines philosophical and theological fond as well as forme (115–116). Takes to task a number of commercial directors and scholars, including Barthes, whom Rohou handles delicately and with a certain appreciation. Tobin finds most useful Rohou's chapter on "Fonctions et significations de l'amour."
ROHOU, JEAN, éd. Jean Racine: Théâtre complet. Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 1998.
Review: J. Grimm in RF 113 (2001), 538–540: Complementing the various commemorations of the 300th anniversary of Racine's death, this superb edition of his theatre is particularly praiseworthy for its attention to philology and linguistics. An excellent glossary informs the reader of 17th c. meanings of key concepts; reflections on Racine's original punctuation encourage the reader to experience not only the beauty of the language but also the "changements dans le jeu de l'acteur" (xxv) by declaiming aloud one of the tirades. Notices, a substantial introduction and a bibliography complete the volume.
RONSE, HENRI. "Les trois tragédies orientales." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 405–411.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 410–402: Ronse's Athalie was a collaborative work with J. Magliore for the baroque music; women made up the entire cast of his Esther while he set Bajazet in a very cold Orient in ruin.
SCHOLAR, RICHARD. "'Je ne sais quelle grâce': Esther before Assuerus." FS 56.3 (2002), 317–327.
Was it divine or human grace that moved Assuerus to save the Jewish people? Scholar demonstrates that Racine's Esther is not a "simple narrative of divine intervention," but rather a complex interweaving of the Hebrew and Greek treatments of the story, both of which figure in Lemaître de Sacy's contemporary French translation of the Book of Esther. The Hebrew, "secular" version, stresses the power of Esther's beauty; in the Greek version it is clearly God's intervention that inspires Assuerus's decision. "The achievement of Esther is that it places the two versions... in direct interaction with one another."
SCHRÖDER, VOLKER. La tragédie du sang d'Auguste: Politique et intertextualité dans Britannicus. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17 #119), 1998.
Review: M. Jaspers in RF 113 (2001), 544–546: Praised highly for its new knowledge and perceptions brought to Britannicus, the illumination it brings to the association of Racine's text and his source material, and profound insights into 17th c. creative imagination (544–545). Schröder achieves his goal of a "mise au jour archéologique d'un monde passé" through a "véritable renouvellement interprétatif" (34). A surprising last chapter replaces the conventional conclusion, developping instead a comparison of Britannicus with Molière's Dom Juan.
Review: B. Papàsogli in SFr 133 (2001), 143–144: Highly praiseworthy, Schröder's study reconstructs "un panorama singolarmente vivace" as it examines external as well as internal and intertextual evidence, political dimensions and classical sources. Schröder offers "nuove ragioni a chi scommette sulla grande complessità della drammaturgia di Racine" (144).
Review: P. Ronzeaud in RHL 101.6 (2001), 1669–70: "Une étude vraiment novatrice" based on an exhaustive inventory of classical sources and their contemporary re-writing, which "réinscrivent l'expérience impériale dans l'imagination contemporaine." Contains a number of "convincing" demonstrations that underline the political motivations of characters too often discussed in terms of psychology. An "elegantly" written work that will make its mark on Racine studies and dix-septiémistes more generally.
SEIGNER, FRANÇOISE. "Le Retour d'Esther." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 405–411.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 410–402: Seigner's Esther was at once biblical, classical and modern.
TOBIN, RONALD, ed. Racine et/ou le classicisme. Actes du colloque conjointement organize par la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature et la Société, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1999. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2001.
Review: E. M. McClure in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 282–285: "What distinguishes this collection from others like it. . . is the attention given to the difficulty inherent in transmitting [Racine's] critically complex and rich future to today's students in Europe and America, at the high school and university levels. The volume is organized thematically, following the subjects of the panels presented at the conference: La dramaturgie racinienne, Racine et l'histoire, Racine et Corneille, Enseigner Racine, Tragédie et pensée morale, Théâtre et musique, Mythe et religion, and Baroque et classicisme." Conférences magistrales by G. Forestier, G. Declercq, and C. Kintzler. One fundamental question posed by the volume: "is such a lack of resolution [in tragedy], such tension, conducive to the teaching of Racine today?" "The other papers in this volume each evoke a compelling aspect of Racinian text and context" and "the larger context of Racine's work." "The final two papers of the volume [by John D. Lyons and J.-C. Vuillemin] reflect upon baroque and classicism as aesthetic categories." Overall, the volume "remind[s] us of the continuing importance of analyzing, and teaching, Racine."
Review: A. Wygant in FS 56.3 (2002), 397–398: The "splendid scholarship" in this collection includes plenary papers by Catherine Kintzler, Georges Forestier and Gilles Declercq, "as well as state-of-the-art work by no fewer than twenty-nine other mid-career and senior professionals." The reviewer distinguishes articles by B. Bolduc, S.M. Guénon, J.-C. Vuillemin and J.D. Lyons, as well as the group of papers that deal with the teaching of Racine: ". . .although 'Racine' the international research project is alive and well, 'Racine' the pedagogical object is languishing, and the papers which address this ominous paradox make for riveting reading."
VIALA, ALAIN. Racine. Phèdre. Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 1999.
Review: R. Parish in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 561–562: "Cette édition de poche très bon marché reproduit le texte de Phèdre de 1697, avec modernisation de graphies et de ponctuation. La préface examine la pièce comme tragédie exemplaire, œuvre d'un dramaturge 《 reconnu et consacré 》, et tient compte des innovations dont elle fait preuve, des rivalités et des querelles qui ont accompagné sa parution, de sa valeur morale, et du silence qui l'a suivie. L'originalité de l'interprétation de Viala réside surtout dans son étude de la question des humeurs, cernant dans Phèdre une tragédie de la démesure, et dans l'analyse de la modernité de la pièce, notamment par rapport à son traitement de la condition féminine. Le dossier, qui sert à amplifier les notes explicatives, comporte des renseignements d'ordre chronologique, bibliographique, lexical et onomastique. L'édition est ornée de quatre illustrations."
VITEZ, ANTOINE. "Phèdre aux Quartiers d'Ivry." Revue d'histoire du théâtre (oct.–déc. 1999), 391–404.
Review: M. Lagier in SFr 134 (2001), 401: Vitez's Ivry production would "préserver le patrimoine culturel."
ZIMMERMANN, ELEONORE M. La Liberté et le destin dans le théâtre de Jean Racine. Suivi de deux essais sur le théâtre de Jean Racine. Genève: Slatkine, 1999.
Review: M.-O. Sweetser in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 576–577: A reissuing by Slatkine of Zimmermann's 1982 book, Sweetser calls it "un ouvrage concis et précis, suivi de deux études, l'une portant sur Britannicus, l'autre sur Bérénice," and which offers "des vues bien informées et équilibrées, basées sur une analyse intelligente des textes. Il s'agit d'une lecture personnelle qui tient compte de celles proposées par d'autres exégètes mais qui n'embrasse aucune des théories ou méthodologies critiques à la mode à l'époque de la rédaction. Ceci veut dire que le livre n'a pas vieilli comme tant d'autres." Zimmermann's work focuses on the "aspect psychologique et moral" of Racine's theater: "Ces dilemmes touchent à des concepts philosophiques fondamentaux: d'où le choix comme pôles d'explorations des notions de liberté et de destin sur ces points essentiels. . . Du côté liberté, l'auteur présente des personnages raciniens qui se croient ou se veulent libres, agissent [sic] dans le sens de leur choix, avec des conséquences diverses. . .; [l]es diverses manifestations du destin sont examinées et analysées avec perspicacité."
BANDERIER, GILLES. "Une Lettre inédite du Cardinal de Retz." XVIIe siècle. no. 208 (juillet–sept. 2000), 515–518.
Review: S. Poli in SFr 134 (2001), 392–393: This autographed and signed letter is dated 1674 and may be found in the library of Bâle. Banderier demonstrates the interest of the letter and advances a hypothesis concerning its destinataire.
BERTIERE, SIMONE. Bibliographie des écrivains français: Le Cardinal de Retz. Paris: Memini, 2000.
Review: U. Schulz-Buschhaus in ZRP 117 (2001), 659–660: Although the reviewer finds various corrections to make, he is appreciative of this bibliography of scholarly works on Retz by Bertière who is well known for previous editions of the Mémoires and the Conjuration du comte de Fiesque as well as an excellent biography of Retz.
LE BOZEC, YVES. "La mise en place du vraisemblable dans les Mémoires du Cardinal de Retz." PFSCL 28.54 (2001), 61–79.
Review: S. Costa in SFr 135 (2001), 636: Focusing on Retz's great ability for the structuring of the vraisemblable, Le Bozec's study demonstrates the crucial quality of the Mémoires for its troublesome historical period.
VIGNAL, MARIE-CATHERINE. "Des papiers d'Etat d'un ministre aux archives diplomatiques du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères: la destinée des dossiers politiques de Richelieu." XVIIe siècle no. 208 (juillet–sept. 2000), 371–386.
Review: S. Poli in SFr 134 (2001), 389. Of particular historical interest, documenting the complexities of transmission of important documents of historical memory of the period.
RICHEOME
BOURQUI, CLAUDE, éd. Jean Rotrou. Théâtre complet. Vol. III. La Soeur, Célie ou le vice-roi de Naples. Paris: Klincksieck, 2000.
Review: C. Bernazzoli in SFr 135 (2001), 634: A helpful glossary accompanies this edition which demonstrates Rotrou's debt to and remodeling of his Italian sources.
FORESTIER, GEORGES, éd. Jean Rotrou. Théâtre complet. Vols. I et II. Paris: Klincksieck, 1998 et 1999.
Review: C. Bernazzoli in SFr 134 (2001), 389–390: First two volumes of the first integral edition since Viollet-le Duc's 1820 one is welcomed. A team of researchers has programmed the complete edition over a period of 15 years. The plays are (or will be) presented by an ample and accurate apparatus and examined in their diverse aspects—historical/ social context, sources, originality, characters, themes, style, reception, etc. (389). A glossary and bibliography round out the editions. These publications encourage the reader to hear the plays (vol. I, p. 12) as well as appreciate their dramatic qualities.
HÉNIN, EMMANUELLE & FRANÇOIS BONFILS, eds. Rotrou. Le Véritable Saint Genest. Paris: Flammarion/GF, 1999.
Review: E. Minel in RHL 102.2 (2002), 342: Pro forma review of a pocket edition which includes the modernized text of the 1648 edition, and a 60-page dossier illuminating problems such as the play-within-the-play, Christian tragedy, and the theatrum mundi.
RIFFAUD, A. "Le réseau des images chez Rotrou: l'exemple d'Iphigénie." PFSCL XXVII, 53 (2000), 509–525.
Review: C. Bernazzoli in SFr 133 (2001), 140: Close analytical study of images founded on the contrast of light and dark, calm and tempest reveals the "for intérieur" of the characters. Rotrou's most significant modification of sources is the emblematic figure of a strong woman capable of renouncing earthly love to fulfill the divine will.
NEGRONI, NATHALIE. "Le Passage de Gibraltar de Saint-Amant: Entre navigation 《 capricieuse 》 et voyage spirituel." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 195–208.
Négroni examines first "l'utilisation sylleptique du terme 《 passage 》 [chez Saint-Amant], en mettant en lumière la 《 bigarrure 》 à l'œuvre au sein du texte entre la topographie du passage et son utilisation navale, et le topos de 《 la navigation littéraire capricieuse 》 en 《 Dyonisie 》." She then revisits the notion of text as 《 caprice 》 in order to examine "la nature des représentations mentales, des visions du narrateur et, enfin,. . . le fonctionnement de son imagination, au sens de 《 production d'images 》."
PEUREUX, GUILLAUME. "Lire le tableau, voir le poème: Poussin et Saint-Amant." SFr 133 (2001), 18–29.
Peureux's objective is to demonstrate Poussin's presence in Saint-Amant's life and work as well as to consider the latter's poétique and the "statut du paragone implicite qui la sous-tend" (19). Close analysis of texts such as "La chambre du desbauche" as well as historical facts (the Italian text of de Vinci's notebook circulated in Saint-Amant's milieu) would suggest "que son mode d'invention s'apparente à celui des peintres contemporains" (23). Similarly "le Moyse sauve" is tied to Poussin by its esthetics and convincing historical hypotheses.
ROBERTS, WILLIAM. "Saint-Amant's and Boisrobert's Pont-Neuf Poems," PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2000), 135–152.
Saint-Amant's "Gazette du Pont-Neuf" and "Poète crotté" are compared in considerable detail, and shown to be part of a complex poetic evolution deriving from Théophile. "The scenes of early 17th century Parisian cityscape so deftly and colorfully evoked by Saint-Amant in his well-known poems 'la Gazette du Pont-Neuf' and 'le Poète crotté' can be seen, upon close examination, as constituting stages in a complex poetic progression that includes Théophile de Viau and Boisrobert." Boisrobert's "Hyver de Paris" is envisioned as a ballet scene, and in well-known passages Saint-Amant targets poetaster Marc de Maillet and also Marie de Gournay for picturesque ridicule. In Saint-Amant's poems, many topographical references to the Paris of 1620–1630 are seen to be systematically organized. Concludes that Saint-Amant "did work from specific texts. . . which were either directly before him or else very close at hand."
DONETZKOFF, DENIS. "Défense et illustration d'une orthodoxie spirituelle: Robert Arnauld d'Andilly, éditeur des lettres de Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, abbé de Saint-Cyran." TL 14 (2001), 215–232.
Highly informative exploration allows us insight into the conditions and stages of letter writing in the 17th c. and in particular that of Saint-Cyran. Reflections on the choice of letters shows the part Nicole played. Demonstrates the editor's work on content, colorful images, counsel and theology. Donetzkoff concludes that not only did the Port-Royal circle choose, polish and adapt Saint-Cyran's correspondence, but the resultant text does not convey Saint-Cyran's thought "dans son immédiateté."
COIRAULT, YVES. Les Siècles et les jours, Lettres (1693–1754) et Note "Saint-Simon" des "Duchés-prairies," etc. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: F. Raviez in RSH 264.4 (2001), 235–237: "Avec ce volume, Yves Coirault publie en plus de mille pages la correspondance de Saint-Simon, ainsi qu'une série de textes rares qui n'avaient pu trouver place dans les Traités politiques et autres écrits, en Pléiade comme les Mémoires. Il signe là, quelques mois avant sa disparition, la première édition complète, annotée et fiable des lettres de l'auteur auquel il a consacré la vie."
HARRISON, DAVID. "Saint-Simon's Dîner de cons." PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 443–450.
Studies the Saint-Simon's account of the Duc d'Orléans' "terrible mot" as an example of "the role of obscenity in early modern political history" in that it "demonstrates the connection between the obscenity of the word 《 con 》 and the (male) writer's imagination," for the mot is "a veritable trope for female power—particularly that of Madame de Maintenon—and the way that such power is construed as upsetting hierarchy and displacing authority."
HARRISON, DAVID RICHARD. "Satire and the Ambiguous Comic: The Verbal Portrait and Saint-Simon's 'Mémoires'." DAI 62/07 (2002), 2445.
Proposes an in-depth analysis of the comic elements in Saint-Simon; argues that they "destabilize satire by creating an ambiguous view of the individuals depicted."
LE ROY LADURIE, EMMANUEL. Saint-Simon and the Court of Louis XIV. Trans.Arthur Goldhammer. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2001.
Review: D.C. Baxter in CHOICE 39, 7 (2002), 1314: Conversational in tone and extremely erudite, this "truly welcome" English translation of Le Roy Ladurie's work explores Saint-Simon in the context of his environment at the court of Louis XIV. Confronts "Saint-Simon's idealized image of status hierarchy with reality — the hierarchy of power as it actually existed amid generational cabals and court intrigue."
STEFANOVSKA, MALINA. Saint-Simon, un historien dans les marges. Paris: Champion, 1998.
Review: Chr. Biet in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 560–561: "Pourquoi, s'interroge Malina Stefanovska, écrit-on des mémoires au Grand Siècle et durant le début du siècle suivant? Pourquoi ressasser, exposer, lever le voile de l'Etat et corriger la vérité absolutiste au nom de la vérité aristocratique?. . . [S]elon ce brillant ouvrage, on peut. . . écrire dans les marges de l'histoire comme on se met en marge du temps, en fonction d'un monde certainement révolu, et d'un univers entier, capable de figurer un imaginaire nobiliaire, avec ses emblèmes, ses symboles, et bien évidemment son écriture propre." In this work, "Malina Stefanovska développe. . . en tout premier lieu, 《 l'idéal saint-simonien de l'histoire 》 en rappelant le principe de la galerie historique et en l'adaptant au concept. . ." The work then "s'appuie sur une solide étude de l'écriture saint-simonienne, et développe une réflexion sur la 《 cosmologie nobiliaire d'ancien régime 》 qui lie le sacré, le politique et la morale, et ne peut donner d'autres fondements à l'Etat que des fondements sacrés et intangibles où l'aristocratie et le sang ont une place majeure." Biet concludes: "Ce beau travail sur l'imaginaire nobiliaire et aristocratique, mis en action et traduit dans les analyses politiques et littéraires de Malina Stefanovska, laisse penser qu'une étude sérieuse permet de déboucher sur un champ plus large, celui des rapports entre la littérature, l'anthropologie et l'histoire des idées et des mentalités."
NIDERST, ALAIN. "Madeleine de Scudéry, Ménage et Pellisson, éditeurs de Sarasin." TL 14 (2001), 233–242.
Close commentary and analysis of the Sarasin edition reveals that it demonstrates "que les temps ont changé et qu'un nouveau monde commence" (242). By what is included and omitted and by the paratexts, the reader can also arrive at "une définition de la véritable préciosité" (241). Including a number of inédits and omitting several early obtainable texts, the edition's guiding principle seems to have been "plaire aux habitués des Samedis et à leur temps" (238).
BERTRAND, DOMINIQUE. "Travestissement d'un haut lieu virgilien: l'Etna revisité par Scarron." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 49–62.
Bertrand studies "les procédés à l'œuvre dans la traduction bouffone du motif etnéen," then examines "la validité de la clef de lecture que Scarron exhibe dans une longue digression métapoétique où il fait état de l'usure de la veine sublime et épique appliquée à une poétique des éléments en ce milieu du XVVIe siècle."
CARSON, JONATHAN, ed. Paul Scarron. Le Jodelet duelliste. Genève: Droz, 2000.
Review: C. Bourqui in RHL 101.6 (2001), 1661: Editor presents the second version of a comedy that had two different contemporary editions, in 1647 and 1652. Introduction dissects the differences between them, argues that its plot is a combination of three different Spanish comedies, and emphasizes the political implications of the duel motif. Main text respects original spelling while modernizing punctuation. Reviewer regrets that the notes pay little attention to linguistic questions, and are mainly taken up by details on variant editions, of which the editor missed a certain number.
Review: R. Parish in MLR 97.1 (2002), 186–87: Welcome critical edition based on the 1652 text. Reviewer praises scrupulous editing but regrets lack of attention "to the comic or dramatic aspects of language, rhyme, metre or didascalies, for example, let alone to the potential for any more daring readings of Dom Felix as narcissist, liar, esprit fort and fourbe."
Review: P. Ronzeaud in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 522: Reviewer notes the "nature philologique du travail de Jonathan Carson qui donne à lire un véritable état historique du texte, tant dans son établissement, orthographique, graphique et dramaturgique, que dans les éclairages génétiques, intertextuels et contextuels qui l'accompagnent. Qu'il soit remercié pour ce travail érudit impeccable." With details as to Scarron's sources (Tirso de Molina, Francisco de Rojas), the multiple revisions of the play, Scarron's comic techniques, contemporary debates on le duel, Scarron's use of the burlesque, etc. "Une édition critique qui mérite vraiment ce titre par la précision et la qualité du savoir qui s'y déploie."
LECA, ANGE-PIERRE. Scarron, le malade de la Reine. Paris: Editions Kimé, 1999.
Review: E. Minel in RHL 102.2 (2002), 342: A biography of Scarron by a specialist of the history of medicine. "C'est un honnête ouvrage, dans le style du XIXe siècle, et sans autre véritable problématique que de dire la difficulté de vivre du poète romancier, et de bien faire miroiter l'oeuvre par le truchement des citations ou le fourmillement des anecdotes."
PARISH, RICHARD. Scarron: Le Roman comique. Valencia: Grant & Cutler, Ltd., 1998.
Review: n.a. in FMLS 37 (2001), 108: Includes some "thoughtful and thought-provoking analyses of Scarron's novel" and suggests that "there is a real unity in Scarron's writing" (97). Reviewer particularly appreciates chapters 4–7 which present a classical "tripartite unifying analysis."
DUTERTRE, EVELINE, ed. Georges de Scudéry. Ibrahim ou l'Illustre Bassa. Paris: STFM, 1998.
Review: C. Bourqui in RHL 101.6 (2001), 1659–61: An edition motivated by the singularities of the work: a play adapted by the author of the novel, a tragicomedy in the orientalist vein, and a text containing an unusual number of monologues. The editors "voluminous" introduction stresses the influence of the Corneillian model and analyzes the play as incarnating a tension between baroque and classicism; argues for the play's status as psychological, "révélatrice d'une mentalité classique avant l'heure" (CB). Reviewer does not take issue with these interpretations, but does criticize some editorial choices and notes a number of errors.
SABA, GUIDO. "Georges de Scudéry et Jean Mairet, éditeurs de Théophile de Viau." TL 14 (2001), 189–203.
Analysis, by today's preeminent editor and critic of Théophile, of the latter's two 17th c. editors, Scudéry for Théophile's oeuvres and Mairet for Théophile's correspondence. Saba carefully examines pertinent paratexts, provides complete descriptions of 17th c. editions, refers the reader to critics of Scudéry and Mairet for studies on the influence of Théophile on them, and declares that if Saba's efforts "sont d'un intérêt certain. . . la part qui revient à Jean Mairet est. . . plus importante" (201). Convincingly demonstrates that instead of being a recueil "monstrueux de désordre" (Antoine Adam), Mairet's edition was representative of 17th c. norms; thanks to Mairet, 72 letters in French and 23 in Latin as well as the heroic L'Epistre d'Actéon à Diane were preserved, texts which "se révèlent comme des documents précieux sur sa biographie morale et intellectuelle" (203).
BAADER, RENATE, éd. and trans. Molière: Les Précieuses ridicules. Comédie. Die lächerlichen Preziösen. Komödie. Französisch/Deutsch. Mit einer Anthologie preziöser Texte von Mlle de Scudéry. Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun., 1997.
Review: B. Oetjen in Archiv 237 (2000), 445–447: Richly informative, Baader's volume includes her new distinguished translation of Molière's play as well as a translation of important précieux texts of Mlle de Scudéry. Baader's insightful inclusion of the latter and her commentary correctly differentiates Molière's characterization from "la véritable préciosité" of Scudéry which incorporates the ideal of honnêteté.
GRANDE, NATHALIE. "Du long au court: réduction de la longueur et invention des formes narratives, l'exemple de Madeleine de Scudéry." DSS 215 (2002), 263– 271.
Grande revisits the traditional explanations offered for the forme brève of the novel and claims that the shift resulted from a change in reading habits during the second half of the century: solitary and silent reading replaced the collective and communal reading that characterized earlier periods.
LALLEMAND, MARIE-GABRIELLE. La Lettre dans le récit: étude de l'oeuvre de Mlle de Scudéry. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2000.
Review: M. Bannister in FS 55.4 (2001), 540–541: A "valuable overview of Scudéry's concept of the letter," this study analyzes "the links between the use of letters and the narrative functions they fulfil." It includes a comparison of Scudéry's approach to the letter with that of contemporary fiction writers and the creators of secrétaire manuals.
Review: M.-C. Chatelain in DSS 215 (2002), 377–378: An illuminating study, notes the reviewer, of the generic complexity in littérature galante. Lallemand catalogues instances of imbedded letters or references to letters thereby allowing her to discern the quantity, importance and diversity of letters within the Scudéry's novels. Lallemand distinguishes the lettre d'amour and the tradition of female lament found in Ovid's Héroïdes and the Lettres portugaises, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the lettre galante and the roman galante et mondain practiced by Scudéry. More than ornamental, according to Lallemand, letters assume narrative functions: for example, interrupted communication ("les dysfonctionnements de la communication épistolaire"), produces peripeteia similar to those effected by kidnappings or storms in the heroic novel. The reviewer notes minor stylistic infelicities but affirms the overall strength of the argument.
Review: L. Colombo in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 543–545: Studies "les lettres enchâssées dans les récits de Mademoiselle de Scudéry. . . constituant selon Lallemand un champ d'étude significatif, aussi bien du point de vue de l'esthétique épistolaire et romanesque que du point de vue historique, en tant qu'écho pour la société pour laquelle elles sont écrites." Study classifies the letters first as "lettres, billets, cartels," and later as "lettres de circonstance, de nouvelles, de compliments galants," proposing sources and influences in each case. In the third part, Lallemand highlights the function of letters "à l'intérieur de la diégèse: la lettre fait avancer l'action, contribue à la structurer, sert à la présentation du personnage, par le biais de lettres de recommandation, devient 《 source d'innombrables péripéties romanesques 》." The letter, in Scudéry's work, "renonce à l'effet de réel. . . elle s'assujettit aux exigences de la fiction, renonçant à la fonction de communication." Reviewer praises the volume as "une étude articulée, pointue et très intéressante, accompagnée de précieuses annexes reproduisant entre autres les différentes modalités typographiques d'insertion des lettres dans le roman, et qui met l'érudition au service de l'analyse d'un domaine encore peu étudié, sans négliger quelques nécessaires allusions à la problématique de l'écriture féminine."
Review: N. Grande in RHL 102.1 (2002), 157: Attempts to understand the diversity and evolution of Scudéry's use of the letter within her novels. Contains an inventory, an examination of the context of the practice, and an analysis of Scudéry's various uses of the process. "La rigueur méthodologique de M.-G. Lallemand met en évidence la cohérence de son projet."
Review: C. Morlet-Chantalat in IL 54.2 (2002), 51–52: "[U]ne étude complète et minutieuse" of embedded letters in Scudéry's novels, and the metadiscourse around them. First part contains exhaustive inventory and classification; second part looks at the practice of fictional epistolarity from Heliodorus to the seventeenth century; third part examines the functions of the letter in the narration, concluding that it has nothing to do with the eighteenth-century success of the epistolary novel, which acts as the expression of a private individual.
Review: B. Piqué in SFr 134 (2001), 395–396: Following in the line of Delphine Denis's magisterial study La Muse galante, Lallemand's volume analyzes another important internal genre in the novel and novella—the letter. An impressive bibliography and series of appendices complement Lallemand's detailed and wide-ranging analyses: included are elements guiding her inventory and a typology. The use and significance of the epistolary form in the romance tradition, the taste of the gallant society. The letter may be ornamental or function as a veritable fount of péripétie or an expression of intimacy (396). Competent, rich and innovative study.
Review: n.a. in BCLF 634 (2002), 86: "Se fondant sur un inventaire raisonné des lettres (regroupement, répartition, présentation et typologie formelle), elle étudie ses modèles historiques (Ovide et Héliodore) et contemporains (Honoré d'Urfé et Martin Fumée) avant de prendre en compte ses fonctions dans le système romanesque. L'auteur se livre alors à une analyse narratologique, énonciative, typographique et morale des lettres incluses qui a le mérite d'offrir une base très sûre sur le plan scientifique, mais qui aurait peut-être gagné à une confrontation plus large avec les formes historiques, philosophiques, polémiques et esthétiques de la correspondance à la même époque."
MORLET-CHANTALAT, CHANTAL, ed. Madeleine de Scudéry. Clélie, histoire romaine. Première partie 1654. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: N. Boursier in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 553–555: Part of a new series of editions that has the merit of offering "la dignité un peu austère des éditions académiques dans sa présentation matérielle, et une documentation qui soutient le lecteur sans pour autant étouffer les œuvres," in short, an accessible yet erudite edition. Volume contains two introductions, one to Clélie in general, and the other to the first part of this text only. These include details on the "paysage politique, social et littéraire," including La Fronde, Fouquet, Louix XIV, and the end of the heroic novel and the birth of the classical or psychological novel, as well as commentary on Le Tendre. Morlet-Chantalat reproduces the text of the first edition (1654), with modernized spelling, punctuation, etc. "Les notes ont éliminé le lourd apparat critique du passé. . . Les annexes se limitent à des repères chronologiques. . . et à un sommaire de la première partie." The final volume of the series, when published, will contain a glossary of recurring terms, and a bibliography. "Edition fraîche, moderne, et longtemps attendue."
NIDERST, ALAIN. "Madeleine de Scudéry, Ménage et Pellisson, éditeurs de Sarasin." TL 14 (2001), 233–242.
Close commentary and analysis of the Sarasin edition reveals that it demonstrates "que les temps ont changé et qu'un nouveau monde commence" (242). By what is included and omitted and by the paratexts, the reader can also arrive at "une définition de la véritable préciosité" (241). Including a number of inédits and omitting several early obtainable texts, the edition's guiding principle seems to have been "plaire aux habitués des Samedis et à leur temps" (238).
PENZKOFER, GERHARD. "L'art du mensonge dans les romans de Mlle de Scudéry." DSS 215 (2002), 273–286.
Penzkofer delineates three features of Scudéry's art du mensonge: the intertextual construction of characters, critical analysis of novelistic discourse, and the questioning of the concept of truth. However, Scudéry's uncritical mirroring of "un monde courtois mourant" contributed to the oubli of her œuvre despite her innovative poetics, according to the author.
TOCZYSKI, SUZANNE. "Performing Secrets in Madeleine de Scudéry's Celinte. PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 177–195.
"Scudéry's text explores the power of curiosity, and of secrets in particular, to give structure to social reality, and demonstrates how each subsequently revealed secret operates as a new frame for interpreting that social reality." Studies both l'interdit and "l'entredit, that is, the welcome sharing of secrets between members of an affective community." Finally, Scudéry "also suggests that, in the absence of an ideal recipient, individual secrets can initiate a shift toward subjective interiority."
TROTZKE, MARGARET ANNE. "Préciosité and 'La Promenade de Versailles': From myth to praxis." DAI 62/12 (2002), 4193.
Argues that Scudéry's work "demonstrates a dramatic shift from the exteriority of the heroic novel ... to the interiority of the modern novel," providing "both a feminist and a political focus" and offering critique of Louis XIV.
MORGANTE, JOLE. "La Méditerranée dans les Nouvelles françaises de Segrais." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 137–155.
Studying Adélayde and Floridon, Morgante examines the way in which the choice of scene "contribue à diversifier le recueil," and the role of Segrais's nouvelles in the "renouvellement esthétique et formel" of the 1660s, particularly with reference to La Fayette's Zaïde.
RACEVSKIS, ROLAND. "Time, Postal Practices, and Daily Life in Mme de Sévigné's Letters" EMF 7 (2001), 29–47.
Analyzes Sévigné's letters as a chronicle of the material conditions of their own production; pays special attention to the way they were made possible by advances in the French postal system, and to changes in the perception of time.
ALET, MARTINE. "Etude psychophysiologique du Berger extravagant de Charles Sorel: la mélancolie de Louys." PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 153–175.
Examines "le cas de Louys au regard du concept de mélancolie dans le savoir médical et moral du temps" afin de "verifier si une lecture psychophysiologique, établie sur les critères de l'époque, peut expliquer l'extravagance avant tout réjouissante et expansive du personage, comme cas représentatif d'un accès de mélancolie" et "d'en determiner la ou les cause(s) premières."
DANDREY, PATRICK. Le Premier Francion de Charles Sorel; ou, le jeu du roman. Paris: Klincksieck, 2001.
Review: R. Parish in FS 56.2 (2002), 235–236: "Dandrey's elegant, densely written and unfailingly persuasive study... affords a major addition to the relatively limited corpus of writing on this multi-layered text." Dandrey performs "a kind of vertical reading of the first seven books as they appear in the 1633 rewriting," draws "enlightening... parallels with Montaigne," and "looks critically at Francion's... problematic features," such as the dream sequence and the status of Naïs.
JOUHAUD, CHRISTIAN. "Roman historié et histoire romancée: Jean-Pierre Camus et Charles Sorel." DSS 215 (2002), 307–316.
Jouhaud argues that Camus and Sorel were both proponents of the socio-political utility of the novelistic form (as opposed to those who proclaimed literature's autonomy), the one deploying it as an instrument of evangelization, the other as a political tool.
STENZEL, HARTMUT. "Discours romanesque, discours utile et carrière littéraire. Roman et 'anti-roman' chez Charles Sorel." DSS 215 (2002), 235–250.
Le Berger extravagant and its later incarnation as L'Anti-Roman ou l'histoire de Berger Lysis form the center of this analysis of a paradox that underlies the novel's modernity: "l'espace discursif ouvert par le genre envahissant du roman se refuse à toute intention de contrôle et de domination."
BARBICHE, BERNARD. "La première édition des Oeconomies royales de Sully (1638–1640)." TL 14 (2001), 205–214.
Detailed and fascinating analysis of a rich and useful document, Sully's contract with his clandestine publishers. Barbiche's analysis is accompanied by a reproduction of the title page and contract and a transcription of the latter.
LARCADE, VERONIQUE. "Les Vies parallèles de Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully et de Jean-Louis Nogaret de la Valette, duc d'Epernon, ou réussir en politique à l'aube du XVIIe siècle." XVIIe siècle no. 204 (juillet–sept. 1999), 419–448.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 133 (2001), 138: Demonstrates that the diversity of character rather than religious faith accounts for the rivalry between Sully and Epernon. While the former announced the triumph of the emerging class and birth of absolute monarchy, Epernon reaffirmed the ancient role of the nobility (138).
DALLA VALLE, DANIELA. "Edipe, tragédie de Tallemant des Réaux." PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001): 377–388.
Article studies Tallemant's Œdipus play, establishing a tentative chronology and situating the play with regard to Pierre Corneille's Œdipe. Also discusses the play's sources and the meaning of the innovations and changes Tallemant operates on the myth.
MAZAHERI, J.-H. "Autorité, transgression et conscience du mal dans Les Amours de Pyrame et Thisbe de Théophile de Viau." Revue d'histoire du théâtre no. 3 (2000), 240–255.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr 135 (2001), 633: Confrontation of texts of Ovid and an anonymous author with Théophile's demonstrates the originality of Théophile and permits a more complete assessment of his libertinage.
MEDING, TWYLA. "Thisbé's Veil: The Framed Tale into Tragedy." EMF 8 (2002), 74–103.
Examines the Théophile de Viau's use of the veil in Pyrame et Thisbé as a reflection on the thatricalization of narrative.
SABA, GUIDO. "Georges de Scudéry et Jean Mairet, éditeurs de Théophile de Viau." TL 14 (2001), 189–203.
Analysis, by today's preeminent editor and critic of Théophile, of the latter's two 17th c. editors, Scudéry for Théophile's oeuvres and Mairet for Théophile's correspondence. Saba carefully examines pertinent paratexts, provides complete descriptions of 17th c. editions, refers the reader to critics of Scudéry and Mairet for studies on the influence of Théophile on them, and declares that if Saba's efforts "sont d'un intérêt certain. . . la part qui revient à Jean Mairet est. . . plus importante" (201). Convincingly demonstrates that instead of being a recueil "monstrueux de désordre" (Antoine Adam), Mairet's edition was representative of 17th c. norms; thanks to Mairet, 72 letters in French and 23 in Latin as well as the heroic L'Epistre d'Actéon à Diane were preserved, texts which "se révèlent comme des documents précieux sur sa biographie morale et intellectuelle" (203).
CAHIERS TRISTAN L'HERMITE 22 (2000).
Review: F. Robello in SFr 133 (2001), 139: Four articles examine Tristan's tragic vision, the didactic function of a frontispiece, the linguistic and scenic vitality of Tristan and the importance of "le songe" chez Tristan Following the articles is a reimpression of Tristan's Songes tragiques, presented by Daniela Dalla Valle and an appendice by Boris Donné on the prelude of the Page disgracié.
SERROY, JEAN, B. BRAY, M. FUMAROLI, & A. CARRIAT, eds. Tristan L'Hermite, Oeuvres complètes, tome 1-Prose. Paris: Champion, 1999.
Review: N. Grande in RHL 101.5 (2001), 1469. First edition ever of Tristan's Oeuvres complètes, containing a biography by Serroy, as well as articles by Fumaroli and Carriat.
SHEPARD, JAMES C. Mannerism and Baroque in Seventeenth-Century French Poetry: The Example of Tristan l'Hermite. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Review: J. Conroy in FS 56.3 (2002), 394–395: "Shepard provides a very clear survey of the emergence and refinement of each term [mannerism and baroque], revealing the contradictions and overlaps in their use... He ultimately judges Tristan to be mannerist in his love poetry and baroque in his more serious verse." The reviewer concludes that Shepard "deftly relates Tristan's singularity to the poetic practices of his time."
MATZAT, WOLFGANG. "Tradition et invention dans L'Astrée d'Honoré d'Urfé." DSS 215 (2002), 199–207.
Starting with Genette's appraisal of l'Astrée as at once an ending and an origin, Matzat argues that the novel's modernity derives from formal as well as thematic elements. The fictional world is paradoxical: it is at once familiar to readers and radically other.
ROSSETTO, PAULE. "La Méditerranée dans l'Astrée." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 121–136.
Rossetto posits that, "La Méditerranée, ou du moins une certaine Méditerranée, réelle ou imaginaire, est donc bien présente dans le roman avec ses espaces, son rôle historique et politique, sa fonction romanesque, sa mythologie, et cette rêverie très particulière à laquelle elle incite le romancier." With reference to a selection of Mediterranean spaces described in the novel, Rossetto studies "la façon dont le romancier les traite," seeking to "dégager l'ambiguïté fondamentale de sa perception du monde méditerranéen représenté ici en particulier par Rome (et Byzance)."
VAN ELSLANDE, JEAN-PIERRE. "Roman pastoral et crise des valeurs dans la France du premier XVIIe siècle." DSS 215 (2002), 209– 219.
Author demonstrates the thesis that "l'Astrée est un roman expérimental du geste théâtral et des ses implications morales."
WINE, KATHLEEN. Forgotten Virgo. Humanism and Absolutism in Honoré d'Urfé's l'Astrée. Genève: Droz, 2000.
Review: A. Arrigoni in SFr 135 (2001), 632: Praiseworthy for its wide-ranging reflections on d'Urfé's relation to Virgilian epic and pastoral and its ramifications: cultural, literary and political. Wine's study also includes pertinent analyses on bucolic love, national identity and the episode with Celadon entering Astrée's room.
Review: E. Henein in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002), 288–289: Begins with the traditions of the pastoral and the epic and reviews all of Urfé's models. Wine then uses the goddess Astrée as a "lien entre l'art et le règne d'Henri IV," then amply illustrates the relationship between humanism and absolutism as she presents l'Astrée as "un 《 lieu d'oubli 》." Particularly impressive treatment of part III of l'Astrée. The final chapter returns to the notion of pastoral in its analysis of the adventures of Astrée and Céladon. Includes an analysis of Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin's Clovis, with the epilogue devoted to Boileau, Du Bos and Voltaire. The book is clearly "le fruit de longues et patientes recherches."
Review: E. Woodrough in FS 56.3 (2002), 392–393: Wine argues that "[i]n a bid to create an autonomous space for literature, [d'Urfé] has deliberately obscured the connections between his Arcadian text and the Virgilian virgin goddess of justice, Astraea, who abhorred the violence of men.[...] She serves here as a fitting symbol of the debt which d'Urfé owes to classical and Renaissance authors, even as he rejects, or forgets, their contribution to this [sic] own work and his pays.[...] Wine frames her compelling study of genre and influence... within the thesis that l'Astrée is an epic in reverse which demands that history pay tribute to the world of the pastoral novel, with its noble shepherds and shepherdesses."
COMBAZ, ANDRÉ. Claude Favre de Vaugelas, mousquetaire de la langue française. Paris: Klincksieck, 2000.
Review: G. Mombello in SFr 134 (2001), 388: Two-part study is preceded by a concise presentation by Louis Terreaux. Vaugelas's life occupies Part I; minute details help the reader appreciate the make-up of the future author of the Remarques. Part II focuses on Vaugelas's writings; letters and authentic documents are analyzed, a detailed chronology is presented as well as an ample bibliography. Reviewer notes that the index of names only includes Part I.
MARTIN, CAROLE. Imposture utopique et procès colonial: Denis de Veiras-Robert Challe. Charlotteville: Rockwood Press, 2000.
Review: A. de Sola in FS 56.3 (2002), 398–399: "En somme, cette étude comparée de Veiras et de Challe, souligne que la spéculation utopique du premier dérive dans le romanesque, tandis que la fiction romanesque du second débouche sur une vision utopique." The reviewer concludes that Martin's examination of utopia and utopianism in Veiras's Histoire des Sévarambes and Challe's Journal de voyages aux Indes, Mémoires and Les Illustres Françaises is "méticuleuse, méthodiquement fouillée et riche de références."
HARNEIT, RUDOLF. "Le Portefeuille de Madame de Villedieu: Edition originale et réimpressions des Oeuvres meslées au XVIIe siècle," RHL 101.5 (2001), 1455–62.
Rectifies information given about the publication history of Villedieu's story given by M. Homand and M. Cuénin in Nouvelles du XVIIe siècle (Pléiade), concluding that the work was much more widely distributed that previously thought.
LALANDE, ROXANNE DECKER, ed. A Labor of Love: Critical Reflections on the Writings of Marie-Catherine Desjardins (Madame de Villedieu). Cranbury, NJ: Associated UP, 2000.
Review: A. Wallis in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 535–536: "A Labor of Love brings together critical essays covering Madame de Villedieu's writings across the genres—the novel, theater, short stories and letters." Includes articles by P. Gethner, C. Hogg and H. Goldwyn on Villedieu's theater (particularly in the context of her politics); articles by N. D. Klein and E. Goldsmith on short stories, annals and letters; and articles by D. Kuizenga, M. Wise, Lalande, and F. Beasley on her novels. All quotes translated into English for non-French-speaking readers. Index is thorough. "From beginning to end, an ample and well-written introduction, the analysis is close, skillful and highly readable."
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