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2003 Number 51
FUHRING, PETER. "Jean Barbet's 'Livre d'Architecture, d'Autels et de Cheminées: Drawing and Design in Seventeenth-Century France." Burlington (1203), 421–430.
Presents new information on the life and work of one of the most famous French designers in ornament and interior decoration in the early seventeenth century.
BOUCHARDY, JEAN-JACQUES. Pierre Bayle: la nature et la 'nature des choses'. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: J. Charnley in MLR 98.2 (2003), 460–61: "In this densely argued book, Jean-Jacques Bouchardy studies Pierre Bayle's views on Nature and the 'nature of things'. He devotes chapters to a range of questions, including the study of Nature, Cartesianism, the problem of evil, and the nature of God, and covers issues such as the role of reason, the place of free will, atheism, attitudes to science, and the importance of inner conviction in religious matters."
Review: I.G. Marasescu in FS 56.4 (2002). This book confronts the two meanings of the term "nature" and confirms the image of Bayle "pris entre la lucidité de sa raison et son indefectible attachement au christianisme." The reviewer notes that Bouchardy's reading would profit from further exploration of Bayle's philosophy as it affected the realm of politics, law, and rhetoric, and by closer attention to Bayle's literary style. She concludes that the book is aimed at philosophers and suffers from a "démarche laborieuse" that is perhaps due to leaving so many adjacent topics unexplained.
CHARNLEY, JOY. Pierre Bayle: Reader of Travel Literature. Bern: Lang, 1998.
Review: B. Brazeau in CdDS 8.2 (2003), 93–94: Book examines travel references in Bayle's work, especially the Dictionnaire, arguing that travel narratives had influence upon the beginnings of the Enlightenment. Reviewer calls work solid, but feels it does not add much to what had already been stated by scholars such as Paul Hazard. Author "is most engaging when introducing explorers who might now only be known to experts."
GIANLUCA, MORI. Bayle philosophe. Coll. "Vie des Huguenots." Paris: Champion, 1999.
Review: J. Barthas in RPFE 192.4 (2002), 459–460: "Attentif aux indications méthodologiques que Bayle lui-même explicite et applique [...], Gianluca Mori parvient à reconstruire le système d'un auteur qui avoue se cacher et se garder de présenter de façon systématique sa pensée. (...) Il faut conclure, selon Mori, que toute la réflexion philosophique de Bayle... débouche sur un athéisme radical. (...) Cet athéisme théorique et pratique... trouve son issue dans une compréhension de la tolérance en termes, non pas moraux, mais strictement politiques." Le critique parle du travail incisif de Mori.
GROS, JEAN-MICHEL, ed. et JACQUES CHOMARAT,trans. Pierre Bayle: pour une histoire critique de la philosophie: choix d'articles du Dictionnaire historique et critique. Coll. Vie des Huguenots 16. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2001.
Review: J. Charnley in MLR 98.1 (2003), 199: Welcome edition with useful background information provides "a very clear presentation of some of the articles which proved especially important when the Dictionnaire first appeared and whose impact continued on into the eighteenth century."
Review: O. Selles in DFS 61 (2002), 151–153: Reviewer recommends Gros' "superb" anthology for its completeness which includes all of Bayle's remarks. Latin and Greek quotations are given in full, with useful French translations and textual notes by the translator. "While the topic and heft of Gros' anthology may first appeal to philosophers and Bayle specialists, any reader can benefit from his concise introduction. He also offers a specific 'présentation' for each article or group of articles." Reviewer says that Gros is to be congratulated for editing such a useful volume.
LABROUSSE, ELISABETH, et al., eds. Correspondance de Pierre Bayle. Vol. II: Novembre 1674–novembre 1677: lettres 66–146. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2001.
Review: J. Charnley in MLR 98.1 (2003), 199–200: Highly informative volume containing eighty letters, many written to family members during Bayle's years in Rouen, Paris, and Sedan, is completed by photographs, glossary, index, and bibliography.
Review: J.-M. Gros in RSH 269.1 (2003), 301–307: This second volume of Bayle's correspondence covers a decisive period in Bayle's formation as a young student, his temporary conversion to Catholicism, flight to Geneva, and then clandestine existence in France. This edition provides a more complete image of the author, sure to animate debate among Bayle specialists, contributes greatly to the larger movement to publish 17th-c. written correspondence, and augments the published corpus of Protestant memoirs. Reviewer concludes: "On est donc tout à fait impressionné par le travail énorme, fait de précision, d'intuition, de notations subtiles, que manifeste, à toutes les pages, cette remarquable édition qui ne peut que combler aussi bien les "baylistes" que tous ceux qui sont dans une relation d'étude avec le XVIIe siècle, que celle-ci soit historique, philosophique ou religieuse, ou tout simplement qui appartiennent, selon l'expression de Bayle lui-même, à cette caste insatiable des " curieux "." The reviewer signals that this paper edition will be followed by an electronic one set to appear beginning with the publication of the third volume in 2002.
MCKENNA, ANTONY, ed. Pierre Bayle, témoin et conscience de son temps: un choix d'articles du Dictionnaire historique et critique. Coll Vie des Huguenots 13. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2001.
Review: O. Selles in DFS 61 (2002), 151–153: "McKenna provides an insightful introduction that points out the main moments of the author's life (1647–1706) and the chief characteristics of the Dictionnaire. (...) McKenna wisely makes no attempt to replicate the Dictionnaire's multi-layered layout. He provides the principle text of an article, followed by the most interesting remarks, without any long Latin or Greek quotations. In selecting the actual articles, McKenna focuses on the diversity of Bayle's interests. The ninety articles in the anthology include great figures from the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and a host of radicals, sectarians, as well as "des enthousiastes et des persécuteurs." Philosophers are well represented, as are political figures, authors, poets, and even some of the geographical entries tied to Bayle's life.
BIET, CHRISTIAN. "A quoi rêvent les jeunes filles? Homosexualité féminine, travestissement et comédie: le cas d'Iphis et Iante d'Isaac de Benserade (1634)." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 53–81.
Conference keynote paper. Examines the themes of female homosexuality and cross-dressing in an anonymous 《 histoire vraie 》 found in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, and in an item from the Mercure galant, in addition to the treatment of the Iphis and Iante tale in Ovid and his translators, before turning to a detailed analysis of Benserade's play. Suggests play can be read as "l'histoire d'un multiple passage de l'indistinction sexeulle à la répartition des rôles sociaux, à travers des hésitations, des plaisirs, un parcous de signes, dont l'homosexualité, telle qu'on la définit aujourd'hui, n'est pas exclue."
PIVA, FRANCO, ed. Catherine Bernard: Œuvres. Tome II. Théâtre et poésie. Paris: Didier, 1999.
Review: J. Clarke in FS 57.2 (2003). The reviewer finds numerous and significant bibliographic and analytical problems with this text, in particular the analysis of theatrical life and audience statistics. However, "we must be grateful to Piva," the reviewer says, "for having made [Bernard's] works more easily accessible to us by virtue of this edition."
AUGIER, DENIS. "Extravagances temporelles chez Béroalde de Verville et Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement. " CdDS 8.2 (2003), 9–19.
Argues that the non-linear conception of time evident in the works of these two thinkers is influenced by alchemical theories.
RENAUD, MICHEL, ed. L'Histoire des vers qui filent la soye. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: E. Butterworth in FS 57.2 (2003). This edition contains an "informative" introduction to a hybrid text. The editor's interventions enhance the text's clarity, though they are "sometimes superfluous," and the "annotations are copious and helpful." The reviewer states that this is a welcome edition of a text "combining a wandering curiosity and a delight in digression."
CORUM, ROBERT T., JR. "The Rhetoric of Disgust and Contempt in Boileau." The Shape of Change: Essays in Early Modern Literature and La Fontaine in Honor of David Lee Rubin. Eds. Anne Birberick and Russell Ganim. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002, pp.163–180.
SIMEK, NICOLE. "Savoir 'de l'homme d'honneur distinguer le poète': èthos et persona dans la Satire IX de Boileau." RomN 43 (2003), 119–130.
Explores the relationships among "l'homme-auteur," his persona in the text and the èthos, "qui prétend se référer au 'vrai' caractère du sujet/auteur qui parle" (120). The poem sheds light on constraints inherent to satire and on the difficulty of dissociating oneself and one's work.
LEPLATRE, OLIVIER. "Spiritualité de l'anamorphose. Le Carême du Louvre, Bossuet." IL 54.4 (2002), 38–46.
Proposes that Bossuet portrays creation as a sort of anamorphosis—in appearance chaotic and confused, but clear if one knows how to occupy the correct viewing position, that of Christ.
ORSINO, MARGHERITA. "Utopie, parodie. . . Ecritures de l'hérésie: Bruno, Campanella, Cyrano" in Sources antiques de l'irreligion moderne: le relais italien, XVe-XVIIe siècles, eds. Didier Foucault and Jean-Pierre Cavaillé, Collection de l'ECRIT, no. 6, 2001: 147–170.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 222: Illuminating examination of these "masters of French libertinage" focuses on rapports of thought and expression and two crucial procédés, utopia and parody.
DUCHARME, ISABELLE. "Une formule discursive au féminin: Marguerite Buffet et la Querelle des femmes". PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 131–155.
Analyses Buffet's Eloges des Illustres Sçavantes (1668) as an example of a synthesis which draws on both "les traditions apologétiques et épidictiques."
ORSINO, MARGHERITA. "Utopie, parodie . . . Ecritures de l'hérésie: Bruno, Campanella, Cyrano" in Sources antiques de l'irreligion moderne: le relais italien, XVe-XVIIe siècles, eds. Didier Foucault and Jean-Pierre Cavaillé, Collection de l'ECRIT, no. 6, 2001: 147–170.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 222: Illuminating examination of these "masters of French libertinage" focuses on rapports of thought and expression and two crucial procédés, utopia and parody.
FERRARI, STEPHANE, ed. Jean-Pierre Camus. L'Amphithéâtre sanglant. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: R. Godenne in LR 55 (2001): 407: Long-awaited critical edition with rich and copious introduction (176 p.) treating all aspects of the text and appropriate context.
ROLLA, CHIARA. "Le rapport romanciers/salons dans les paratextes des romans de la première moitié du XVIIe siècle" in Vie des salons et activités littéraires de Marguerite de Valois à Madame de Staël. Actes du Colloque international de Nancy, n.d., Nancy: PU: 253–259.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 218: Focuses on Camus's paratextes for the light they shed on authorial concerns and attention to prospective 17th c. readers. Particularly pertinent analyses on Camus's consideration of the bienséances.
DONALDSON-EVANS, LANCE K., ed. Œuvres spirituelles. César de Nostredame. Genève: Droz, 2002.
Review: BCLF 642 (2002), 127–28: "Donaldson-Evans propose une introduction bien documentée sur le plan historique et qui fait le point sur les quelques études consacrées au poète. On peut néanmoins regretter que les orientations esthétiques et théologiques soient trop rapidement esquissées. Un manque criant de notes laisse d'autre part le lecteur en présence d'un texte quasiment nu. . ."
MARTIN, CAROLE. Imposture utopique et procès colonial: Denis Veiras-Robert Challe. Préface deFrédéric Deloffre. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2000.
Review: A. A. Mazziotti in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 226–227: Comparative study of two authors focuses on the utopia and the fantastic opera. Temporality and multiplicity of stories, formal structures, ideological dimensions, as well as for Challe, the presence of the female character, receive attention.
SWIDERSKI, MARIE-LAURE GIROU with the collaboration ofPIERRE BERTHIAME. Challe et/en son temps: actes du colloque de l'Université d'Ottawa, 24–26 septembre 1998. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: A. de Sola in FS 57.4 (2003). Though this review offers few opinions on the work as a whole, it details the numerous topics undertaken at the colloquium. It seems no stone is left unturned in the panoply of papers, many by notable scholars in the field.
DE RAYMOND, JEAN-FRANCOIS. Pierre Chanut, ami de Descartes. Un diplomate philosophe. Paris: Beauchesne, 1999.
Review: J.-P. Cavaillé in RPFE 192.4 (2002), 461–462: "Le nom de Pierre Chanut, ambassadeur à la cour de Christine de Suède, est aujourd'hui attaché à celui de Descartes, dont il fut le correspondant et l'ami, servant d'intermédiaire pour son établissement en Suède, et l'assistant dans ses derniers moments à Stockholm. Mais il fut surtout connu, de son vivant et surtout après sa mort, comme une figure modèle de diplomate. (...) Osons le dire: le livre est une lénifiante hagiographie. (...) Mais une chose cependant paraît suffisamment, et il faut en remercier l'auteur: Pierre Chanut mériterait de faire l'objet d'une grande thèse."
CASALIS, MARIE-NOËLLE. "La vérité comme indice dans trois poétiques du premier XVIIe siècle: Jean Vauquelin de La Fresnaye, Pierre de Deimer, Jean Chapelain" in DSS, no. 210 (2001): 19–33.
Review: A. Arrigoni in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 220: Demonstrates through attentive analyses of the theory of these three authors, "la grande complessità creativa dell'universo poetico" of the period. Truth and allegorical interpretation receive special attention.
BANNISTER, MARK. Condé in Context. Ideological Change in Seventeenth Century France. Oxford, European Humanities Research Centre of the University of Oxford, 2000.
Review: H. Phillips in FS 57.1 (2003). The reviewer judges this to be a "compelling account" of Condé as a type of hero that was to disappear. Though unfortunately never referring to Bénichou's work in this arena, "Bannister's account, full of scholarly enthusiasm. . . is exemplary in introducing readers to the crucial relation between politics and cultural transformations."
Review: G. Walther in HZ 275 (2002), 195–196: Praised as elegant, Bannister's work is not only a biography but an analysis of the development of the Condé "Mythos" and his "iconic status" (Bannister 214). Reviewer places Bannister's study along with Jonathan Dewald's 1993 treatment of aristocratic experience and considers it "ein perfektes Pendant" to Peter Burke's 1992 work, The Fabrication of Louis XIV.
ENDERS, JODY. "The Theatrical Memory of Denis Coppée's Sanglante et Pitoyable tragédie de nostre Saveur et Rédempteur Jesu-Christ." The Shape of Change: Essays in Early Modern Literature and La Fontaine in Honor of David Lee Rubin. Eds. Anne Birberick and Russell Ganim. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002, pp.1–22.
CARLIN, CLAIRE. Women Reading Corneille: Feminist Psychocriticism of Le Cid. New York: Peter Lang, 2000.
Review: N. Negroni in OeC 27.1 (2002), 261–62: L'auteur "analyse Le Cid en termes de contextualisation historique et en même temps selon son point de vue de lectrice du XXe siècle." Negroni trouve que "Carlin, en faisant le point sur les différentes méthodes critiques ayant servi à aborder le texte, et en cherchant trop souvent à légitimer ses propres choix par le biais de références d'autorité 'psychocritiques' finit par accorder trop de place à l''Autre', alors que la pertinence de ses réflexions suffit d'elle-même à nous présenter Chimène et le Cid 'in a different voice'."
CUENIN-LIEBER, MARIETTE, Corneille et le monologue. Une interrogation sur le héros. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17, 134), 2002.
Review: A. Niderst in PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 241–242. "Le livre est admirablement construit. Un modèle de méthode. Dans l'annexe se trouve un relevé dans toutes les pièces de Corneille des monologues-scènes et des monologues-fins-de-scène, tels qu'ils apparaissent dans les éditions originales et dans l'édition de 1682. Ce qui est fort précieux pour qui voudrait analyser les métamorphoses au fil des années du goût et du génie cornélien. [. . .] Son sujet l'a conduite à des analyses générales du théâtre et des idées de Corneille. Cela est mené avec rigueur, avec pondération, avec sagesse." Reviewer regrets however a lack of originality and a tendency to "hypertrophier l'importance de la morale et de la philosophie dans les pièces de Corneille." "En somme, l'ouvrage . . . est à la fois admirable et un peu décevant: admirable parce qu'on y remarque une méthode exemplaire, mais un peu trop conformiste peut-être, un peu trop fidèle à des conceptions pérennisées et discutables de la pensée et de la tragédie au XVIIe siècle."
EKSTEIN, NINA. "Women and Marriage in Corneille's Theater." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 391–405.
Analyzes the centrality of marriage to both Corneille's tragedies and comedies, examining aspects such as the variety of marriageable characters, the motivation for choice, deviations from the Cornelian norm, and referring briefly to sex and children.
GOODKIN, RICHARD E. "Comedy Reading the Novel: Corneille's La Galerie du Palais and La Suite du Menteur." Fr F 27.3 (2002), 15–29.
Convincingly demonstrates through careful examination of "formal concerns" that "the novel may be considered Corneille's generic 'other'." Corneille's comedy owes therefore much to the novel "not only thematically [as other scholars have pointed out], but also formally" (15). Goodkin lauds Corneille's "prescience in commenting upon the novel's greatest potential" [in his Discours de la tragédie] and analyses the two plays in the title of this article to establish that "the dream of combining two literary forms that may not be as mutually exclusive as they seem is already perceptible in the comedies of Corneille" (17, 27). Goodkin draws attention to Corneille's inclusion of the metaphor of the magnet, in La Suite du Menteur, speculating that "Corneille's incorporation of that metaphor. . . can be read as expressing his desire to combine or synthesize elements of the theatre and the novel" (27).
GOSSIP, CHRISTOPHER J. "Truth, Deception and Self-Deception in Le Cid". PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 57–70.
Examines the differences between the first (1637) and the revised (1660) versions of the play, and the light that they throw on the thematic of deception and self-deception, particularly with regard to Chimène.
KERR, CYNTHIA B. Corneille à l'affiche, 20 ans de créations théâtrales, 1980–2000. Tübingen: Narr, (Biblio 17), n.d.
Review: F. Lasserre in OeC 27.1 (2002), 257–59: ". . .les commentaires que Cynthia B. Kerr a consacrés, depuis vingt ans, aux principales mises en scène parisiennes de pièces de Corneille. C'est beaucoup plus qu'un regroupement, car ces études approfondies mettent en évidence la poursuite d'une enquête passionnée et novatrice, accompagnant avec ferveur le dynamique renouveau que les professionnels du théâtre ont assuré à la connaissance et à la diffusion de l'oeuvre de Corneille."
KRAUSE, VIRGINIA. "Le sort de la sorcière: Médée de Corneille". PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 41–56.
Analyses Médée "à la lumière des pratiques judiciaires de l'époque. . . et des représentations populaires", examining the appearance of the sorcière-héroïne.
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS. "Le festival Corneille, 2001. Les mises en scène de la Suivante, Horace, Œdipe, Tite et Bérénice." PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 71–88.
Examines the productions of these four plays by the Théâtre du Nord-Ouest in 2001 and draws attention to previously neglected aspects of the plays which the productions highlighted.
LONGINO, MICHELE. "Creüse: Corneille's Material Girl." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 115–123.
In part of a larger study on orientalism, Longino examines how Corneille, through the character of Creüse in his Médée, questions the role of women in "the formation of colonialist policy" at a time when Richelieu was developing new laws concerning French trade abroad.
LYONS, JOHN D. The Tragedy of Origins: Pierre Corneille and Historical Perspective. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.
Review: S. Toczyski in CdDS 8.2 (2003), 121–122: A "cogent study" of five plays that posits "a fundamental conjunction between history and tragedy as complementary ways of relating or restructuring human experience." Horace, Cinna, Polyeucte, Sertorius and Attila all stage a confrontation between past an present that ends with the establishment of a new order. This radical change is viewed as transgressive; ironically, as agent of this change, the hero will be excluded from the new order he has helped bring about. A "welcome and thought-provoking" study that shows "a particularly modern conception of historicity on Corneille's part."
MENDELSOHN, DANIEL. Molière, Corneille, Rumsfeld. NYT September 13, 2003.
In this humorous article, Mendelsohn debunks Dominique Labbé's work (Corneille dans l'ombre de Molière) by performing a similar statistical analysis on his own works and Donald Rumsfeld's public discourse. In his examination, Mendelsohn "proves" he is actually the author of the Defense Secretary's speeches: "The implications are plain: the same distinctive intellect is responsible for the rhetoric of both 'Rumsfeld' and 'Mendelsohn'."
NABLOW, RALPH A. "Voltaire, Corneille and the Second Discours en vers sur l'homme." RomN 43 (2003), 153–161.
Shows that discussion of free will in Voltaire's poem has Corneille's Œdipe, III. v. as its source. Argues that Corneille should be added to Locke and Samuel Clarke when discussing influences on Voltaire's thoughts on free will.
PETRIS, LORIS. "Du pathétique à l'éthos magnanime: l'argumentation dans Cinna de Corneille." DSS 219 (2003), 217–232.
Petris undertakes a study of rhetorical function in Cinna, first analyzing "la présence du pathétique dans cette pièce," and then "la dialectique entre le général et le particulier, avant de montrer comment Corneille dépasse, à travers la figure d'Auguste, le pathos comme le logos."
SIMHON, DANIEL. "Similitudo temporum : Agrippine et Medea, Marie et Médée." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 97–114.
Through an analysis of Seneca's and Corneille's dramatization of the Medea myth, Simhon argues that in addition to the similitudo which exists between the two dramatic Medeas, a further similitudo exists in terms of the historical context which produced the two plays, and the reactions of the two periods to particular historical events involving Agrippina and Marie de Médicis.
ZANGANEH, LILA AZAM. Not Molière! Ah, Nothing Is Sacred. Article. NYT September 6, 2003.
Zanganeh reports on the "scandale" created by Dominique Labbé's book Corneille dans l'ombre de Molière. Quotes from well-known critics such as Joan DeJean and Georges Forestier. Though the article clearly seeks to report on the social phenomenon of the debate, it nonetheless leans heavily toward a debunking of Labbé's statistics-based thesis.
GETHNER, PERRY J. "Carthage et Rome au théatre: le conflit entre générosité et machiavélisme," in Actes de Tunis (Biblio 17, 149), 2003, pp. 261–269.
Analyzes three little-known plays based on the famous historic conflict, in a panoramic overview tied in with the socio-ideological climate in France, across several generations. T. Corneille's La Mort d'Annibal (1669) presents an idealized Cornelian hero who refuses the corrupting "nouvel ordre mondial," represented by the Roman ambassador. Marivaux's single tragedy Annibal (1720) highlights l'amour galant and "va bien plus loin... en supprimant les derniers vestiges d'espoir pour l'avenir. In Antoinette Deshoulière's pessimistic Genseric (1680), "la démolition des valeurs héroïques est la plus avancée... le code généreux y a presque entièrement disparu>" Thoughtful, sensitive interpretations throughout.
GIBSON, WENDY, ed. Thomas Corneille. Le Comte d'Essex. Exeter: U of Exeter P, 2000.
Review: J.-P. Collinet in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002), 225–226: Reviewer subscribes "sans réserve. . . à cette fine et juste appréciation", noting Gibson's scrupulous documentation and her comparative study with the plays on the same subject by La Calprenède and by Claude Boyer, her mention of Claude Barbin's Histoire anglaise and Voltaire's reflections on Thomas Corneille's play in his Commentaires sur Corneille. Collinet finds that Gibson suggests correctly that the play is neither a "pièce à clef" nor a "pamphlet politique déguisé" but a testimony, useful for the historian of customs and mentalities.
BLANC, ANDRE, éd. Cyrano de Bergerac. Œuvres complètes. Vol. III: Théâtre. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: D. Shaw in MLR 98.3 (2003), 720–21: Reviewer acknowledges Blanc's efforts to make accessible Cyrano's two theatrical works, Le Pédant joué et La Mort d'Agrippine. "If there is a criticism, it is that this time it is not made sufficiently clear why the [latter] play has been so rarely performed."
ERBA, LUCIANO and CARRIER, HUBERT, eds, Cyrano de Bergerac, Œuvres complètes II: Lettres, Entretiens pointus, Mazarinades. Paris, Champion, 2001 (Sources classiques, 34).
Review: P.M. Harry in PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 257–266. Of Erba's edition of the Lettres and Entretiens pointus, reviewer comments: "this edition provides a reliable text with variants, and informative, well conceived, if not exhaustive, scholarly notes. It retains the textual-bibliographical data of the justly praised 1965 edition, but suffers from not being updated and reorganized in a sufficiently radical, systematic way." Reviewer goes on to summarize Carrier's argument for the attribution to Cyrano of the seven mazarinades included in the edition. Adds "historical contextualisation is excellent and greatly enriches the reader's understanding and enjoyment. [. . .] The establishment of the texts and explanatory notes are exemplary. [. . .] Whoever did write these mazarinades, they (or he) have been well served by this carefully prepared edition."
ORSINO, MARGHERITA. "Utopie, parodie. . . Ecritures de l'hérésie: Bruno, Campanella, Cyrano" in Sources antiques de l'irreligion moderne: le relais italien, XVe-XVIIe siècles, eds. Didier Foucault and Jean-Pierre Cavaillé, Collection de l'ECRIT, no. 6, 2001: 147–170.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 222: Illuminating examination of these "masters of French libertinage" focuses on rapports of thought and expression and two crucial procédés, utopia and parody.
PETRIS, LORIS. "Figures, fonctions et sens de l'invention dans Les Etats et Empires de la Lune de Cyrano de Bergerac." DSS no. 211 (2001): 269–283.
Review: C. Torelli in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 222: Petris considers Cyrano's work as an unstoppable game transcending time, space, truth, social customs, etc. Inversion proves highly useful in Cyrano's "affirmation of the multiplicity of the real."
BABY, HELENE, ed. Abbé d'Aubignac. La Pratique du théâtre. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: D. Maskell in FS 57.1 (2003). "Much more than a critical edition," this work contains large portions d'Aubignac's Observations and his shorter essays on Ajax, Penthée and his Projet pour le rétablissement du théâtre françois. One of the most interesting aspects is found in the textual variants that clearly indicate d'Aubignac's judgements on Corneille before and after their feud. With "abundant and judicious annotation. . . Baby's edition is doubly welcome."
Review: C. Rizza in SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 222–223: Praiseworthy new edition of this crucial reference work based on the original 1657 edition and with variants that Baby has discovered from her work with manuscripts. An important addition to the collection "Sources classiques" under the direction of Philippe Sellier. Rizza gives particular praise to Baby's introduction for her treatment of relevant biographical details, friendships, cultural formation, etc., and for her pertinent analyses of poetics and methodology.
BANDERIER, GILLES. "Agrippa d'Aubigné et le 《 grand dessein 》: un document inédit." PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 197–207.
Examines the leitmotiv in d'Aubigné's work of the "grand dessein" which is "une conspiration de longue date préméditée et soigneusement mûrie, afin de clore la parenthèse ouverte par la Réforme et de ramener l'Europe entière à la foi catholique." Article reproduces an unpublished text found among the writer's papers.
CONACHER, AGNES. "Les Tragiques d'Agrippa d'Aubigné: Les qualités d'un témoignage ou écho d'une histoire qui est arrivée et d'une histoire qui aurait pu être." FS 57.1 (2003), 11–25.
Proposes "une lecture des Tragiques comme témoignage. . . constamment sur le point de devenir une epopée (classique) mais ne le devient jamais vraiment." The author argues that d'Aubigné's narrative leans most towards a definition of "épopée mystique" and that this generic understanding will help readers understand the work as a whole.
LAZARD, MADELEINE. Agrippa d'Aubigné. Paris: Fayard, 1998.
Review: J.-C. Margolin in RBPH 78.3–4 (2000), 1072: "Excellente bibliographie des Œuvres d'Agrippa et des travaux qui lui ont été consacrés, y compris les plus récents."
SCHRENCK, GILBERT. Agrippa d'Aubigné. Rome: Memini, 2001.
Review: S. Aubert Gillet in BHR 65.2 (2003), 507–11: L'auteur se propose dans cet ouvrage paru dans la Bibliographie des Ecrivains Français "de mettre évidence, grâce à une exploitation judicieuse de la disposition imposée par la B.E.F., aussi bien les multiples facettes de l'homme que la richesse de son oeuvre." Bibliographie très utile.
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: A. Duggan in M&T 17 (2003): 166–169: Studies the "frame narratives" of Mme d'Aulnoy's tales to show that the message of each tale must be sought in the context of the ironic relationship between the frame narrative and the tale itself. The reviewer hails "Mainil's study of Madame d'Aulnoy's fairy tales [as] the first to seriously consider the relation between the frame narratives, often ignored by scholars, and their relation to the inscribed tales." Duggan seeks to clarify or dispute certain points and notes that the work sometimes lacks "smooth development," and is reluctant to accept the author's tendency to characterize Perrault's tales as exclusively representative of the "Fairy corpus" against which d'Aulnoy is constantly evaluated particularly with regard to issues of gender. On the whole, however, Duggan finds the arguments "compelling and important to further research in fairy-tale studies," concluding that the author "clearly shows how d'Aulnoy's female protagonists put into question social norms, particularly with respect to women, at the same time that d'Aulnoy does not represent women solely in a positive light."
Review: B. Monicat in FR 76 (2003), 813–14: Giving thoughtful, skilled consideration to the oft-ignored narrative frameworks that frequently surround early fairy tales (we are reminded that half of d'Aulnoy's are "enchassés dans le roman ou la nouvelle"), Mainil argues that these acts of textual situation play a crucial role in the meaning and subversiveness of fairy tales. Considers how the seductive work of telling tales (within tales) fits within conte de fées' broader construction of sexuality.
THIRARD, MARIE-AGNÈS. "La réception des contes de fées de Madame d'Aulnoy ou l'histoire d'un malentendu". PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 167–195.
Examines the evolution of the reception of d'Aulnoy's tales from her own time to today.
CASALIS, MARIE-NOËLLE. "La vérité comme indice dans trois poétiques du premier XVIIe siècle: Jean Vauquelin de La Fresnaye, Pierre de Deimer, Jean Chapelain" in DSS, no. 210 (2001): 19–33.
Review: A. Arrigoni in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 220: Demonstrates through attentive analyses of the theory of these three authors, "la grande complessità creativa dell'universo poetico" of the period. Truth and allegorical interpretation receive special attention.
VILLARD, ANDRE, ed. Louis de Pontis (1676) Mémoires. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: B. Papàsogli in SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 224: Welcome edition of this unique work by an "homme de guerre" memorializing Port-Royal. Villard's introduction is useful as it assesses de Pontis's impact and the work's testimonial value for the period of Louis XIII.
ALMOG, JOSEPH. What am I? Descartes and the Mind-Body Problem. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Review: R. Lee in Choice 40 (2002), 291: Presents Descartes as highly ambivalent on the question of the substantial difference between mind and body, "wanting to maintain both the substantial distinctness of mind and body, and their substantial union in a single person." Includes consideration of Arnauld, Caterus, and Gassendi.
Review: J. Secada in PhQ 53.212 (2003), 441–445. The author argues that Descartes proposed philosophy explaining the specificity of the human where mind and body are separate, but can't exist without each other. Secada notes the work's weak citing of textual sources and alternative interpretations.
BROUGHTON, JANET. Descartes's Method of Doubt. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002.
Review: J. Secada in PhQ 53.212 (2003), 437–441: Secada calls the work "a truly original essay that significantly expands our philosophical and historical understanding."
COSSUTTA, FREDERIC. "La métaphysique cartésienne au risque du dialogue philosophique." DSS 219 (2003), 233–258.
An in-depth inquiry into the many mysteries of Descartes' unfinished dialogue: La Recherche de la vérité par la lumière naturelle. Cossutta endeavors to situate the text with relation to Descartes' completed works (no small task given the ongoing debate as to when La Recherche was written) and questions how we are to interpret the incomplete nature of this important text in both form and content.
DAVIES, RICHARD. Descartes: Belief, Skepticism and Virtue. London: Routledge, 2001.
Review: J. Secada in PhQ 53.211 (2003), 287–290: Secada calls Davies' articulation of Cartesian philosophy in the light of virtue epistemology "flawed," while admitting that Descartes can be read that way. Secada also notes that Davies fails to treat Descartes's Scholastic context, and that he falsely alleges that Descartes believes that no information can come from the senses.
MCCALLAM, DAVID. "Encountering and Countering the 'Uncanny' in Descartes's Méditations. FS 57.2, 135–47.
Starting with a discussion of the uncanny, the author brings a psychoanalytical approach to the use of "primitive and irrational" though processes in Descartes. According to the author, Descartes eventually reintegrates them into his "reason" less through logic than in a manner that resembles magical discourse, allowing the philosopher "to expose himself to the forces of the Uncanny and to insure himself against them."
SCHOULS, PETER A. Descartes and the Possibility of Science. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000.
Review: E. Palmer in Isis 93.3 (2002), 485–486: Palmer notes that "establishing the intellectual/corporeal divide, which is not made entirely explicit by Descartes, is the primary focus for Schouls's development. . . This book is a work in the history of philosophy, narrowly defined, for latter-day philosophers; it makes no efforts toward presenting intellectual history or history of science." Palmer also notes the absence of citations and references to Descartes' contemporaries.
WARREN, NICOLAS DE. How Thinking Must Also Be: Authored Skepticism and the Authorization of Knowledge in Descartes. Romance Quarterly 50.2 (2003), 149–60.
An intriguing introduction brings Brecht's sense of the inseparability between knowing (thought) and action to bear on Descartes' Meditations, particularly on its insistence that one can be certain of one's act of thinking and doubting while discounting other practices. De Warren runs with this hint and probes "not merely "what" but also "how life must also be other than thinking," ultimately stressing the performative nature of the cogito, the active nature of Descartes' doubting, and man's authorization of God as the determiner of what can be clear, distinct, and/or known at all.
WATSON, RICHARD: Cogito ergo sum: The Life of René Descartes. Boston: D.R. Godine, 2002.
Review: M. Bertman in Choice 40 (2002), 484. Lacking in intellectual rigor, Watson's "gossipy" biography exaggerates the weight of mere details and fails to make itself relevant. However, entertaining at times.
WOLFE, PHILLIP J. and KATHRYN WILLIS, eds. Humanisme et Politique. Lettres romaines de Christophe Dupuy à ses frères (1646–1649), vol II. Paris-Seattle-Tübingen: Biblio 17/PFSCL, 1997.
Review: D. Course in CdDS 8.2 (2003), 103–04: Although Pierre and Jacques Dupuy's correspondence has long been studied by literary historians, that of their brother Christophe, who took vows, has remained overlooked. Collection is especially useful concerning relations between France and Rome, and on the acquisition of rare books. Reviewer compliments the editors' notes, and calls the volume a "rare opportunité d'entrer de plein pied dans la vie quotidienne des Curieux et autres savants du siècle."
ROGERS, HOYT. The Poetics of Inconstancy. Etienne Durand and the End of Renaissance. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1998.
Review: D. Cecchetti in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 216–217: Welcome full length treatment on Durand complements Rogers's earlier articles and the 1990 Droz edition by Rogers and Rosenstein of Durand's poetry. Informed by Jean Rousset's and Mathieu-Castellani's use of the term in Rogers's title, Durand's work demonstrates the centrality of the concept. In general judged "un lavoro esemplare", Cecchetti also appreciates the useful bibliography.
CAZES, HELENE. "Les Misères de Nicole Estienne où se peuvent voir les peines qu'elle reçoit durant ses biographies." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 419–430.
Traces the (largely conjectural) historiographical treatment of Nicole Estienne. Argues that received ideas concerning Estienne could hinder readings of her lesser-known manuscript "Stances du mariage."
BARDOUT, JEAN-CHRISTOPHE. "Le malebranchisme de Fénelon. Occasionnalisme et vision en Dieu." RPFE 193.2 (2003), 151–172.
The author proposes three conclusions. The first, that "il convient d'inscrire Malebranche au nombre des sources probables de la pensée philosophique de Fénelon (...)." Second that Fénelon "s'inscrit dans un mouvement plus large et confirme que la vision en Dieu demeure, en cette seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle, une solution conceptuellement crédible (...)." And thirdly, "dans cette perspective, vision en Dieu et occasionnalisme nous apparaissent en effet intrinsèquement liés et deviennent en un sens les deux expressions complémentaires d'une unique décision."
DEVILLAIRS, LAURENCE. "Fénelon et le Dieu de la Première Méditation de Descartes." RPFE 193.2 (2003), 173–190.
Author wishes to demonstrate that Fénelon is "un interprète pertinent des Méditations, mais (...) un cartésien orthodoxe, dévoilant et explicitant le sens authentique de certaines notions de la métaphysique cartésienne."
GRAAP, NICOLA, "Dialogues des morts composés pour l'éducation d'un prince". Studien zu Fénelons Totengesprächen im Traditionszusammenhang. Hamburg: LIT, 2001 (Ars rhetorica, 10).
Review: B. Jakobs in PFSCL XXX, 59 (2003), 543–546. "[L]e rapport, négligé jusqu'à présent, entre les Dialogues des morts et les idées théologiques de Fénelon est à la base de l'analyse réalisée par Nicola Graap. A la différence des Aventures de Télémaque, autre texte didactique rédigé pour le dauphin, les Dialogues des morts n'ont guère été pris en considération par les chercheurs. En mettant les Dialogues des morts au centre de son étude N. Graap comble une lacune importante dans le champ des recherches sur Fénelon. Une introduction générale (p. 7–16) présente la thèse principale de l'étude, à savoir que les œuvres profanes ne doivent pas être lues indépendamment des écrits théologiques (p.7). Après une description de révolution du genre du 《 dialogue des morts 》 tel qu'il se présente depuis l'Antiquité, en passant par les auteurs et les œuvres de la Renaissance, suit l'analyse des Dialogues des morts féneloniens. Une conclusion confronte les résultats de cet examen avec les écrits antérieurs et jette un coup d'œil sur l'avenir du genre. [. . .] L'étude menée par N. Graap est remarquable par la prudence avec laquelle elle observe toutes les influences possibles concernant l'œuvre en question pour pouvoir la situer correctement dans la tradition du genre du 《 dialogue des morts 》. La minutie de l'analyse littéraire et les excellentes connaissances de l'auteur en matière de philosophie et de théologie, surtout en ce qui concerne les écrits de saint Augustin, lui permettent non seulement de jeter un nouvel éclairage sur les Dialogues des morts, mais encore d'apporter des éléments nouveaux à la compréhension de l'œuvre fénelonienne dans son ensemble, une œuvre dont les différentes parties sont fortement liées entre elles."
HILLENHAR, HANK, ed. Nouvel état présent des travaux sur Fénelon. Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi, 2002.
Review: R. A. Francis in FS 57.1 (2003). This état présent "combines surveys of recent work. . . with orginal synthesis." The reviewer seems to appreciate the focus on the debate between Quietism and Fénelon's idea of "amour pur." In various articles, the volume covers thoroughly the religious and philosophical implications of Fénelon's writings as well as commenting on recent and past Fénelon scholarship. Hillenhar's work is a "valuable landmark which ably demonstrates the interest of its subject."
LE BRUN, JACQUES. "De la lettre au traité. Les correspondances philosophiques de Fénelon." RPFE 193.2 (2003), 191–210.
Author examines Fénelon's correspondance with dom François Lamy published as Lettres sur divers sujets concernant la religion et la métaphysique, and "l'ensemble de lettres que les éditeurs des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles ont appelées les Lettres sur l'autorité de l'Eglise" to show how letters became treatises.
LEDUC-FAYETTE, DENISE. "Fénelon philosophe?" RPFE 193.2 (2003), 147–149.
Introductory article to a volume dedicated to Fénelon containing "une partie des communications prononcées à l'occasion d'un colloque organisé par le CERPHI à l'ENS de Lyon.
SIMON, MONIKA. "Résurgences platoniciennes dans la pensée théologique de Fénelon: Le Gnostique de Saint Clément d'Alexandrie." RPFE 193.2 (2003), 211–232.
Author examines Le Gnostique in order to show that Fénelon "lors qu'il s'exprime en philosophe religieux ou en adepte des Modernes, [...] se montre plutôt méfiant à l'égard du penseur grec."
SMITH, STEVEN WAYNE. Surrendered Communication: The Homiletic Theory of François Fénelon's 'Dialogues on Eloquence.' DAI 64/3 (2003), 722.
"[T]his study aims to show the relevance of the Dialogues by an examination of the homiletic, rhetorical, and historical context of the work, by extracting homiletic features from [it], and finally by drawing conclusions and making comparisons to the New Homiletic."
LESNE-JAFFRO, E. Fléchier et les Grands Jours d'Auvergne. Tübingen: Narr: Biblio 17, no. 122. 2000.
Review: A. M. Mazziotti in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 223–224: Diverse and illuminating volume includes analyses of politics, the ecclesiastical situation, literary qualities of Fléchier's work, the romanesque, the panegyric and the historical (particularly as concerns the sad consequences of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes).
DAGEN, JEAN. "Fontenelle et l'épicurisme." RHLF 103.2 (2003) 397–414.
Demonstrates Fontenelle's familiarity with Epicurean philosophy ancient and modern, a familiarity modified by Cartesian rationalism.
GASSENDI, PIERRE. Vie et moeurs d'Epicure. Translation, introduction and annotations byS. Taussig. Paris: Editions Alive, 2001.
Review: J.-P. Cavaillé in RPFE 192.4 (2002), 450–452: "Il faut saluer la traduction de ce grand texte, sorte de préalable à l'exposé doctrinal du Syntagma Philosophiae Epicuri (1649). Grande biographie, remarquable, d'abord pour l'érudition mobilisée-un travail d'historien et de philologue scrupuleux capable de faire autorité aujourd'hui encore-et pour ce que Sylvie Taussig appelle la démarche 'juridique' de Gassendi, instruisant un véritable procès auquel l'accusé, calomnié par les stoïciens, mais aussi et surtout par la patristique et la théologie chrétienne, n'avait encore jamais eu droit." La traduction montre "un travail rigoureux, qui n'évite pas quelques lourdeurs." (...) "L'introduction, abondante, est suivie par une très utile bibliographie de recherche."
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS, ed. N. Gougenot, La Comédie des comédiens et le Discours à Cliton. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2000 (Biblio 17, 118).
Review: A. Soare in PFSCL XXX, 58 (2002), 277–279: Concerning La Comédie des comédiens, reviewer comments: "Tirée de l'oubli par P. Jannet au milieu du XIXe siècle, cette pièce de peu de succès en son temps en est maintenant à sa cinquième édition, de loin supérieure aux autres, les plus récentes y comprises, qu'elle complète souvent, et parfois corrige, avec bonheur. Pour qui s'intéresse à l'histoire et aux problèmes particuliers de la restitution des textes du XVIIe siècle, comparer ces éditions entre elles est un exercice des plus instructifs. [. . .] La pièce de Gougenot est accompagnée dans cette édition d'une 《 présentation 》 qui en constitue à vrai dire l'étude la plus ample et la plus approfondie jusqu'à date, et par là-même aussi un repère de premier plan désormais pour ceux qui s'intéressent à l'histoire du théâtre dans le théâtre. [. . .] Dans un deuxième volet de cette édition, on trouve le Discours de Cliton, précédé lui aussi, d'une ample 《 présentation 》". Reviewer disagrees with the attribution to Gougenot of this treatise, traditionally attributed to Durval, but concedes "Pour ne pas atteindre pleinement son but, à notre avis, le plaidoyer en faveur de l'attribution du Discours à Gougenot n'est pas moins l'occasion d'une analyse magistrale de cet écrit théorique aussi important, au fond, bien qu'au service d'une cause perdue, que ceux de La Mesnardière ou de d'Aubignac. Et il n'est pas neecessaire, après tout, que La Comédie et le Discours soient effectivement sortis de la même plume, pour que leur mise en parallèle, ingénieuse et détaillée qu'elle est dans la 《 présentation 》 de F. Lasserre, s'avère extrêmement éclairante."
ARNOULD, J. C., E. BERRIOT, C. BLUM, A. L. FRANCHETTI, M.C. THOMINE, V. WORTH-STYLIANOU, éds. Marie de Gournay. Œuvres complètes. 2 vol. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: G. Mathieu-Castellani in BHR 65.2 (2003), 506–07: Excellente édition critique suivie d'"une impeccable bibliographie critique", un Glossaire et un Index.
FRELICK, NANCY. "(Re)Fashioning Marie de Gournay." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 165–180.
Argues that some modern critical treatment of Marie de Gournay which sets out to be sympathetic (particularly that of Constant Venesoen) tends nonetheless to reinscribe her in a hegemonic phallic order.
BEUGNOT, BERNARD. Guez de Balzac. Paris: Memini, 2001 (Bibliographie des écrivains français, 24).
Review: C. Jouhaud in PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 233–234: Bibliography with 1218 entries. "La masse d'informations mobilisée par Bernard Beugnot fait de son livre un outil désormais indispensable pour quiconque s'intéresse aux activités littéraires — et au-délà — dans la première moitié du XVIIe siècle." However, "La présentation des travaux consacrés à Balzac, et surtout des plus récents, donne aussi matière à commentaires qui, pour être dans l'ensemble plutôt bienveillants, n'en proposent pas moins des jugements de valeur dont la juxtaposition finit par laisser paraître des prises des position, certes discrètes mais néanmoins très fermes. [. . .] Mais devant un travail d'une telle qualité d'érudition, nourri par de longues années de recherche, et susceptible de rendre de tels services aux chercheurs, on se dit que Bernard Beugnot a au fond bien gagné le droit de chercher à communiquer à son lecteur son palmarès personnel et d'essayer de lui faire partager les points de vue critiques qui sont les siens, même si l'on voudrait bien parfois pouvoir les discuter."
Review: R. Parish in FS 57.4 (2003). The reviewer indicates that this annotated bibliography contains all the perquisite tools for research on Guez de Balzac, and that its scope includes manuscripts and translations, as well as non-French scholarship. The introductions provide helpful introductions to current thought on Balzac and there is even an "invaluable" section devoted to suggestions for further study. A very positive review overall of what appears to be a useful scholarly tool.
CHANG-AUGST, JIN-LEI. "The Triumph of Artifice: Marketing Authenticity in the Lettres portugaises and the Lettres et billets galants de Mme de Villedieu." CdDS 8.2 (2003), 83–92.
Asks how it is possible that a group of fictitious letters could seem to readers more authentic than real ones; argues that anonymity and theatricality are key factors in creating an impression of authenticity.
SCHRODER VOLKER. "Les méditations de Mariane: la matrice mystique des Lettres portugaises." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 283–299.
Examines the influence on the Lettres portugaises of the 'genre' of religious meditation, particularly as manifested in the writings of Thérèse d'Avila.
TRONC, DOMINIQUE, ed. Jeanne-Marie Guyon, La Vie par elle-même et autres écrits biographiques. Edition critique avec introduction deDominique Tronc. Etude littéraire parAndrée Villard. Paris: Champion, 2001 (Sources classiques, 29).
Review: M. M. Randall in PFSCL XXX, 59 (2003), 574–575. "Tronc's édition of Madame Guyon's autobiography is timely, since there is currently a resurgence of interest in this misunderstood mystic. Its publication reflects a change in attitude of an increasing number of modern-day French literary critics and historians who are taking a second look at, and giving a new look to, the enigma that is Madame Guyon. Tronc's critical édition, in and of itself, serves as a disclaimer of Bossuet's depiction of Madame Guyon as dull and stupid. [. . .] Tronc's critical work has the advantage of presenting the entire autobiography in one volume. The 1163-page Tronc édition gives added meaning to Madame Guyon's conviction that, "plus les choses sont simples et pures, plus elles ont d'étendue". Whatever simple and pure intent Madame Guyon may have had is offset by the textual complexity of the autobiography, which Tronc addresses in her Introduction. [. . .] What is sure to be appreciated by those sympathetic to Madame Guyon's plight is that Tronc reads Madame Guyon's autobiography with that charity encouraged by St. Augustine in which he admonished the reader to look for the spirit of a given text beyond the constraint of the letter. There lies a primary difference between Tronc's reading of Madame Guyon and that of Bossuet."
DUPRAT, ANNE, ed. Daniel Heinsius, De Constitutione Tragoediae. La Constitution de la Tragédie, dite La Poétique d'Heinsius. Geneva: Droz, 2001 (Travaux du Grand Siècle, XXI).
Review: Ch. Mazouer in PFSCL XXX, 58 (2002), 253–255: In addition to the Latin text and the French translation, written "avec netteté et élégance", this volume also offers "une annotation précise et fort utile, et un index des noms et des manières qui facilite la recherche." Furthermore "les 17 chapitres [. . .] sont précédes d'une ample introduction, d'une centaine de pages, où Anne Duprat met au service du texte sa parfaite connaissance des poétiques européennes entre le Cinquecento italien et Chapelain. [. . .] Après avoir décrit le moment de la Constitutio tragoediae dans la carrière du poète et théoricien hollandais et dit son originalité . . . elle organise son introduction en suivant le déroulement des chapitres d'Heinsius dans leur description du processus de constitution de la fable tragique; elle est ainsi amenée à préciser, expliquer, éclairer les présupposés philosophiques (du côté d'Aristote et de Platon), à mettre en lumière les soubassements de la réflexion théorique de son auteur. Exégèse fouillée et forcément plus compliquée que le texte, si claire d'apparence, d'Heinsius! [. . .] Avec [l'explication proposée par Duprat] le lecteur est armé pour une lecture profonde et juste du traité d'Heinsius. Remercions donc Anne Duprat pour son beau et gros travail, grâce auquel nos modernes poéticiens vont se régaler!"
AUGIER, DENIS. "Extravagances temporelles chez Béroalde de Verville et Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement. " CdDS 8.2 (2003), 9–19.
Argues that the non-linear conception of time evident in the works of these two thinkers is influenced by alchemical theories.
PEYROCHE D'ARNAUD, GUILLAUME. Claude Hopil, Méditations sur le Cantique des Cantiques et Les Douces Extases de l'âme spirituelle. Geneva: Droz, 2000.
Review: Ch. Belin in PFSCL XXX, 58 (2002), 284–285: "Les Méditations, composées entre 1618 et 1625, constituaient un manuscrit inédit que G. Peyroche d'Arnaud publie avec des Douces Extases. . . dont la première édition date de 1627, un an avant celle des Divins Eslancemens. Les Méditations ne se donnent pas à lire comme une exégèse du texte biblique mais plutôt comme un exposé des degrés de la vie spirituelle. [. . .] Cette édition de Hopil encourage les études sur la réception du Cantique au XVIIe siècle. [. . .] Les trois index finals (biblique, noms propres, et thématique) permettent toute une série de lectures croisées (sur l'exégèse, l'imaginaire, ou encore telle ou telle notion de théologie) et favorisent ainsi une riche incursion dans le 《 jardin spirituel 》 des contemplatifs."
BADIOU-MONFERRAN, CLAIRE. Les conjonctions de coordination ou 《 l'art de lier ses pensées 》 chez La Bruyère. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2000.
Review: I. Landy-Houillon in DSS 220 (2003), 548–550: This book arises from the author's doctoral thesis defended in 1996 under Soutet. The work is divided into two sections, "d'abord une étude linguistique 《 Du caractère des conjonctions de coordination 》, puis une étude stylistique et littéraire, 《 Les conjonctions de coordination dans les Caractères 》."
DAGEN, JEAN with ELISABETH BOUGUINAT and MARC ESCOLA, eds. La Bruyère: le métier du moraliste-Actes du colloque international pour le tricentenaire de la mort de La Bruyère. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: L. Gregorio in PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 243–244. Reviewer comments briefly on papers in the four sections of the book: "Le dialogue des genres" (articles by J. Duprun, M.S. Koppisch, B. Roukhomovsky, B. Piqué and G. Siouffi); "La fabrique de l'œuvre" (articles by L. van Delft, P. Ronzeaud, M. Bourgeois, and V. Mellinghoff-Bourgerie); "Rhétorique du discours moral" (articles by F.-X. Cuche, B. Parmentier, M. Escola, Ch. Noille, and M. Ricord); "La pensée à l'essai de la forme" (articles by J. Brody, P. Soler, B. Papasogli, D. Bertrand, and J. Lafond). Although "the quality of the papers is uneven," many "make for interesting and informative reading on an enigmatic writer and genre."
Review: R. Parish in FS 57.2 (2003). For the reviewer this is a very strong collection exhibiting "erudite precision," "innovation," "ambitious essays." The volume contains equally stimulating work from many well-known and lesser-well-known scholars. Despite some "surprising inaccuracies," this amounts "to a timely and penetrating état présent."
ESCOLA, MARC. La Bruyère I: Brèves questions d'herméneutique. La Bruyère II: Rhétorique du discontinu. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2001.
Review: C. Striker-Métral in DSS 220 (2003), 550–554: These two volumes constitute a theoretical discussion of textual coherence in Les Caractères. "le premier volume s'attache à définir le genre littéraire du caractère, tel que le pratique La Bruyère, tandis que le second volume tente de cerner les conditions d'interprétation du texte discontinu." The essential hypothesis underlying both volumes: "les Caractères marquent une rupture dans l'histoire de l'herméneutique, dans laquelle est engagée la solidarité entre le statut du genre littéraire apte à dire le comportement et celui de la dispositio du texte."
GOEURY, JULIEN. L'autopsie et le théorème. Poétique des Théorèmes Spirituels (1613–1622) de Jean de La Ceppède. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: T. Gheeraert in IL 54.3, (2002), 57–58: A "riche synthèse" of La Ceppède's work, which takes into account the most recent French work on devotional poetry. The first part ("morphologie") examines the form of the work, from its material aspects to the structure of the sonnets themselves; the second ("anatomie") interprets the Théorèmes in the context of the art of meditation; the third ("physiologie") takes on the question of the atypical form and style of La Ceppède; the last ("psychologie") analyzes the different poetic voices in the text, emphasizing that in spite of some autobiographical resonances, La Ceppède tends to disappear from his work.
Review: C. Rolla in SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 218: Praiseworthy for the light it sheds on the "meccanismi" of La Ceppède's poetry which the reviewer terms a "perfetta fusione tra poesia e spiritualità." Sections focus on morphology, anatomy, physiology and psychology of La Ceppède. Precise and detailed analyses, annexes and a very rich bibliography.
COUPRIE, ALAIN. La Champmeslé. Paris: Fayard, 2003.
Review: M. Slater in TLS 5233 (July 18 2003), 27. A very readable, lively biography. Provides interesting details of Racine's approach to performance since he rehearsed the actress herself. Lack of documentation about the actress hampers the author. Much of his account is speculation, but well done.
COLLINGTON, TARA L. & PHILIP D. COLLINGTON. "Adulteration or Adaptation? Nathaniel Lee's Princess of Cleve and Its Sources." MP 100.2 (Nov. 2002), 196–226.
The authors argue that a careful examination of the play's complex relationship to its continental sources (both La Fayette's novel and the historical writings upon which La Fayette relied) will show that "the play was carefully crafted and that the playwright did understand the 'character' of La Princesse de Clèves. The play's debauchery, we argue, makes explicit that which is already implicit in La Fayette's original." The article's authors also argue that though the two writers "shared interests in generic experimentation, social mores and French history, their most unexpected affinity lies in their sense of humor."
KELLEY, DIANE DUFFRIN, "Justifying the Refusal. Social Exchange in La Princesse de Clèves." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 139–150.
Examines how the heroine's refusal of Nemours can be explained as a reaction to the 'continual violation of the rules of social exchange perpetuated by both Clèves and Nemours.'
SHOEMAKER, PETER. "Lafayette's Confidence Game: Plausibility and Private Confession in La Princess de Clèves and Zaïde." FrF 27.1 (2002), 45–58.
Extremely well-argued and well-documented treatment stresses "the persistence of a confidential voice between author and reader" (58), examines the etymological and semantic relation between confidence and confiance, and reads Zaïde as "an ironic 'laying bare' of the artifice that underlies the novelist's craft" (50). In both novels "the network of confidences reveals the human propensity toward dissimulation and betrayal" (51). Shoemaker demonstrates that "for both Mme de Clèves and Lafayette, the aveu. . . constitutes an act (indeed a speech act) that is both exceptional and foundational. . . [the princess] manages to delineate a space of personal integrity [and] the novelist through the device, dramatizing "a new mode of fictional communication —a privileged confidential channel between text and reader" (55).
ALBANESE, RALPH, Jr. La Fontaine à l'école républicaine: Du poète universel au classique scolaire. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003.
ALBANESE, RALPH, Jr. "La Fontaine and the Teaching of Frenchness." The Shape of Change: Essays in Early Modern Literature and La Fontaine in Honor of David Lee Rubin. Eds. Anne Birberick and Russell Ganim. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002.
BIBLIOGRAPHIE. Le Fablier, no. 14 (2002), 105. Annual suppplement.
BOLDUC, BENOIT. "Daphné et la tradition du drame musical à la Renaissance." Le Fablier, no. 14 (2002), 19–24.
Failure of La Fontaine's opera libretto Daphné, in spite of its pastoral charm attributed to its incompatibility with the aesthetic and political aims of the French opera of Lully-Quinault celebrating Louis XIV's heroic vision.
BRODY, JULES. "'L'Alouette et ses petits' (4.22): Reflections on La Fontaine's 'esprit critique.'" The Shape of Change: Essays in Early Modern Literature and La Fontaine in Honor of David Lee Rubin. Eds. Anne Birberick and Russell Ganim. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002, pp.181–196.
CALDER, ANDRE. The Fables of La Fontaine: Wisdom Brought Down to Earth. Geneva: Droz, 2001.
Review: T. Allot in FS 57.2 (2003). Calder "devotes himself to a wide-ranging and illuminating exploration of the [Fables'] moral instruction." The review notes positively the author's use of the Ancients in his analysis of La Fontaine and only regrets not having more Renaissance background to the Fables, in particular how emblems may have influenced the fabulist's thought.
Review: R. Runte in FR 76 (2003), 1002–03: Though in some ways erudite, invites a reading of the fables for pleasure. Comprised of self-contained chapters, Calder's book engages an assortment of critical approaches, with varied success. Particularly strong in its explanations of the Fables' classical origins.
DANDREY, PATRICK. La Fontaine; ou, les métamorphoses d'Orphée. Paris: Gallimard, 1995.
Review: M. Slater in FS 56.4 (2002). Part of the Découvertes Gallimard collection, this book is for the non-specialist. According to the reviewer, "Dandrey's volume is attractively presented, crammed with delightful illustrations. . . places, themes, people, [are] all informatively glossed. The degree of scholarship and the sheer amount of information conveyed are highly impressive." Dandrey's essay, built around the idea of metamorphosis, is written with "elegant concision" in a style that is "lapidary and paradoxical." While this may at times challenge the non-specialist, the work remains an "enjoyable introduction to La Fontaine."
DANNER, RICHARD. "Monkey Rhetoric and Donkey Discourse: Irony and Relativism in 'Le lion, le singe et les deux ânes' (Fables 11.5)." The Shape of Change: Essays in Early Modern Literature and La Fontaine in Honor of David Lee Rubin. Eds. Anne Birberick and Russell Ganim. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002, pp.197–216.
DAUVOIS, NATHALIE. "Entre Songe et Bergerie, l'héritage humaniste dans Le Songe de Vaux. Le Fablier, no. 14 (2002), 41–48.
Does not claim that La Fontaine knew Rémy Belleau's la Bergerie (2e ed. 1565 & 1572), since other models may have been used for le Songe, such as l'Astrée and Théophile de Viau's la Maison de Sylvie—but there are striking parallels between the two works.
DONNE, BORIS. Le microcosme lafontainien et ses sources renaissantes. Le Fablier, no. 14 (2002), 63–86.
Study of the Renaissance topos of man as a microcosm of animal characteristic elements. La Rochefoucauld's similar observations are quoted. La Fontaine's thoughts on the subject are studied in his Discours à Mme de la Sablière (Bk. IX of the Fables) and in the opening fable of Bk. XII, les Compagnons d'Ulysse.
GENETIOT, ALAIN. "La Fontaine et la lyre d'Orphée." Le Fablier, no. 14 (2003), 29–40.
Learned study of another important myth in theology and lyrical poetry, both celebratory (odes, hymns) and elegiac. Nostalgic evocation of Arcadia, locus amoenus, love of solitude and desire for a chosen circle of friends.
GRISE, CATHERINE M. Cognitive Space and Patterns of Deceit in La Fontaine's Contes. Charlottesville, VA: Rookwood, 1998.
Review: J. Gilroy in FR 76 (2002), 393–94: Concerned with how information falsified, rendered suspect, or distorted plays into 'patterns of deceit.' Reviewer notes that "On a deeper level, these stories raise the philosophical doubt concerning the reliability of human knowledge that was so common among seventeenth-century thinkers."
GRISE, CATHERINE. "La Fontaine's 'Les Filles de Minée': Weaving a Poetic Narrative." The Shape of Change: Essays in Early Modern Literature and La Fontaine in Honor of David Lee Rubin. Eds. Anne Birberick and Russell Ganim. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002, pp.239–264.
GRISE, CATHERINE. "'Les Filles de Minée': ekphrasis et moralité." Le Fablier, no. 14 (2002), 25–28.
Interesting study of a neglected mythological poem based on Ovid's Metamorphoses. Shows the discrepancy between the central part of the poem, the contest between Pallas-Athena and Neptune where Pallas triumphs, and the conclusion: the sisters, devotees of Pallas, are punished by Bacchus whom they had refused to honor.
HUBERT, JUDD. "Displacement in La Fontaine's Fables from Metaphor to Theater." The Shape of Change: Essays in Early Modern Literature and La Fontaine in Honor of David Lee Rubin. Eds. Anne Birberick and Russell Ganim. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002, pp.217–238.
LABURTHE-TOLRA, FRANÇOIS. "Hardiesse aveugle et hardiesse éclairée. Réflexion sur un vers de La Fontaine (Fables, X, 13)." Le Fablier, no.14 (2002), 87–96.
LEPLATRE, OLIVIER. Le pouvoir et la parole dans Les Fables de La Fontaine. Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 2002.
Review: Frédéric Briot in RSH 270 (avril–juin 2003), 198–99: A rather mixed review of this work that began as a 1996 doctoral thesis. Many of close readings of individual fables are "puissamment stimulantes" and "à forte valeur conceptuelle" in this five-part "confrontation entre le pouvoir (la politique) et la parole (tout aussi politique)." Also of note are the "réflexions sur la force et les institutions, sur le plaisir des mots et des mets, sur la force et la faiblesse de l'écriture poétique, et surtout ses valeurs d'intempestivité sont particulièrement à retenir." The reviewer nevertheless expresses several "réserves sérieuses," including: the author's limitation of his study to the Fables alone (and many fewer of them than the index suggests), which the reviewer sees as skewing critical perspective, the exaltation of force throughout, the use of a heteroclite group of thinkers, and the use of the Fables as a pretext for the deployment of critical savoir.
NEPOTE-DESMARRES, FANNY. "Genèse historique de la poétique lafontainienne de la fable: le rôle des 'humanistes' florentins." Le Fablier, no.14 (2002), 55–62.
Among the classics of Antiquity, Terence and Horace are presented as La Fontaine's master. Their modern followers are the Italian Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Ariosto and Tasso; they represent the freedom practiced by switching from one genre to another within the same fable, as in Le Pouvoir des fables.
PEUREUX, GUILLAUME. "'Arétin mitigé' ou Boccace des ruelles? Les ascendances facétieuses des Contes dans l'Italie de la Renaissance." Le Fablier, no. 14 (2002), 49–54.
Few attacks against the Contes for their material were made, apart from Furetière and the police. Discriminating readers, Chapelain, Bussy-Rabutin, Mme de Sévigné admired La Fontaine's art in the retelling of traditional tales from Boccaccio and other Italian sources, for the entertainment of society readers. They do not belong to erotic or libertine literature as such.
PRIEUR, COLETTE. "In memoriam Raymond Josse." Le Fablier, no. 1 (2002), 97–100.
PRUD'HOMME, PAULE. "Vie de la société et actualité de La Fontaine." Le Fablier, no. 14 (2002), 101–104.
RUBIN, DAVID LEE. "A Bee out of the Hive". VQR 79.3 (Summer, 2003), 555–58.
Situates Marc Fumaroli's Le Poète et le roi in the context of La Fontaine criticism from the 1960's to the 1990's.
RUNYON, RANDOLPH PAUL. In La Fontaine's Labyrinth: A Thread Through the Fables. Charlottesville, VA: Rookwood, 2000.
Review: A. Calder in FS 56.4 (2002). This book represents a further addition to works seeking to find a "hidden architecture" to the Fables, and indeed has a "useful" introduction summarizing earlier attempts. Runyon's study is "original and unusual" as it seeks to prove that "each fable—however obliquely—develops a theme from the one before." The author focuses on repeated clauses, words or expressions in contiguous fables. If this technique involves "excessive plot summary," and often forgets the intricacy of individual poems, the book nonetheless "warrant[s] attention."
Review: J.-P. Collinet in SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 224–225: Generally appreciative review notes Runyon's "fine acuité" in this "fertile enquête" which is based on minute research of thematic analogies and "effects d'écho. . .dans le vocabulaire." Although exhaustive, Runyon's examination is, at times, less than convincing. Collinet offers as a corrective the "je" in La Fontaine's dédicace en vers au Dauphin, inviting Runyon to reflect on it.
Review: R. Runte in FR 76 (2003), 812–13: Classing Runyon's book among "studies which might be termed "reconstructionist,"" i.e., works which attempt to gain sight of an overarching design amid an ensemble of textual fragments, the reviewer lauds this exhaustive, patient examination of La Fontaine. For reference use rather than extended reading, and sometimes unconvincing in the intentionality it ascribes to patterns and repetitions in La Fontaine's text, Runyon's work is nonetheless presented as engaging and useful in its tracing out of paths between fables which recall and anticipate one another.
SLATER, MAYA. The Craft of La Fontaine. London: Athlone, 2000.
Review: A Calder in FS 57.2 (2003). In this positive review, Slater's "multiple close readings" and dialogue with editors, critics and students gains praise. If the reviewer critiques the author's "readiness to overturn some Lafontainian reflections while accepting others," he states that Slater "develops in meticulous detail a picture of Lafontaine," and "[s]tudents and scholars should find this a useful book—and an enjoyable one too."
Review: M.-O. Sweetser in FR 76 (2002), 392–93: Grounded in elegant close readings, Slater's book illuminates La Fontaine's stylistic traits, paying particular attention to narrative voice. Favorable toward the possibility of "close and minute connections between the poems, which demonstrate that La Fontaine definitely saw a pattern in the collection." Thoroughly documents previous scholarship.
SWEETSER, MARIE-ODILE, Parcours lafontainien d'Adonis au Livre XII des Fables. Tübingen, G. Narr (Biblio 17, no. 150), 2003.
A collection of articles published in the last 25 years, revised and completed, covering the corpus from early works written for Fouquet, Adonis, le Songe de Vaux and occasional pieces, to the Fables and the Contes. They are considering questions of poetics, feminine images in some Contes and Psyché, relationships with patrons and friends as they appear in dedicatory epistles, strategies of education, reflexions on human nature and social conventions. Ambivalence and an open-minded attitude are characteristic traits of the poet as well as a variety of esthetic approaches.
SWEETSER, MARIE-ODILE. "Vénus et Adonis: le mythe et ses résurgences dans la tradition humaniste de la Renaissance européenne." Le Fablier, no. 14 (2002), 9–18.
Renaissance texts by Mellin de St.-Gellais, Ronsard, and Shakespeare. In the 17th c., Marino's Adone in connection with Poussin's paintings, La Fontaine. In music, John Blow's mask for the court of Charles II (c.1682). Persistance of the myth in the arts of the modern period.
VINCENT, MICHAEL. "Illustration, Image, and Emblem in La Fontaine's Fables." The Shape of Change: Essays in Early Modern Literature and La Fontaine in Honor of David Lee Rubin. Eds. Anne Birberick and Russell Ganim. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002, pp.265–286.
LEGAULT, MARIANNE. "Amitiés féminines dans Plus Belle que Fée de La Force: un modèle saphique." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 269–279.
Indicates to what extent La Force's tale provides a rare valorization not only of friendship among women, but also of female sexuality and homo-eroticism.
HINDS, LEONARD. "Paratext and Framing Narrative: Techniques of Skepticism in Le Parasite Mormon." FLS 29 (2002), 69–80.
Argues, through consideration of frontispieces, that La Mothe le Vayer's skepticism is in evidence in the anonymous text, which aims to undermine rhetorical sophistry.
MOREAU, ISABELLE. "Polémique libertine et querelle du purisme: La Mothe Le Vayer ou le refus d'un 《 art de plaire 》 au service du vulgaire." RHLF 103.2 (2003), 377–96.
Situates the polemic caused by Vaugelas' Remarques sur la langue française "dans le contexte plus large de l'expression académique propre au premier dix-septième siècle." Shows especially La Mothe Le Vayer's elitist desire to oppose any vulgarization of philosophy, one which provides "un témoignage de première main sur un bouleversement majeur de l'espace culturel à l'époque classique."
SALAZAR, PHILIPPE-JOSEPH. 'La Divine Sceptique': éthique et rhétorique au 17e siècle-Autour de La Mothe Le Vayer. Etudes Littéraires Françaises 68. Tübingen: Gunter-Narr, 2000.
Review: R. Parish in FS 56.4 (2002): According to the reviewer, this collection of previous published articles forms a "coherent sequence" of writing about La Mothe Le Vayer." In this "attractive and subtle synthesis" that discusses subjects such as language and violence, rhetoric, friendship and love, Salazar "links up the discreet strands of a scattered oeuvre, and. . . gives the reader enough guidance to facilitate the appreciation of a wide range of what clearly emerge as unjustifiably little-known texts."
CHARIATTE, ISABELLE. "Le frontispice des Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales de La Rochefoucauld: Une clé de lecture à plusieurs niveaux." RHLF 102.4 (2002), 637–43.
Proposes a new interpretation of the frontispiece, based on a comparison with an iconographical corpus of similar engravings. Maintains that it cannot be reduced to one message alone, and offers three possible levels of interpretation.
GALLAND-SZYMKOWIAK, MILDRED. "Le Mérite chez La Rochefoucauld ou l'héroïsme de l'honnêteté." RHLF 102.5 (2002), 799–811.
Seeks to show that, contrary to what has been affirmed by Bénichou, La Rochefoucauld does not destroy the idea of inherent aristocratic merit; instead, he transforms it by making it dependent on the social commerce of appearances.
POMMIER, RENE. Etudes sur les Maximes de La Rochefoulcauld. Saint-Pierre-du-Mont: Eurédit, 2000.
Review: D.J. Culpin in FS 57.2 (2003). Pommier's work comments on 25 of the maxims, selected because they are well known or raise particular problems of interpretation. The reviewer appreciates Pommier's "explication de texte" style which allows him to dialogue with the maxims as he engages vigorously with other scholars interpretations. "A book to be read with care, digested slowly and returned to often."
SHOEMAKER, PETER. "Au-delà de la Charette: les 'leçons' de La Rochefoucauld." OeC 27.1 (2002), 240–51.
"L'essai qui suit est composé de deux volets: 1) une réflexion 'théorique' sur les Maximes et l'hypertexte, et 2) la présentation d'un projet d'archive électronique déjà en cours."
WARNER, STUART D. and STEPHANE DOUARD, eds. Maximes. South Bend: St. Augustine's Press, 2001.
Review: D. J. Culpin in FS 57.1 (2003). According to the reviewer, "few academics will want to put this book on their reading lists." A short introduction, the illogical translations of key terms make this work less than desirable. Notably, the reviewer is "sorry to disagree with Jean Starobinski, who. . . thinks that 'this is a superb translation' and that the Introduction is 'brilliant'."
GUILLOT, CATHERINE. "Théâtralisation des passions et catharsis: le personnage de Cléopâtre dans le frontispice, signé Charles Le Brun, pour la Rodogune de Corneille (1647). PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 29–40.
Analyses the Rodogune frontispiece, particularly in the light of Le Brun's Conférence sur l'expression des passions (1668). Examines also what the frontispiece indicates in terms of "la gestualité" of the actress playing Cléopâtre.
SOSSA, PAOLA. "La Traduction de l'Enfer de Dante Alighieri par Philippe-Auguste Le Hardy (XVII siècle)." SFr XLVI, 136 (2002), 147–164.
Original and full treatment of Le Hardy's translation of Dante Alighieri. The manuscript of 500 pages includes an ink portrait of Dante and 40 pages on his life. Sossa finds the translation "assez confus et farfelu," (148); its execution was most likely suggested by Le Hardy's précepteur Chapelain. Le Hardy is incapable of rendering Dante's breadth of vocabulary and transforms l'Enfer by "l'insertion d'éléments stylistiques du XVIIe siècle" (153). Sossa reminds of Saint-Evremond's warning "à ne traduire les poètes si on ne l'est pas" (164).
LOSKOUTOFF, YVAN, L'armorial de Calliope. L'œuvre du Père Le Moyne, S.J. (1602–1671): littérature, héraldique, spiritualité. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17, 125) 2000.
Review: I. Noye in RHEF 88.220 (2002), 289–290. "Pierre Le Moyne. . . sera tiré de l'oubli par ce volume. L'auteur s'attache à l'épopée que ce poète baroque consacra en 1658 à Saint Louis ou la Sainte Couronne reconquise. Frappé par la place qu'y tient l'héraldique, il retient celle-ci comme clé d'un intelligence nouvelle de l'ensemble de son œuvre. [. . .] Le P. Le Moyne n'est pas seulement ramené en pleine lumière. Yvan Loskoutoff projette à l'entour un éclairage nouveau sur l'humanisme baroque à son couchant".
ASSAF, FRANCIS. La Mort du roi: Une thanatographie de Louis XIV. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag/Biblio 17, 1999.
Review: R. Racevskis in CdDS 8.2 (2003), 111–112: Book examines discourses surrounding the death of the king with respect to "the writing of history, to the conception that France constructed for itself of Louis XIV's reign, and to the prevailing definitions of kingship." Includes information on Medieval and Renaissance conceptions of the sovereign's body, as well as seventeenth-century additions to older ideas. The second part of the book points up fundamental resemblances between the writing of history and the oraison funèbre, which the author then goes on to adumbrate. Reviewer singles out for praise the chapter on the popular songs, critical of the king, that circulated after his death: "The author's ability to bring to light this kind of little-known commentary... provides new insights on the Sun King's reign and makes for fascinating reading."
CHRISTOUT, MARIE-FRANÇOISE. "Louis XIV et le ballet de cour ou le plus illustres danseurs (1651–1670)." RHT 215.3 (2002), 153–178.
This article details, along with many illustrations, Louis XIV's many appearances in the court ballets. Christout notes his growing interest and influence on the form and places the king's presence within a historical framework, and argues that his diverse artistic choices reveal a "profound" imagination that would eventually disappear behind impassive pride.
PETIET, CLAUDE, ed. Jean-Bertrand de Luppé du Garrané, Mémoires d'un chevalier de Malte au XVIIe siècle suivi des Mémoires de son neveu Jean-Bertrand de Larrocan d'Aiguebère. Paris: Paris-Méditerranée, 2001.
Review: B. Fonck in RHEF 88.220 (2002), 260–261. "Cette réédition, qui s'adresse à un large public, a le grand mérite de livrer, grâce à des récits riches d'enseignements tant institutionnels que techniques et géographiques, le quotidien de la vie sur les galères, et de permettre de mieux comprendre, à travers deux destins de chevaliers, le rôle dévolu à l'ordre de Malte dans les enjeux politiques, militaires et économiques de la Méditerranée du XVIIe siècle".
RIFFAUD, ALAIN. "Deux aventures éditoriales: Chryséide et Arimand de Mairet (1630), Cléagénor et Doristée de Rotrou (1634–1635). PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 9–27.
Examines the publication history of the two plays, and the light it throws on editorial practices and printing methods.
GANIM, RUSSELL. "Variations on the Virgin: Anne de Marquets's Depiction of Mary in the Sonets Spirituels." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 407–417.
Compares the representation of the Virgin Mary in de Marquets's Sonets Spirituels to that of Gabrielle de Coignard and Jean de La Ceppède. Ganim highlights the unconventional nature of the former's depiction of Mary as "a subjective, intellectual near-deity whose role occasionally borders on the messianic."
BUCCOLINI, CLAUDIO, ed. Marin Mersenne. L'usage de la saison. Coll. "Corpus des œuvres de philosophie en langue française." Paris: Fayard, 2002.
Review: J.-P. Cavaillé in RPFE 192.4 (2002), 457–459: "La publication de ce texte, paru en 1623, très rare (un seul exemplaire connu), est une fort bonne initiative. (...) Un texte intéressant à plus d'un titre (...), pour envisager les préalables des doctrines nouvelles des facultés qui vont bientôt fleurir autour de Mersenne (Descartes, Hobbes, Gassendi...), pour travailler sur la prégnance des métaphores politiques dans le discours anthropologique, etc. Enfin, une fois n'est pas coutume dans cette collection, il faut saluer la qualité philologique du travail, et l'exactitude typographique. On se prend alors à rêver d'une édition des mêmes textes, accompagnés de l'appareil critique sans lequel la plupart sont, disons-le, très difficilement lisibles et peu maniables."
PUTTERO, GIORGIA. "Documents inédits sur un traducteur de la première moitié du XVIIe siècle: Pierre Millot." SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 165–181.
Highly informative article with biographical details on Millot, material on the Collège de Bourg-en-Bresse, and on the "activité typographique" of the city during the 17th c. Thanks to this treatment and the critic's earlier article on literary and linguistic aspects (in press with Reinardus), we have a fuller picture of the work and context of this early modern translator of Aesop who was also a "rector des écoles." Reproduces several fascinating primary sources.
BOLT, RANJIT,trans. Molière. Tartuffe. Intro. byNicholas Dromgoogle London: Oberon, 2002.
Review: D. Shaw in MLR 98.2 (2002), 458–59: This translation into English octosyllabic rhyming couplets "keeps admirably close to the original and his version bristles with energy and wit." Reviewer notes that the introduction was destined for the theater-going public rather than Molière scholars and finds it "slightly disappointing" with "some questionable comments."
BRANTLEY, BEN. Performance review of Tartuffe. Dir. by Joe Dowling. Roundabout Theater. NYT (Jan 10 2003), B1, B4.
Praises Brian Bedford's "truly wondrous" portrayal of Orgon as much as, if not more than, Henry Goodman's "brilliantly canny" Tartuffe. The sets by John Lee Bailey give the 17th century setting "ravishingly detailed physical life." "More than just another attractively upholstered revival.
CROPPER, CORRY and STEWART FORBES. "Molière's Dom Juan: From Antiquity to Modernity." RomN 43 (2003), 199–207.
Authors use Benjamin's definition of the modern as a composite where the new and old are intermingled to reexamine idea of Dom Juan's modernity. Argue that Dom Juan rejects the recent past but uses the distant past to renegotiate the present. Dom Juan personifies extreme classical influence and exposes the hypocrisy of a Christian society that praises classicism.
DALLE, MATTHIEU. "De Molière à Marcel Bluwal: les formes baroques de Dom Juan." RHT 215.3 (2002), 179–92.
While this article focuses on a 1965 interpretation of Dom Juan, it offers a lengthy discussion of the baroque in general and its manifestations in Molière's play. The article will interest those studying Molière's reception during the twentieth century. Bluwal's direction focuses our attention on the baroque "existential anguish" and the "course vers la mort d'un être tourmenté."
DECKER-LALANDE, ROXANNE. Intruders in the Play World: The Dynamics of Gender in Molière's Comedies. London: Associated University Presses, 1996.
Review: N. Peacock in FS 57.1 (2003). This double review refers also to Constant Venesoen's book, Quand Jean-Baptiste joue du Molière (see "Venesoen" below). According to the reviewer, both of these psychoanalytical approaches seek to distance themselves from Charles Mauron's Oedipal readings of Molière. Venesoen's work concentrates on the playwright's psyche in his "self-therapeutic attempts to come to terms with his own amourous. . . situations," as well as "vengeance and paranoia." The whole is hampered by too much hypothesis and "lack of hard evidence," according to the reviewer. Lalande's work is seen much more positively. The reviewer calls it an "eclectic" gender-based study that also "provides interesting comments on areas beyond its immediate scope" and appreciates that "[f]emale roles are studied not in isolation but in the interplay between the sexes."
DEJEAN, JOAN. "The Work of Forgetting: Commerce, Sexuality, Censorship, and Molière's Le Festin de Pierre." CritI 29 (2002), 53–80:
Argues that state censorship of Dom Juan reacted to the play's portrayal of "mercantilism as winning out over both traditional religious values and the newly important sins of the flesh," a view which contradicted the new economic order endorsed by Louis XIV and Colbert. Suggests that France participated in a 'work of forgetting' in long accepting censored editions and rewritings of the play, failing to bring forward the 1683 Amsterdam edition.
DUCHENE, ROGER. Molière. Paris: Fayard, 1998.
Review: N. Peacock in FS 57.1 (2003). In this very positive review, Duchêne is praised for not having fallen into the interpretive traps of too many of his predecessors, for the light he sheds on some of Molière's familial influences, and for his reevaluation of the playwright's targets. The reviewer praises Duchêne's breadth of knowledge of seventeenth-century historical, social and literary history that is put to use here. "[U]ne documentation précieuse pour les amateurs de théâtre de cette époque et un ouvrage de référence pour les moliéristes."
FERNEY, FREDERIC. Performance review of L'Avare. Dir. Daniel Benoin. Théâtre Silvia-Monfort. Le Point 1586 (Feb 7 2003), 111.
"Une vision presque onirique par endroits, servie par une distribution solide... On entrevoit quels monstres couvent dans le cerveau halluciné de Molière."
FERNEY, FREDERIC. Performance review of Monsieur de Pourceaugnac. Dir. Philippe Adrien. Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. Le Point 1601 (May 23 2003), 126.
"Philippe Adrien extrait de la farce des trésors de perversité et de noirceur. . .. Un joyeux cauchemar."
GOODE, WILLIAM O. "From Revolt into Servitude: The Conflict Between Noble and King in Molière's Amphitryon." CdDS 8.2 (2003), 33–42.
Analyzes the play as a representation of the feudal nobleman's submission to the monarch.
GRIMM, JURGEN. Molière. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2002 (Sammlung Metzler, 212).
Review: C. Bourqui in PFSCL XXX (58), 271–273: Second edition of Grimm's Molière 《 revue et actualisée 》. Reviewer comments that it is 'la pertinence et la précision de l'information qui confèrent toute sa singularité au volume consacré à Molière. Tant la partie principale, consacrée à un parcours chronologique des comédies, que les chapitres introductifs ayant pour objet le contexte de création (sociologique, biographique et esthétique) donnent lieu à un exposé tenant compte de manière remarquablement équilibrée des diverses tendances actuelles de la recherche. Dans ce souci d'actualisation, l'auteur s'est d'ailleurs appliqué à refondre certains passages (au premier chef ceux concernant Les Précieuses ridicules et Les Femmes savantes) et en a subtilement amendé plusieurs autres en fonction des parutions marquantes des deux dernières décennies." Reviewer particularly appreciates the new updated bibliography which now contains over 500 titles, making it "le plus grand ensemble bibliographique consacré à Molière." The text itself resembles an "essai." "La conviction qu'on ne peut comprendre correctement l'œuvre de Molière qu'en la replaçant dans le contexte de l'époque, amène l'auteur à accorder une attention privilégiée aux questions historiques et sociologiques. L'interprétation qui en résulte. . . s'attache à décrire l'évolution de Molière à la lumière de ses rapports avec Louis XIV. [. . .] L'angle de vision adopté par Jürgen Grimm le conduit à souligner la dimension critique, sur le plan social et politique, qu'on peut déceler dans la comédie moliéresque."
HILGAR, MARIE-FRANCE. Onze mises en scènes parisiennes du théâtre de Molière, 1989–1994. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag/Biblio 17, 1997.
Review: D. Steinberger in CdDS 8.2 (2003), 113–115: "Summarizes and comments upon the critical reception of eleven productions of Molière's plays from the period 1989–1994." Author's own view tends towards the more conservative, eschewing, for instance, bawdiness. Reviewer feels that the best parts of the book are comparisons of versions of the same play, and regrets that the corpus is so temporally and geographically (i.e., Paris) limited; also finds puzzling and arbitrary the choice of critics cited. "An informative work," enlivened by "the author's candor and her evident love and enthusiasm for her subject."
HONG, RAN E. L'Impossible social selon Molière. Biblio 17, 135. Tübingen: Narr, 2002.
Review: W. D. Howarth in FS 57.4 (2003). Though Hong's work missteps in the beginning by getting off topic, it develops into and "interesting and persuasive study," in the reviewer's words. The most interesting and scholarly pertinent parts of the book are found in the study of laws, customs and mores found in the real world of the time. By establishing this background, the reviewer intimates, Molière's richness as a source for understanding seventeenth-century society is yet again revealed in this "pertinent research."
KNIGHT, EFRIN. "Anouilh et Molière." RHT 216.4 (2002), 331–46.
Analyzes the influence of Molière in Anouilh's works as seen in both the construction of the twentieth-century author's plays and in his characters individually. Knight reiterates and explains Anouilh's belief in the liberating effect of Molière in French theater history through numerous examples in both of the authors' productions. Anouilh, he posits, saw Molière as a master to be imitated, though obliquely.
LACHAUX-LEFEBVRE, DANY. Le Discours dans le spectacle en musique de 1661 à 1686: des comédies de divertissements de Molière aux tragédies lyriques de Quinault. Tübingen, Gunter Narr, 2000 (Biblio 17, no. 140).
MENDELSOHN, DANIEL. Molière, Corneille, Rumsfeld. NYT September 13, 2003.
In this humorous article, Mendelsohn debunks Dominique Labbé's work (Corneille dans l'ombre de Molière) by performing a similar statistical analysis on his own works and Donald Rumsfeld's public discourse. In his examination, Mendelsohn "proves" he is actually the author of the Defense Secretary's speeches: "The implications are plain: the same distinctive intellect is responsible for the rhetoric of both 'Rumsfeld' and 'Mendelsohn'."
NORMAN, LARRY. The Public Mirror: Molière and the Social Commerce of Depiction. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1999.
Review: M.-F. Hilgar in FR 76 (2002), 394–95. Argues that Molière's comedies served as mirrors in which audience members recognized themselves (with varying results, ranging from amusement to misrecognition to anger.) Presents Molière's awareness that he must "make the audience recognize the people of our time" as the catalyst for his provocative one-act theatrical experiments, as for his realistic depiction of salon culture in Le Misanthrope, said to set a precedent for later comedies of manners.
Review: N. Peacock in FS 57.1 (2003). In the reviewer's words, "Norman takes the social genesis of the comedies beyond paradigms of audience collaboration. . . to include the audience's role as author [. . .] the notion of a conservative, even reactionary dramatist is challenged." The reviewer appreciates Norman's scrutiny of audience reaction and of Molière's responses to his critics. On the whole, Norman provides a "subtle, detailed analysis of a highly complex subjet" and is a "stimulating addition" to scholarship on Molière.
PINEAU, JOSEPH. Le Théâtre de Molière: une dynamique de la liberté. Paris: Minard, 2000 (coll. Situation, 54).
Review: J. Gaines in PFSCL XXX, 58 (2002), 285–287: "This elegantly written volume treats the entire Molière canon in chronological order from a very eclectic perspective. The dynamics mentioned in the title have to do with the theme of two contrasting but complementary notions of theatricality, one stemming from the tradition of the farce and the other from the more learned exigencies of high comedy and its attendant concerns of character development, plot articulation, and timely topicality. The emphasis on liberty in the title bespeaks the authors' study of an emergent ethic that rejects a wide range of rigidity and constraint both in the literary realm and beyond. However, Pineau does not fall into the all-too-common practice of interpreting Molière as an unmitigated crypto-Jacobin. On the contrary, he sensibly investigates the playwright's conservatism in many stylistic as well as social aspects of the plays, and takes pains to define his attitudes toward the Sun King. [. . .] From his discussion of Le Tartuffe on through the major comedies, Pineau develops a psychological frame of reference that he will apply to most of the great monomaniacs, that of a pervasive infantilism. The idea that these strongly sociopathic individuals reject the responsibilities of the adult universe in exchange for the illusory peace and order of an inner childhood works better with some protagonists than with others. [. . .] If Pineau is at his strongest with Mascarille, Sganarelle, and the monomaniacs, he is perhaps at his weakest with the comedy-ballets and some of the more serious later plays. [. . .] Pineau's book offers an excellent basis for discussion of both individual works and the entire canon, particularly for readers who may have a passing acquaintance with a couple of plays, but seek an overall perspective in which to judge them."
POLSKY, ZACHARY SAMUEL. Molière's Machines: Comedy, Narrative, and Politics. DAI 63/8 (2003), 2889.
Uses the Bergsonian concept of automatism to argue that "[t]he chaotic space of the Moliéresque stage can... be interpreted as a kind of backwards, upside-down funhouse mirror for the performance of absolutist monarchical power, and vice-versa."
RIGGS, LARRY. "Dom Juan in the Country: The Self-Fashioning Individual as Itinerant Fraud." CdDS 8.2 (2003), 43–53.
Looks at Molière's "authoritarian buffoons," of which Dom Juan is one, as representatives of an early modern shift in the nature of value, as economic individualism and autonomy displace traditional constraints.
SCOTT, VIRGINIA. Molière: A Theatrical Life. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.
Review: G. Smith in TJ 55 (2003), 373–74. Scott surrounds the character of Molière with in-depth cultural history of Paris. Considers plays as indicators of values and ideas. Part of her agenda is to recognize the libertine as well as the man of letters. Reviewer disappointed that there are only eleven illustrations and wishes there were more focus on the actors, but finds this a scholarly and accessible work.
Review: E. Woodrough in MLR 97.4 (2002), 965–67: "Scott takes almost as much interest in Molière mythology, which is the starting point for many of the episodes in the book, as in establishing the facts of the case. Her elegantly written 'Theatrical Life' is theatrical in the sense that it is more concerned than a number of other biographies with the plays. It is a theatrical life, too, because it gives space to so many of the most colourful and dramatic stories of what Molière did or may have done, in those rare moments when he was off stage and off duty." Palmer, Mongrédien, and Grimarest are the principal references for this renewal of the tradition of the Molière biography, "the first full-length life to be published in English for seventy years—replacing J. J. Palmer's Molière (1930), last reprinted in 1970." With the exception of Duchêne's Molière (Fayard, 1998), Scott's bibliography includes "perhaps deliberately" few post-1990 works.
SORMAN, RICHARD. Savoir et économie dans l'oeuvre de Molière. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2001.
Review: R. McBride in FS 57.2 (2003). In this study about characters in Molière "who look either for knowledge or economic profit. . . to make good their 'manque de complétude," the author uses psychoanalytical and more traditional analysis. Sorman provides some "excellent observations on the importance of the episodes involving young lovers," but the reviewer remains more skeptical about the homosexuality of précieuses and femmes savantes. Though this work exhibits some of the "danger of divorcing the study of Molière from. . . dramaturgical considerations," it remains "readable" and "at times illuminating."
Review: D. Shaw in MLR 98.1 (2003), 198–99: Thought-provoking study of the psychology of Moliéresque characters from a structuralist perspective, "but one sometimes feels that the plays are adapted to fit the theory, rather than the reverse." Impressive erudition of particular value to scholars of psychoanalytical and structural criticism.
TOBIN, RONALD W. "La fête gastronomique." Molière et la fête. Actes du colloque international de Pézenas, 7–8 juin 2001. Ed. J. Emelina. Pézenas, n.d.: 331–342.
Article presents various aspects of "le savoir gastronomique" in fashion in Molière's time, positing that Molière "met en scène des repas qui rappellent l'acte central et éminemment spectaculaire de la tradition occidentale, à savoir, la Cène," and confirming that La Varenne, author of Le Cuisinier françoys, was a significant source for Molière. Article then focuses on "le rapport entre la femme et la gastronomie. . . dans L'Ecole des femmes," since "Le monomane est impulsif et, pour la plupart d'entr'eux, l'objet de la consommation préféré, c'est la femme." Tobin concludes that Molière's women have in common the fact that "elles ne se nourrissent pas dans les comédies."
VENESOEN, CONSTANT. Quand Jean-Baptiste joue du Molière. Paris-Seattle-Tübingen. Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, 1996.
Review: N. Peacock in FS 57.1 (2003). This double review refers also to Roxanne Decker-Lalande's book, Intruders in the Play World (see "Decker," above). According to the reviewer, both of these psychoanalytical approaches seek to distance themselves from Charles Mauron's Oedipal readings of Molière. Venesoen's work concentrates on the playwright's psyche in his "self-therapeutic attempts to come to terms with his own amourous. . . situations," as well as "vengeance and paranoia." The whole is hampered by too much hypothesis and "lack of hard evidence," according to the reviewer.
WATERSON, KAROLYN. "Recensement de la population féminine des comédies de Molière." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 85–96.
Presents the 86 female characters who appear in Molière's comedies (with the exception of L'Impromptu de Versailles) from a sociological point of view, under the headings of age-group, socio-geographic provenance, social class, familial/marital status.
WEBER, BRUCE. Performance review of Don Juan. Dir. Bartlett Sher. Theater for a New Audience. NYT (Apr 9 2003), E6.
"More ambivalent and shrewd in its attitude toward the unprincipled Don Juan than it is condemning"; "It is in the acting that the moral complications of 'Don Juan' are best delineated," including Byron Jennings as the title character.
ZANGANEH, LILA AZAM. Not Molière! Ah, Nothing Is Sacred. Article. NYT September 6, 2003.
Zanganeh reports on the "scandale" created by Dominique Labbé's book Corneille dans l'ombre de Molière. Quotes from well-known critics such as Joan DeJean and Georges Forestier. Though the article clearly seeks to report on the social phenomenon of the debate, it nonetheless leans heavily toward a debunking of Labbé's statistics-based thesis.
HILTON, LISA. Athénaïs: The Real Queen of France. London: Little, Brown, 2002.
Review: A. Gooden in TLS 5221 (April 25 2003), 26. Hilton has done a certain amount of homework about historical context, but says nothing new about her subject. Text studded with misquotations, mistranslations and misspellings of French words. The footnoting is inadequate, and the narrative too often sacrifices precision to titillation.
MENIEL, BRUNO. "La disposition des Amours diverses d'Antoine de Nervèze. EF 38.3 (2002): 93–105.
Demonstrates that in the 1611 collection of his novels, the author orders them according not to chronology, but rather according to their ending, with those ending with marriage preceding those ending with religious vows. Suggests that this sequencing mirrors the spiritual evolution of the author in which he wishes to abandon writing secular texts.
BERRIOT-SALVADORE, EVELYNE. "《 Une recollection 》: la disposition des Œuvres d'Ambroise Paré." EF 38.3 (2002): 81–92.
Suggests that in the 1575 collected works of Paré, there exists a tension between the rational order necessary to define and describe surgical practices and the scientist's observations of "les causes et les effets des merveilles de la nature, dont le corps humain est le plus admirable des exemples."
BOITANO, JOHN F. The Polemics of Libertine Conversion in Pascal's Pensées: A Dialectics of Rational and Occult Libertine Beliefs. Tübingen: Gunter Narr (Biblio 17, no. 139).
BORD, ANDRE. La vie de Pascal. Paris: Beauchesne, 2000.
Review: M. Adam in RPFE 192.4 (2002), 443: "Alors que la plupart de ouvrages consacrés à Pascal partent de son oeuvre, c'est ici la vie qui est prise comme principe d'approche, pour retrouver un Pascal réel et donner un nouvel éclairage sur l'oeuvre elle-même. (...) Cette étude attentive de la vie de Pascal permet bien de situer les œuvres dans leur contexte historique, dans des problématiques existentielles, dans le cheminement de la vie spirituelle. C'est bien l'homme que l'on retrouve derrière l'oeuvre."
FERREYROLLES, GERARD, ed. Pascal. Pensées. Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 2000.
Review: E. R. Koch in PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 266–269. Reviewer rehearses the textual challenges that any editor of Pascal faces before turning to the present edition, which he describes as "a very important and welcome contribution because of Ferreyrolles' cogent argument for according editorial priority to the second copy [of the manuscript], his evenhanded presentation of the état présent of Pascal studies, his detailed notes, and the extensive primary and critical bibliography." Furthermore "the annotations of this edition are extremely impressive and constitute an important guide to the reader".
FORCE, PIERRE. Géométrie, finesse, et premiers principes chez Pascal. Romance Quarterly 50.2 (2003), 121–30.
Explores Pascal's famed distinction between "l'esprit de géométrie" and "l'esprit de finesse," presenting the two not as polar opposites, but as related capacities which differ principally in terms of the scale with which each perceives its object of study. Also touches upon the role of feeling in judgment.
JONES, MATTHEW L. Three Errors about Indifference: Pascal on the Vacuum, Sociability, and Moral Freedom. Romance Quarterly 50.2 (2003), 99–119.
Brings forth Pascal's rejection of Jesuit claims concerning the existence of a natural order formed on the basis of all things' inclinations toward their "proper good," predispositions from which, however, man was said to be fancy-free in his moral choices. Jones presents Pascal as contesting both this natural order and this indifference, the latter's experiments and reflections having led him to opposite conclusions. Captivating and lucid.
MECHOULAN, ERIC. On Power: Theology and Sovereignty in Pascal's Pensées. Romance Quarterly 50.2 (2003), 85–98.
Probes Pascal's reflections on imagination as the force which creates binding social relations after central powers have established themselves. Aligns Pascal with Foucault's thinking on power.
NEMOIANU, VIRGIL MARTIN. Blaise Pascal on Skepticism and Order. DAI 63/6 (2002), 2271.
"[P]roposes to show the way in which Pascal's philosophy of mind—his conception of order and the relation of reason, the emotions, and the will to the self—which emerges from his skepticism, can be used to draw out his views on morality, despite the fragmentary state of the [Pensées]."
PUGH, ANTHONY R.. "The Order of Pascal's Pensées: A Continuing Debate". PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 89–111.
Argues in favor of the validity of the order recorded in the Table of headings in the two BN copies of the Pensées.
SUSINI, LAURENT. "La 《 vraie éloquence 》 en question dans les Pensées de Pascal." RHLF 103.1 (2003), 17–29.
Argues that real eloquence for Pascal is not exactly a matter of persuasion, but rather prepares the conditions for persuasion "par l'abêtissement dans l'humilité."
WETSEL, DAVID and CANOVAS, FREDERIC. Pascal / New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. Avec la collaboration de Philippe Sellier et Pierre Force. Actes de Tempe, t. I, 2001. Tübingen, G. Narr (Biblio 17, no. 143), 2002.
LE GUERN, MICHEL. "Les lettres de Jacqueline Pascal." RHLF 103.2 (2003), 267–73.
An account of the 30 or so extant letters of Blaise Pascal's sister.
CULPIN, D. J, ed. Charles Perrault. Les Hommes illustres: Avec leurs portraits au naturel. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2003 (Biblio 17, no. 142). Notes, variants, bibliography, index; 535pp.
POISSON, JEAN-MARC. "Pour une approche interactive de l'enseignement des textes littéraires au niveau intermédiaire: Les Contes de Perrault." CdDS 8.2 (2003), 77–82.
Looks at how teachers can use the Contes as part of a pedagodical strategy encouraging rereading.
SAUPE, YVETTE. Les Contes de Perrault et la mythologie, rapprochements et influences. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag/Biblio 17, 1997.
Review: J. M. Zarucchi in CdDS 8.2 (2003: Author draws attention to the Contes' mythological sources. Study is organized thematically, and generally argues that Perrault's goal was to desacralize the mythological tradition. Reviewer feels that this aspect was not sufficiently proven, and that, though there are undeniably mythological resemblances and reappearing folkloric themes, it is less clear how this knowledge helps us appreciate Perrault's work. Finally, reviewer notes a number of bibliographic omissions, which end up limiting the book's scholarly contribution.
SAUPE, YVETTE, ed. Les Frères Perrault et Beaurain: Les Murs de Troye; ou, l'Origine du burlesque. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2001.
Review: D. F. Connon in FS 57.2 (2003). In this "satisfyingly thorough" edition of the first book of Les Murs de Troye, Saupé "gives a strong analysis of burlesque techniques within the text" and makes the Perrault Brother's debt to Scarron clear. Though the reviewer questions some of the modernizations of spelling, "the presentation. . .is punctilious" for this "helpful edition of an interesting text."
BOSLEY, VIVIEN. "A Voice for Women: Poullain de la Barre and the Philosophical Dialogue au féminin." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 125–136.
Examines the representation of the two female protagonists, Sophia and Eulalie, in Poullain's De l'Education des Dames (1674).
HARRIS, ANN SUTHERLAND. "The Subject of Poussin's 'Landscape with a Woman Bathing' in Ottawa." Burlington 1201 (2003), 292–296.
Identifies the figures in this monumental Poussin landscape as Vertumnus and Pomona, who are being watched by a satyr. Connects these characters with themes of fertility and sterility present in Poussin's works and personal life.
PAVESIO, MONICA, ed. Jean Prévost. Hercule. Torino: Edizioni dell'Orso: 2001.
Review: S. Lardon in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 219–220: Appreciated for its serious qualities, the clarity of its introduction, presentation and notes, this edition of one of Prévost's texts is welcomed by Lardon who believes it should prove useful to scholars and students alike. Life and work of Prévost is illuminated, notes and bibliography are rich; Lardon's only reserve is the somewhat sketchy glossary.
GUILLOT, CATHERINE. "Les illustrations du martyre de Sainte Catherine de Puget de La Serre: des images à référence scénique." In DSS no. 211 (2001): 307–322.
Review: C. Torelli in SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 222: Judged a "preziossimo strumento", Guillot's article is a valuable contribution to our knowledge about the theatrical representation of a religious text of the period. Elucidates relations between space and characters, scenic space and dramatic space.
NORMAN, BUFORD. Touched by the Graces: the Libretti of Philippe Quinault in the Context of French Classicism. Birmingham, AL: Summa, 2001.
Review: C. Batson in FR 76.6 (2003), 1239: Though the massive work concentrates on the libretti themselves, Norman contextualizes them within their historical and courtly frameworks. Includes discussion of Quinault's prologues and a run-through of basic notions such as dramatic and lyric classification, vraisemblance, and le merveilleux. "[R]emarkably straightforward;" "traditional" while also demonstrating "an awareness of feminist concerns."
ARONS, WENDY. Performance review of Phèdre, directed by JoAnne Akalaitis. Trans Paul Schmidt. Court Theatre, Chicago. September 21, 2002. TJ 55 (2003), 323–25.
Akalaitis puts "post-modern spin on neo-classical stylization." Jenny Bacon as Phèdre "infuses the character with a blend of passion-induced psychosis and guilt-ridden neurosis."
BABY, HELENE and JEAN EMELINA, eds. Racine et la Méditerranée, Soleil et mer, Neptune et Apollon. Nice: Université de Nice-Sophia Antopolis, 1999.
Review: G. Jucquois in LR 55 (2001): 178–179: Pertinent essays embody a wide-range of perspectives:critical, historical, geographical, dramatic, poetic, religious and pedagogical.
BATTESTI, JEAN-PIERRE and JEAN-CHARLES CHAUVET. Tout Racine. Paris: Laurousse, 1999.
Review: G. Jucquois in LR 55 (2001): 178–179: In the context of a review of Baby and Emelina's edited volume Racine et la Méditerranée, Jucquois notes that the thématiques of the volume are surprisingly not found in Battesti and Chauvet's dictionary. For Jucquois this simply points to the complexity of disciplines and the impossibility of exhaustiveness. The dictionary includes an interesting iconographic dossier and analyses the "mythe racinien" in its various embodiments.
BLANC, ANDRE. Racine. Trois siècles de théâtre. Paris: Fayard, 2003.
Review: M. Slater in TLS 5233 (July 18 2003), 27. A "valuable addition to the Racine canon." Blanc tells Racine's life in exhaustive detail. Has same meticulousness when treating plays and their sources and when providing brief analyses. Final section treats the fate of Racine's theatre from his death to present. Includes accounts of stage productions and of critical appreciation. Useful material for academics and for theatre directors.
BRABANT, ROGER. "Gloire et ironie circonstancielle dans la Phèdre de Racine." RevR 37.1 (2002), 67–86:
Etude en deux volets qui traite de la réception de la pièce et de l'interprétation du personnage principal: "On ne peut donc que s'étonner de ce qu'une tragédie sur laquelle l'obsession de la gloire pèse une fois de plus de tout son poids, et qui puise en outre l'essentiel de son pathétique dans la haute fréquence de l'ironie circonstancielle, ait pu passer pour une oeuvre brillant avant tout par l'exaltation de la vertu."
CALDICOTT, EDRIC & DERVAL CONROY, eds. Racine: The Power and the Pleasure. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2001.
Review: V. Desnain in MLR 98.2 (2003), 459–60: "This collection is the product of the conference organized in Dublin for the tercentenary of Racine's death. Thematically, the emphasis is on stage representation; within this, four chapters. . . deal specifically with gender and three focus on music. In this the collection reflects recent trends in seventeenth-century French theatre studies."
CODY, GABRIEL. Performance review of "To You, The Birdie" (Phèdre), directed by Elisabeth Le Compte. Trans. Paul Schmidt. The Wooster Group, St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY, March 23, 2002. TJ 55 (2003), 173.
A futuristic production. "Le Compte and her company indict the ideological underpinnings of high tragedy by brilliantly inveighing against the histrionics of privileged and personal suffering."
CRONK, NICHOLAS. "Vénus tout entière." TLS 5212 (Feb 21 2003) 17.
Letter in which Cronk comments on the original spelling of this verse from Phèdre and notes that it deliberately echoes Horace (Odes I.19.9–10).
FERNEY, FREDERIC. Performance review of Esther. Dir. Alain Zaepffel. Comédie-Française. Le Point 1604 (Jun 13 2003), 126.
"Il y a dans ce spectacle des lueurs de vitrail, toute l'austère et sublime harmonie d'un tableau de Philippe de Champaigne. On est d'abord étonné, puis séduit par cette alliance reconquise entre la musique et la voix, la parole et le chant."
FERNEY, FREDERIC. Performance review of Phèdre. Dir. Patrice Chéreau. Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe. Le Point 1586 (Feb 7 2003), 110.
"Chéreau habite tout l'espace où les comédiens si loin et si proches de nous semblent arrachés au monde des vivants. Hormis les costumes ostensiblement décalés, tout est beau, tout est miraculeusement exaucé, d'une parole pure, sèche, inouïe."
LE ROUX, MONIQUE. Performance reviews of Andromaque, directed by Jean-Louis Martinelli, Théâtre de Nanterre Amandiers, until April 6, 2003, and Phèdre, directed by Patrice Chéreau, Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe aux ateliers Berthier, until April 20, 2003. QL 850 (du 16 au 31 mars 2003), 23–24.
Reviewer observes much influence by Roland Barthes on Martinelli in his emphasis on "diction" over "interpretation" as well as in the stage design ("Cette 'Anti-Chambre' est bien 'l'espace du langage' analysé par Barthes. . ."). Reviewer says that in contrast, Chéreau places more importance on interpretation "à sa manière totalement singulière." Reviewer especially admires the performance by Dominique Blanc in the role of Phèdre ("Cette très grande comedienne porte 'toutes les contradictions du désir' voulues par son metteur en scène avec un pouvoir de métamorphose, une capacité d'émotion rares").
MARTIN, ISABELLE and ELBAZ, ROBERT, eds. Jean Racine et l'Orient. Actes d'un colloque international tenu à l'Université de Haïfa, 14–16 avril, 1999. Tübingen, G. Narr (Biblio 17, no.148), 2003.
Articles sur les différentes pièces.
MERA, BRIGITTE. "Racine et Shakespeare." RDM (mars 2003), 173–76.
Article consacré à la version de Phèdre montée par Patrice Chéreau aux Ateliers Berthier. Mera loue la distribution (Doninique Blanc en Phèdre; Eric Huf en Hippolyte; Michel Duchaussoy en Théramène; Christiane Cohendy en Oenone) et la finesse du jeu, mais n'apprécie guère les "costumes absolument hideux", et trouve la suppression des quatre derniers vers de Thésée difficilement acceptable: ce qui "lui ôte en effet toute possibilité d'expier sa faute en reversant sur Aricie un amour filial bien mal employé, il est vrai."
MIERNOWSKI, JAN. Le plaisir de la tragédie et la haine de soi: Le cas de La Thébaïde de Racine. Poétique 134 (2003), 207–21.
Illustrates ferocious hate which approaches love in Racine's early work, and which in the case of mirrored twin characters, becomes a 'haine de soi.' Miernowski presents Senault's 1641 "Du bon usage de la haine," as well as subtle commentary from La Rochefoucauld, which the author aligns with the ethos of the Thébaïde. Suggests that audience members, in watching scenes of the twins' 'haine de soi,' find a parallel with their own spectatorship as they both despise and identify with the characters.
NANCY, CLAIRE. Iphigénie, d'Euripide à Racine. Une réécriture. Poétique 129 (2002), 33–50.
Examines Iphigénie as Racine's first truly Greek-style play, written with a visible grounding in Aristotle's Poetics, yet diverging from Euripides in making its tragedy one of passion and purgation rather than action.
NIDERST, ALAIN. Le Travail de Racine: essai sur la composition des tragédies de Racine. Saint-Pierre-du-Mont: Eurédit, 2001.
Review: R. Tobin in PFSCL XXX (58), 280–282. "This is the kind of book that only a veteran scholar could write". Reviewer sees Niderst as "endeavoring to reunite the elements that form a genetic picture of Racine at work." Indicates the inclusion of "enlightening comparisons between Racine and his predecessors" in addition to "the most extensive development yet of Racine's possible debt to the novelists and poets of his age," unsurprising given Niderst's "expertise in Corneille and his contemporaries" and the fact that he was also a novel specialist. "What the reader may not be prepared for is Niderst's interdisciplinary foray into contemporary painting as a possible inspiration for Racine. [. . .] Given the place of this book in Niderst's career, it is inevitable that it reveal more personal positions and tastes than earlier works. [. . .] In fact it is both a commentary on innumerable Racinian texts and a dialogue with Racine, as Niderst seeks to unlock the secrets of Racine's art as he plans one play after another to form a view of the origins of modernity. [. . .] While Le Travail de Racine is exceedingly rich, one can still find debatable practices and conclusions. Structurally, Niderst follows the classical principle of Repetitio est mater studiorum perhaps too faithfully, and the book is marred by an unusual number of typographical errors." Reviewer indicates a number of points with which he disagrees; then concludes "But there is little point to such cavils when the book is informed by insights that inspire wisdom from the beginning to. . . the end."
RACEVSKIS, ROLAND. "Subjective Dispersion in Iphgénie or the Unbearable Fullness of Being." FrF 27.2 (2002), 13–27.
Close reading and careful attentiveness to language characterize Racevskis's penetrating examination of this "drama of anticipation in excess" (13). Thus in the section "Wandering in the Dark" (14–18), the strange compound verb "semblent cacher l'entrée" is found to be "pregnant with the overdetermination of these woods as an in between space of confusion, a temporary obstacle" (18). Similar attention to linguistic, poetic and rhetorical elements illustrates Racevskis's section "Full to Overflowing" (18–22); even a comma is found to "denote Arcas's moment of decision" (21). "Selves in Dispersion" (22–26) is illuminated by discoveries of doubling (description and linguistic elements) which "represents in verse form a distended subjectivity" (22–23) and by analysis of alliteration revelatory of a "dispersion of self through blood" (23). Appropriately referring the reader to Montaigne's "Nos affections s'emportent au-delà de nous," Racevskis concludes that "Iphigénie is the dramatic realization, in the age of French classicism of this universal predicament. This interested reader would hope for a future article by Racevskis which would flesh out the highly suggestive last phrase to the effect that the "theatrical pose" struck by "Agamemnon, his family and his emerging nation," is "both unique and wholly characteristic of Racine's highest art" (26).
REISS, TIMOTHY. "Andromaque and the Search for Unique Sovereignty." The Shape of Change: Essays in Early Modern Literature and La Fontaine in Honor of David Lee Rubin. Eds. Anne Birberick and Russell Ganim. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002, pp.23–52.
ROHOU, JEAN. Avez-vous lu Racine? Mise au point polémique. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2000.
Review: A. M. Mazziotti in SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 226: Praiseworthy in particular for its "dense treatment" of love and its manifestations in Racine (ch. 12). Attentive to the nature and function of Racine's tragedies, underscores their violent passions and their Augustinian "schema antropologico," dialoguing with Sellier. Polemical in tone as indeed the title indicates, Rohou's work takes on a number of 20th c. interpretations, notably Barthes's in the last chapter.
WYGANT, AMY. Towards a Cultural Philology. Phèdre and the Construction of "Racine." Oxford: Legenda, 1999.
Review: n.a. in FMLS 38 (2002): 360: Praiseworthy for its wit and pluridisciplinary approach, Wygant's volume will be especially valuable for scholars of cultural identity. Includes with varying success, treatments of philology, music, poetry, design, death, art (Rubens's Death of Hippolytus and Le Nôtre's Labyrinthe at Versailles), the Sublime.
BERTIERE, SIMONE. Bibliographie des écrivains français: Le Cardinal de Retz. Paris: Mémini, 2000.
Review: Y. Le Bozec in DSS 220 (2003), 556–557: The reviewer indicates that Bertière here renders an indispensable bibliography of scholarly works and documentary evidence on the life and influence of the Cardinal.
PARROTT, DAVID. Richelieu's Army: War, Government and Society in France, 1624–1642. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001.
Review: T. Worcester in SCN 60 (2002) 278–281: Although the reviewer criticizes this book for its unwieldy length and a certain lack of socio-historical interpretation, Worcester, nevertheless, finds it to be an interesting re-interpretation of the scope and reach of Richelieu's power. "Parrott does an excellent job of demonstrating the pragmatic and reactive nature of Richelieu's military policies." Central to Parrott's argument is the notion that "the Cardinal did not carry out—at least in the military sphere—a master plan that achieved centralization of power and subordination of unruly elites". The reviewer draws the following conclusion from Parrott's work: "if France ultimately emerged from the Thirty Years War in a powerful position, it must have been due to factors other than a brilliant Richelieu at the helm."
WOLLENBERG, JÖRG. "Richelieu et le système européen de sécurité collective. La bibliothèque du Cardinal comme centre intellectuel d'une nouvelle politique." In DSS no. 210 (2001): 99–112.
Review: A. Arrigoni in SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 219: Pertinent analyses convey the importance of theoretical elaboration for Richelieu's significant and modern reflections on European peace and security.
MATYASZEWSKI, PAWEL. La pensée politique d'Antoine de Rivarol. Lublin: Towarzystwo Naukowe Ktaolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego, 1997.
Review: G. Jacques in LR 55 (2001): 146–147: Although Matyaszewski focuses his attention on an 18th c. author, in particular on Rivarol's thought and anti-revolutionary doctrine, the ground-breaking volume will be of interest to 17th c. scholars who study transitions. For example, Matyaszewski demonstrates that Rivarol remains faithful to the thought of Bayle as regard the "indépendance de la morale vis-à-vis de la religion" (Jacques 147). Praised for its originality and richness.
D'OREYE DE LANTREMANGE, HELENE M. La représentation de la gloire féminine dans la tragédie française de la première moitié du XVIIème siècle: 'Crisante' de Jean Rotrou et 'La Mariane' de François de Tristan L'Hermite. DAI 63/12 (2003), 4330.
Examines "the way in which the (masculine) dramatic text constructs, or allows the spectator to construct, the representation of feminine glory, especially through the phenomenon of double theatrical communication."
FORESTIER, GEORGES, ed. Jean Rotrou. Théâtre complet, I et II. Paris: Société des textes français modernes, 1998 & 1999.
Review: A. Soare in DSS 218 (2003), 169–171: Here we have the first two books of an ambitious multi-volume project to be completed over 15 years. This much anticipated collection offers extensive introductory essays, detailed and excellent annotation and a generally faithful reproduction of the original texts followed in each volume by superb glossaries. Soare questions some editorial choices on a case-by-case basis as well as certain critical claims made in some of the introductory/explanatory texts, but any uneven aspects of the work seem outweighed by the importance of this initial offering towards the first complete works of Rotrou since that produced by Viollet-le-Duc.
RIFFAUD, ALAIN. "Deux aventures éditoriales: Chryséide et Arimand de Mairet (1630), Cléagénor et Doristée de Rotrou (1634–1635). PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 9–27.
Examines the publication history of the two plays, and the light it throws on editorial practices and printing methods.
SCHMIESING, ANN. "Abdication, Accession, and Dilemma in Lessing's Philotas and Rotrou's Venceslas (1647). GRM, 53.1 (2003), 41–52.
Article "uses the theme of abdication to yield insight into Lessing's dismissal not only of martydom and obsessive patriotism, but also of Baroque views on accession and worthiness to rule."
BIRBERICK, ANNE. "Drink, Eat, and Write: Saint-Amant's Gastronomic Discourse." The Shape of Change: Essays in Early Modern Literature and La Fontaine in Honor of David Lee Rubin. Eds. Anne Birberick and Russell Ganim. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002, pp.141–162.
SAINT-EVREMOND, CHARLES. A Voice from Exile: Newly discovered letters to Madame de Gouville and the Abbé de Hautefeuille (1697–1703). Ed. Denys Potts. Oxford: Legenda, 2002.
Review: P. France in TLS 5196 (Nov 1 2002). Useful complement to the letters published thirty years ago by René Tournois. Saint-Evrémond appears as Epicurean concerned with the money needed to maintain his life-style. "Most of the space is given to financial details of a Balzacian kind, but in between there come flashes of the wit and man-about-town, nostalgic moments, thoughts about literature, reflections on age."
BERREGARD, SANDRINE. "Les animaux dans trois œuvres de Scarron: Jodelet ou le maître-valet, Don Japhet d'Arménie et le Roman comique." PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 113–130.
Article examines "les principales valeurs que Scarron semble attacher aux diverses catégories d'animaux représentées." Highlights how representation of animals varies depending on genre.
KUINZENGA, DONNA. "Ecriture à la mode/modes de réécriture: Les Femmes illustres de Madeleine et Georges de Scudéry." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 151–163.
Examines how the Scudéry innovate in their treatment of the six heroines taken from Ovid's Héroïdes.
SPICA, ANNE-ELISABETH, Savoir peindre en littérature. La description dans le roman au XVIIe siècle: Georges et Madeleine de Scudéry. Paris: Champion, 2002 (Lumière classique, 45).
Review: A. Niderst in PFSCL XXX 59 (2003), 572–573. "Inspirée par les travaux de Marc Fumaroli, l'étude d'Anne-Elisabeth Spica prend sa place dans toutes ces analyses modernes qui situent la littérature dans le cadre de la rhétorique. A ses yeux 《 la description fictionnelle au XVIIe siècle est manifestement inscrite dans la filiation d'un texte antique, les Images de Philostrate 》 (p. l0) traduites par Blaise de Vigenère. [. . .] Après une très longue et très savante première partie, qui contient au fond toute une histoire de la rhétorique,. . . nous en venons au problème précis annoncé par le titre: 《 Que feindre, c'est peindre 》. Le roman émane de l'épopée, et les descriptions romanesques des descriptions épiques. Georges et Madeleine de Scudéry justifient leurs ecphrasis, l'un dans la préface d'Ibrahim et dans l'avis au lecteur d'Almahide, l'autre dans l'ouverture de La Promenade de Versailles. Anne-Elisabeth Spica rapproche fort judicieusement les descriptions romanesques des arts—architecture, sculpture, peinture. Ainsi en vient-elle à étudier 《 la poétique de la couleur 》 et à nous proposer 《 les histoires des peintres 》 et 《 les peintures d'historiettes 》. [. . .] Dans la troisième partie, 《 Tableaux d'un discours amoureux 》, ce sont les sentiments et les actions des personnages, qui sont vus à la lumière de la rhétorique. [. . .] Ainsi le savant ouvrage d'Anne-Elisabeth Spica aurait gagné à intégrer le réalisme (ainsi d'ailleurs que le subjectivisme auquel les romanciers cèdent enfin) et à montrer que la rhétorique et le moralisme ne sont souvent conservés que comme prétextes. Enfin que l'art moderne naît dans cet effort pour faire craquer les moules antiques et s'approcher de ce qu'on peut appeler 《 la vérité 》".
ARTAMENE.
Project by research team at U. Neuchâtel, to "redonner une chance" au Grand Cyrus, the longest French novel. On-line text in collaboration with ARTFL, documentation, iconography. Subsidized by Swiss FNRS. Web: http://www.artamene.org/. Contact also V. Schröder at <volkers@PRINCETON.EDU>.
BIANCARDI, ELISA. "De Madeleine de Scudéry à Madame d'Aulnoy: Esthétique galante et merveilleux." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.231–240.
Studies the way in which Scudéry "s'est. . . amusée à présenter dans son œuvre narrative des lieux, des spectacles, des objets souvent qualifiés 《 d'enchantés 》, à décrire des effets d'illusion apparemment magique, à provoquer en somme avec plaisir la stupeur et le dépaysement émerveillé de ses lecteurs. Examines the influence of Scudéry on d'Aulnoy, particularly in the "expression d'une sensibilité vénusienne et d'une thématique qui se retrouveront, reprises et renforcées, avant tout" in d'Aulnoy, and compares Scudéry's influence to that of La Fontaine.
CARLIN, CLAIRE. "Préciosité et théologie: l'amour conjugal dans Clélie et dans quelques traités catholiques sur le mariage." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.141–155.
An exploration of l'imaginaire nuptial in the discourse of the Précieux, in particular in the context of Clélie. Claire Carlin notes that "Madeleine de Scudéry étudie le mariage dans un contexte en grande partie établi par les théologiens; les mêmes préoccupations sous-tendent la discussion du mariage chez notre auteur et chez les religieux." Includes examination of topics such as marriage-as-prison; spousal faults; hypocrisy; tyranny and jealousy; power relations; as well as tendre amitié in marriage. Carlin concludes, "Dans les traités théologiques comme dans la Clélie, le contentement conjugal est une récompense réservée à ceux qui œuvrent pour le gagner."
CHATELAIN, MARIE-CLAIRE. "L'Héroïde chez Mademoiselle de Scudéry." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.41–57.
Studies Les Femmes illustres as an Ovidian paraphrase of the Héroïdes and the way in which Ovid's writings influence Scudéry's novels, particularly in discourses on love and passion.
DENIS, DELPHINE & ANNE-ELISABETH SPICA. "Préface." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp. 11–25.
Introduction to the Acta from the 2000 Scudéry Conference in Paris, including brief summaries of each of the articles in the volume.
GEVREY, FRANÇOISE. "Marivaux et Madeleine de Scudéry." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.279–292.
Examines the relationship between Scudéry and les précieux on the one hand, and Marivaux, "pour illustrer l'élaboration d'une poétique moderne qui transgresse le modèle laissé par la romancière." Cites Scudéry's influence in terms of "la poétique," "la topique romanesque" and "l'exemplarité des personnages," as well as Marivaux's imitation of Scudéry's péripéties," his usage of "les périodiques" (occasional characters who upset the rhythm of a piece), conversations, and the inclusion of the reader in the text.
GIORGI, GIORGETTO. "Tradition et innovation dans la poétique du roman de Madeleine de Scudéry." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp. 29–40.
Details "la poétique du genre romanesque qu'a élaborée Madeleine de Scudéry" with reference to treatises by Giraldi and Pigna, concluding that "les réflexions de. . . Scudéry sur le roman. . . constituent la première et, au fond, la seule poétique vraiment importante du roman héroïque, c'est-à-dire d'un sous-genre-narratif qui s'inspire des épopées d'Homère et de Virgile et s'oppose aux récits de chevalerie."
GOULET, ANNE-MADELEINE. "Les divertissements musicaux du Samedi." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.203–216.
Article "se propose d'ouvrir quelques pistes de réflexion issues d'une comparaison entre les chansons attribuées à la poétesse par Fr. Lachèvre et figurant dans des recueils collectifs du temps, les textes d'airs insérés dans les romans et les nouvelles, et une collection musicale d'airs sérieux publiée entre 1658 et 1694 chez l'éditeur Ballard à Paris, les Livres d'airs de différents auteurs." Concludes with remarks on "les relations complices qui durent unir la poétesse et ses musiciens."
GRANDE, NATHALIE, ed. Madeleine de Scudéry. Mathilde. Paris: Champion, 2002 (Sources classiques, 38).
Review: M.-A. Thirard in PFSCL XXX (58), 269–271. Reviewer indicates how Grande's fifty-page introduction highlights the 'politically incorrect' nature of the nouvelle for the period."La dédicace de la préface à la gloire de Monsieur, frère du roi, la description hyperbolique du château de Saint-Cloud qui pouvait être perçue comme une concurrence de Versailles, le personnage du roi dans la nouvelle même décrit comme tyrannique, tout cela pouvait déplaire à Louis XIV. [. . .] La préface de Nathalie Grande a donc le mérite de situer l'œuvre dans un contexte littéraire, historique et politique précis. . .. [Elle] a aussi le mérite de proposer un certain nombre de clés de lecture qui permettent, même à un non-initié, de bien comprendre cette nouvelle en la situant dans l'ensemble des problèmes que pose l'évolution du romanesque au XVIIe siècle. [. . .] Les notes abondantes et fort documentées tant sur le plan historique que sur le plan littéraire qui accompagnent le texte facilitent aussi la réception de l'œuvre et la bibliographie finale enrichit encore la présentation de l'ensemble."
GRANDE, NATHALIE. "Une Scudéry fantastique: Das Fräulein von Scudery d'E.T.A. Hoffmann et ses adaptations pour la scène." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.293–306.
Elaborates upon Scudéry's "notoriety" in Germany thanks to Hoffmann's celebrated fantastic novella Das Fräulein von Scuderi and its multiple mises-en-scène and adaptations in the 19th century. Concludes, "il n'empêche que ces enfants plus ou moins illégitimes assuraient la transmission d'une mémoire, à laquelle la France était, à quelques érudits près, beaucoup plus infidèle." Scudéry is, ultimately, a "légende à écrire."
JONES DAY, SHIRLEY. "Madeleine de Scudéry et le roman féminin." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.269–277.
A detailed study of Le Grand Cyrus and La Princesse de Clèves, with particular attention to the couple Cyrus/Mandane ("homme sensible/femme virile"); the secondary narratives, and the récits mondains. Posits that "[c]'est surtout par son aspect 《 sensible 》 que Le Grand Cyrus se rapproche du chef d'êœuvre de Mme de Lafayette."
KAPP, VOLKER. "La Fortune de Madeleine de Scudéry en Allemagne." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.219–229.
Calling her "une des vedettes de la littérature du siècle de Louis XIV" in Germany, Kapp proposes that "Mademoiselle de Scudéry incarne pour les allemands l'urbanite; elle est recommandée comme institutrice des bonnes manières." Discusses her correspondence with Sibylla Ursula, duchesse de Braunschweig-Lünebur, and with Leibniz. Compares her reception in Germany to that of Madame de Lafayette. Places into context of the Thirty-Years War. Comments various translations of Scudéry into German, as well as Scudéry's place in recent literary criticism coming out of Germany.
KLEE, WANDA G. & SABINE KOLOCH. "Conversation avec Susanne Weirich. 《 Elle ne perd pas le nord 》: Inscrire un conte dans la Carte de Tendre." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.307–315.
An interview with the German artist Susanne Weirich regarding her text and slide montage entitled, "Elle ne perd pas le nord" and for which the Carte de Tendre serves as the narrative foundation.
KLEE, WANDA G. & SABINE KOLOCH. "Peut-on écrire en allemand? Madeleine de Scudéry et Johann Christophn Wagenseil, Un entretien sur la langue allemande." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.105–120.
Studies Wagenseil's 1697 account of his conversation with Scudéry on the topic of the German language (which took place in 1665), in which, whereas Wagenseil dominates in sheer quantity of speech, Scudéry contributes more significantly in terms of coherence of discussion. Ultimately, in this account, "Scudéry. . . représente la supériorité intellectuelle de la France."
KROLL, RENATE. "Poésie précieuse ou poésie des précieuses? Questions de genre et de gender." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.165–177.
Presents Scudéry "dans son engagement contradictoire en tant qu'auteur d'une œuvre lyrique sur l'amour, panégyrique, d'une poésie de salon et de poèmes de circonstance." Reexamines the lyric genres associated with préciosité, offering a new classification entitled poésie des Précieuses as distinct from the poetry of male poets of this group.
KUIZENGA, DONNA. "Ecriture à la mode/modes de réécriture: Les Femmes illustres de Madeleine et Georges de Scudéry." La Femme au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque de Vancouver, University of British Columbia. Ed. R. Hodgson. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002, 151–163.
Examines how the Scudéry innovate in their treatment of the six heroines taken from Ovid's Héroïdes.
LALLEMAND, MARIE-GABRIELLE. "La moraliste et la romancière: Etude des trois dernières nouvelles de Mademoiselle de Scudéry." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.79–91.
Study of the "Histoire de Bélinde," the "Histoire de Mélinte," and the "Histoire du Prince Ariamène" which concludes, "Ce qui caractérise ces trois dernières nouvelles et les distingue du reste des récits scudériens, c'est qu'elles refusent d'entériner l'idéal héroïque et galant. . . pour proposer une vision du monde plus vraisemblable en ces années 1680–1690." This study of the failures found in these texts demonstrates that Scudéry benefits from her own distance from her first writings in order to question their ideological foundation in her final nouvelles.
MAITRE, MYRIAM. "Sapho, Reine de Tendre: Entre monarchie absolue et royauté littéraire." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.179–193.
Examines "les images [du] royaume [de Tendre] et le sens de cette figuration de soi en souveraine," and in particular, the "image littéraire de la souveraineté politique d'une part, figuration de l'espace du particulier d'autre part." Concludes that, "le royaume de Tendre, est un Etat moderne, où s'expérimentent et se réfléchissent la lente scission du public et du particulier, et la différenciation plus lente encore de leurs valeurs et de leurs autorités."
MESNARD, JEAN. "Clôture. Mademoiselle de Scudéry telle qu'en elle-même." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.317–320.
Concluding remarks for the Scudéry conference in Paris in 2001, which points to the coherence of the papers given and suggests paths for future research, particularly in terms of Scudéry's culture, her humanism and her role as moralist, her political stance, and the extent to which her writings might be considered as part of a "collective" work.
MORLET-CHANTALAT, CHANTAL. "Pythagore et Sapho: Réincarnation galante d'un philosophe mythique." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.123–131.
Study examines the use of the figure of Pythagorus in Clélie, with particular attention paid to the characters Damo and Théano, and also to the roles of Herminius-Pellisson and Amilcar-Sarasin.
NEWMAN, KAREN, ed. and trans. The Story of Sapho: Madeleine de Scudéry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
NIDERST, ALAIN. "Pour une édition des Chroniques du Samedi." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.195–202.
Chronicles the history of the recent publication of the Chroniques du Samedi, with a presentation of the contributors to the collection and the circumstances underlying the writing of the letters therein. Analyzes the code that regulated the letter-writing as well as the galanterie which "frôle le burlesque" in the text and which consists "à se librer à un perpetuel badinage, qui n'exclut d'ailleurs ni la réflexion ni la tendresse." Cites the Chroniques as evidence of a "belle alliance. . . de politesse et de liberté, de mondanité et d'impertinence."
PELLEGRINI, ROSA GALLI. "Stratégies narratives dans Ibrahim ou l'Illustre Bassa: les Histoires 《 occidentales 》." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.69–78.
Study of the narrative strategies found in sections of the text devoted to the "personnages génois" in Ibrahim (as opposed to those characters found in adventures set in Turkey or Persia). Concludes with brief discussion of the question of attribution of the text to Georges vs. Madeleine.
PIERSON, NATHALIE. "Madeleine de Scudéry et Philippe Quinault: Du romanesque au spectaculaire tragique." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.255–268.
Compares Artamène ou le grand Cyrus with Quinault's La Mort de Cyrus and Astrate, roi de Tyr, positing "une esthétique et une éthique galantes en mouvements." Elucidates "la présence du spectaculaire dans le roman et son utilisation par Quinault," as well as "le bouleversement des règles galantes romanesques par le théâtre." Ends with "la question de l'identité du héros galant" and "une définition de la catharsis théâtrale galante."
PIQUE, BARBARA. "Les cadres allégoriques dans les Conversations de Madeleine de Scudéry." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.59–67.
Studies frames used by Scudéry in her Conversations (visits, excursions, etc.), demonstrating that "les résonances et les renvois" found in the frames "encodent implicitement la poétique même de la conversation," with a double result: "d'une part, [ce circuit] étaye de manière ludique la visée persuasive et la portée morale des textes conversationnels; de l'autre, il fonde et asseoit leur dignité comme genre mondain."
PROBES, CHRISTINE MCCALL. "Le pouvoir des sens: Une exploration des poésies de Mademoiselle de Scudéry." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp. 93–104.
This study "se propose d'explorer le pouvoir des sens dans ses rapports avec les catégories [des vers scudériens] (poésie galante, poésie de circonstance, poésie chrétienne) et avec les topoï récurrents tels que la nature, l'amour, la mémoire, [et] la raison." Demonstrates that "dans la poésie de Mlle de Scudéry, les sens, bien qu'《 agréables 》, se mettent le plus souvent à la disposition de 《 l'utile 》." Particular attention to the précieuse characteristics of délicatesse and galanterie.
SPICA, ANNE-ELISABETH, Savoir peindre en littérature. La description dans le roman au XVIIe siècle: Georges et Madeleine de Scudéry. Paris: Champion, 2002 (Lumière classique, 45).
Review: A. Niderst in PFSCL XXX 59 (2003), 572–573. "Inspirée par les travaux de Marc Fumaroli, l'étude d'Anne-Elisabeth Spica prend sa place dans toutes ces analyses modernes qui situent la littérature dans le cadre de la rhétorique. A ses yeux 《 la description fictionnelle au XVIIe siècle est manifestement inscrite dans la filiation d'un texte antique, les Images de Philostrate 》 (p. l0) traduites par Blaise de Vigenère. [. . .] Après une très longue et très savante première partie, qui contient au fond toute une histoire de la rhétorique,. . . nous en venons au problème précis annoncé par le titre: 《 Que feindre, c'est peindre 》. Le roman émane de l'épopée, et les descriptions romanesques des descriptions épiques. Georges et Madeleine de Scudéry justifient leurs ecphrasis, l'un dans la préface d'Ibrahim et dans l'avis au lecteur d'Almahide, l'autre dans l'ouverture de La Promenade de Versailles. Anne-Elisabeth Spica rapproche fort judicieusement les descriptions romanesques des arts—architecture, sculpture, peinture. Ainsi en vient-elle à étudier 《 la poétique de la couleur 》 et à nous proposer 《 les histoires des peintres 》 et 《 les peintures d'historiettes 》. [. . .] Dans la troisième partie, 《 Tableaux d'un discours amoureux 》, ce sont les sentiments et les actions des personnages, qui sont vus à la lumière de la rhétorique. [. . .] Ainsi le savant ouvrage d'Anne-Elisabeth Spica aurait gagné à intégrer le réalisme (ainsi d'ailleurs que le subjectivisme auquel les romanciers cèdent enfin) et à montrer que la rhétorique et le moralisme ne sont souvent conservés que comme prétextes. Enfin que l'art moderne naît dans cet effort pour faire craquer les moules antiques et s'approcher de ce qu'on peut appeler 《 la vérité 》".
SWEETSER, MARIE-ODILE. "De l'idéal galant à l'héroïsme amoureux." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.133–140.
Sweetser demonstrates how the idéal galant is realized and, indeed, transcended in Célinte, in which the protagonists demonstrate a form of love that lasts beyond death itself, which Sweetser classifies as l'héroïsme amoureux.
THIRARD, MARIE-AGNES. "De Madeleine de Scudéry à Madame d'Aulnoy, une réception subversive?" Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.241–254.
Traces "un parcours initiatique à travers [les] nouvelles [de d'Aulnoy] . . . à la découverte ou à la redécouverte non seulement de l'influence de l'œuvre de Mademoiselle de Scudéry mais aussi à la recherche d'une certaine forme de réception de son œuvre à la fin du XVIIe siècle." Studies in particular "la scénographie de la femme-écrivain," "l'écriture fragmentée," "l'art de la conversation," and the lyric "esthétique de l'oralité," coupled with the importance of the manuscript tradition, as well as "la mise en scène de l'amour." Notes that d'Aulnoy goes beyond inspiration to pastiche or parody the writings of the précieux, demonstrating both fascination for and distance from those works.
TOCZYSKI, SUZANNE. "Corps sacré, discours souverain: le couple dans Les Femmes illustres." Madeleine de Scudéry: Une femme de lettres au XVIIe siècle. Etudes réunies par Delphine Denis et Anne-Elisabeth Spica. Paris: Artois Presses Université, 2003, pp.155–164.
Studies Les Femmes illustres as the site of a "portrait remarquablement cohérent de l'amour conjugal, une sorte d'éthique du couple. . . qui va carrément à l'encontre du poncif rebattu selon lequel la préciosité considère le mariage comme indésirable, voire repoussant." Demonstrates that the text reverses traditional male / female role (word/flesh).
DUCHENE, ROGER. "Un horizon qui se perd dans l'infini. A propos de la traduction récente du livre de Fritz Nies Les Lettres de Madame de Sévigné." PFSCL XXX, 59 (2003), 209–230.
A lengthy review article which questions Nies' approach to Sévigné.
DUCHENE, ROGER. Madame de Sévigné. Paris: Fayard, 2002.
Review: M. Slater in TLS 5221 (April 25 2003), 26. Reworking of a biography written forty years ago and product of years of specialized research. "Duchêne has collected together an impressive corpus of documentation, ranging from the minutes details of how the Marquise's considerable finances were managed, to the ramifications of political intrigues." Biographer knows letters inside and out and makes intelligent use of exhaustive knowledge. Reading this biography, we understand why Mme de Sévigné's contemporaries found her fascinating company.
SILVER, MARIE-FRANCE & MARIE-LAURE GIRON SWIDERSKI, eds. Femmes en toutes lettres: les épistolières du XVIIIe siècle.
Review: L. Mall in FR 76 (2003), 1005–06: Though centered on letter-writers of the 18th-century, contains an introduction on the legacy of Sévigné.
SOLTE-GRESSER, CHRISTIANE. Leben im Dialog. Wege der Selbstvergewisserung in den Briefen von Marie de Sévigné und Isabelle de Charrière. Königstein: Helmer, 2000.
Review: S. Segler-Meßner in RF 114 (2002) 123–126: Composed of an introduction, a representation of the "self-models" of Sévigné and Charrière, and a confrontation / comparison of the two authors, Solte-Gresser's study achieves a "model of feminine subjectivity." The "other" is seen in opposition to the male model situated in rationality and identity. The letter is examined as a medium of authentic communication. The multifaceted study includes reflections on pleasure in the text, suggestive of mystics.
DEL PRETE, ANTONELLA. "Charles Sorel et l'Italie: une interprétation de la Renaissance" in Sources antiques de l'irreligion moderne: le relais italien XVe-XVIIe siècles, ed. Didier Foucault et Jean-Pierre Cavaillé. Collection de l'ECRIT, no. 6, 2001: 171–180.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 221: Del Prete's essay in this volume, the Actes des journées d'études ERASME, is important for distinguishing Sorel's work from that of his contemporaries, demonstrating the evolution of his libertine thought, and indicating Italian influences.
Littératures Classiques, "Charles Sorel: Histoire comique de Francion," no. 41, hiver 2001. 301 pages.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 220–221: This issue of Littératures Classiques, devoted to Sorel, is an indication of the interest in Sorel's work for the current day. Part I includes criticism on techniques, the socio-cultural, the ideology and the imagination. Part II focuses on themes and texts, notably the caravalesque, the theatre, the representation of women, the aging, and "le sens." Part II treats "Questions de mots," signs and style.
AVEZOU, LAURENT. Sully à travers l'histoire. Les avatars d'un mythe politique. Préface deBernard Barbiche. Paris: Ecole des Chartes, 2001.
Review: P. Fuchs in HZ 274 (2002), 752–754: Highly informative and interesting, this history of some 350 years has as its focus the posthumous destiny of Sully (historical, literary and iconographic). Avezou's 1996 thèse of the Ecole des Chartes is judged by Barbiche to be "d'une impeccable érudition" (vi).
CHAUVEAU, JEAN-PIERRE, ed. Théophile de Viau, Après m'avoir fait tant mourir. Œuvres choisies. Paris: Gallimard, 2002 (coll. Poésie).
Review: A. Génetiot in PFSCL XXX, 58 (2003), 238–239. "Jean-Pierre Chauveau y présente dans l'ordre chronologique un choix de pages parmi l'ensemble des œuvres de Théophile, prose, poésie et théâtre, avec une attention particulière à l'œuvre poétique dont le tiers est représenté et où chaque poème retenu est donné dans son intégralité. [. . .] Tous ces textes sont annotés et présentés dans une orthographe modernisée mais qui respecte la ponctuation originale et l'usage des majuscules. Ce choix, comme le souligne la préface, met en évidence la modernité de l'écriture théophilienne, sa prose vive qui va droit au but au moment où Balzac calquait sa phrase sur la période latine, et son vers sans contrainte qui assouplit l'ordre compassé de Malherbe. [. . .] Soucieux de mettre en évidence l'originalité de Théophile, l'éditeur a préféré retenir les vers les plus personnels, où un moi se met en scène. . . et sacrifier les grandes odes officielles. [. . .] Cette excellente anthologie vient . . . combler un manque craint dans l'édition de poche et constitue une précieuse introduction à l'œuvre de ce grand poète. Jean-Pierre Chauveau . . . continue ainsi à réévaluer avec goût et à faire aimer aux étudiants et à un plus large public une poésie sensible et diverse."
ABRAHAM, CLAUDE. "Ce fameux précurseur." CTH 24 (2002), 5–14.
Extends the well-known argument of Tristan as a precursor to Racine, arguing that like Racine, Tristan's characters are lucid and passionnés, and that Tristan was the first to demonstrate that poetry—and "la parole" (rather than the simple word)—is the sole vehicle for the revelation of deep psychological complexity.
BERREGARD, SANDRINE. "Tristan ou l'image d'un poète melancolique." CTH 24 (2002), 15–29.
Demonstrates that the poet's work is characterized by an allowance for many diverse meanings of melancholy and argues that he deliberately blurs fiction and reality to forge a literary identity as a melancholic poet.
Cahiers Tristan l'Hermite, XXIII, 2001.
Review: F. Robello in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 221: This issue of Cahiers, focusing on Tristan's poetry, features treatments of the Italian and French lyric and Orphée, the Plaintes d'Acante, their annotations, emblems, and their public. Appendix includes considerations of Tristan's Vers de Ballet and his reception.
CARRIAT, AMEDEE, JEAN-PIERRE CHAUVEAU, and ISABELLE CONIHOUT, eds. Tristan l'Hermite (1601–1655) ou le Page disgracié. Exposition organisée par la Bibliothèque Mazarine. Paris: Bibliothèque Mazarine, 2001.
Review: B. Donné in CTH 24 (2002), 100–101: Reviewer enthusiastically recommends this "remarquable parcours" of the 2001 exhibit, which he lauds as of exceptional quality both in presentation and material production. Reproductions of texts and engravings are outstanding, and their commentary detailed and complete. Mentions in particular the two longer pieces by Marc Fumaroli, who discusses renewed scholarly interest in Tristan and the "siècle de Louis XIII," and by Isabelle de Conihout, who focuses on Tristan's relationships to books and his involvement in the edition of his own works.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 221: Judged "un dono prezioso" for scholars and students alike, this catalogue of the exposition on the occasion of the 4th centenary of Tristan's birth, is a joint effort of the Bibliothèque Mazarine and the Association des Amis de Tristan. The remarkable exhibit was curated by Isabelle Conihout and the catalogue reproduces numerous manuscripts, frontispieces and "splendide illustrazioni." With a pertinent introduction by M. Fumaroli as well as a selected bibliography, the catalogue will prove highly useful.
CHAUVEAU, JEAN-PIERRE, ed. Tristan Lhermite. Œuvres complètes II — Poésie (I). Avec la collaboration de Véronique Adam, Alain Genetiot et Françoise Graziani. Paris: Ed. Honoré Champion.
Forthcoming.
CHAUVEAU, JEAN-PIERRE, ed. Tristan Lhermite. Œuvres complètes III — Poésie (II). Avec la collaboration de Véronique Adam, Amédée Carriat, Laurence Grove et Marcel Israël. Paris: Ed. Honoré Champion.
Forthcoming.
D'OREYE DE LANTREMANGE, HELENE M. La représentation de la gloire féminine dans la tragédie française de la première moitié du XVIIème siècle: 'Crisante' de Jean Rotrou et 'La Mariane' de François de Tristan L'Hermite. DAI 63/12 (2003), 4330.
Examines "the way in which the (masculine) dramatic text constructs, or allows the spectator to construct, the representation of feminine glory, especially through the phenomenon of double theatrical communication."
GRISE, CATHERINE. "La Rhétorique baroque de Tristan l'Hermite dans la lettre LVIII de ses Lettres mêlées." CTH 24 (2002), 30–37.
Analyzes the fictive letters Tristan inserts into his text in light of recent scholarship on the genre inventor Ovid's Héroïdes, showing links with elegy and the art of oratory.
GROVE, LAURENCE. "Les Poésies héroïques et burlesques (1650): Jean-Baptiste et/ou Tristan?" CTH 24 (2002), 77–82.
Argues stylistic similarities between Tristan's Vers héroïques and the Meslanges de poésies héroïques et burlesques, attributed to his brother Jean-Baptiste L'Hermite. Tristan may have been the author or co-author of certain poems. Includes appendices, portraits, and a bibliography.
GUICHEMERRE, ROGER, ed. with the collaboration of Claude Abraham, Jean-Pierre Chauveau, Daniela Dalla Valle, Nicole Mallet et Jacques Morel. Tristan L'Hermite, Œuvres complètes, vol. 4: Les Tragédies. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2001.
Review: B. Donné in CTH 24 (2002), 99–100: Reviewer sees the choice to publish Tristan's works by genre as underlining the coherence of his tragedies, and lauds Daniela Dalla Valle's introduction as innovative in her concentration on the philosophical and spiritual dimensions of Tristan's plays, where the ideas of determinism exercised by blind Destiny, the call to Providence to give meaning to human suffering, and the solitude of human beings dominate. Reviewer praises "le soin de l'établissement du texte, et la discrétion de l'annotation," introductions to individual plays, glossary, index, bibliography, and reproductions of frontispieces. Critiques lack of continuity in editors' modernization of punctuation and capitals.
HOWE, ALAN. "Du Nouveau sur les Vers héroïques, L'Office de la sainte vierge et La Mort de Chrispe: Trois documents inédits." CTH 24 (2002), 38–53.
Reproduces and analyzes three actes du Minutier central des notaires de Paris that provide new insights regarding the Vers héroïques and L'Office de la Sainte Vierge and La Mort de Chrispe.
LIVERA, MARCO. "Autour de La Mort de Chrispe et de la tragédie néo-latine: Grenaille, Tristan et leur source jésuite." CTH 24 (2002), 54–67.
Explores the transformation of the myth of Phèdre in 17th-c. French tragedy through the similar Christian story of Crispe, specifically in L'Innocent malheureux, ou la Mort de Crispe (1639) by François de Grenaille and in Tristan's La Mort de Chrispe (1645).
MANSAU, ANDRÉE. "La Mort et la foi: À propos d'Isabelle-Claire-Eugénie, Héroïne de Tristan L'Hermite." CTH 24 (2002), 68–76.
Examines Tristan's "Sur le Trépas de la Sérénissime Princess Isabelle-Claire-Eugénie" in relationship to mannerist and baroque representations of resurrection, as a vehicle for the expression of his Catholic faith in triumph over death.
SHEPARD, JAMES C. Mannerism and Baroque in Seventeenth-Century French Poetry: The Example of Tristan L'Hermitte. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Review: Roger Guichemerre in CTH 24 (2002), 98: Shepard explores to what extent Tristan's works may be discussed in terms of Mannerism and Baroque artistic styles. He argues that both styles exist in French poetry between 1560 and 1660 and presents earlier scholarship on the question (which the reviewer finds useful), analyzes "agréablement" in chronological order a series of representative Tristan poems to illustrate the importance of Petrarchan and mannerist motifs and rhetorical style in earlier poetry. Beginning with La Lyre, he identifies more baroque elements of gravity, personal emotion, and conviction. Guichemerre faults Shepard for having placed a consideration of "les treize poèmes emblématiques, récemment trouvés à Glasgow" in the same chapter, since they are of much earlier date and typically Petrarchan.
BERTHIAUME, PIERRE. "Psychodoxie du personnage dans l'Astrée," DSS, no. 210 (janvier–mars 2001): 3–18.
Review: A. Arrigoni in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 218: Analyzes the behavior of characters in Astrée from a psychological perspective. Views the novel as a "traité des passions" or morals. Berthiaume's analyses demonstrate codes of ethics and a rigid universe.
HOROWITZ, LOUISE K. "Honoré d'Urfé: Bellwether Beginnings." FLS 29 (2002), 57–68.
Views L'Astrée as illustrating the impossibility of isolating origins even as it entices us to do so.
BAVAREL-CROISSANT, MARIE-FRANÇOISE. La vie et les œuvres complètes de Jacques Vallée Des Barreaux (1599–1673). Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: C. Rizza in SFr XLVI, 136 (2002): 219: Although Rizza does not find Vallée des Barreaux to be a great poet, she does judge this publication worthwhile in that it allows us to discover a representative personality of the time of Louis XIII. A complex and philosophical libertine, Vallée des Barreaux's life and work are illuminated here. While Rizza would have preferred a broader inclusion of non-French critical references, she does find Bavarel-Croissant's volume rigorous and excellently documented.
CASALIS, MARIE-NOËLLE. "La vérité comme indice dans trois poétiques du premier XVIIe siècle: Jean Vauquelin de La Fresnaye, Pierre de Deimer, Jean Chapelain" in DSS, no. 210 (2001): 19–33.
Review: A. Arrigoni in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 220: Demonstrates through attentive analyses of the theory of these three authors, "la grande complessità creativa dell'universo poetico" of the period. Truth and allegorical interpretation receive special attention.
MARTIN, CAROLE. Imposture utopique et procès colonial: Denis Veiras-Robert Challe. Préface deFrédéric Deloffre. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2000.
Review: A. A. Mazziotti in S Fr XLVI, 136 (2002): 226–227: Comparative study of two authors focuses on the utopia and the fantastic opera. Temporality and multiplicity of stories, formal structures, ideological dimensions, as well as for Challe, the presence of the female character, receive attention.
CHANG-AUGST, JIN-LEI. "The Triumph of Artifice: Marketing Authenticity in the Lettres portugaises and the Lettres et billets galants de Mme de Villedieu." CdDS 8.2 (2003), 83–92.
Asks how it is possible that a group of fictitious letters could seem to readers more authentic than real ones; argues that anonymity and theatricality are key factors in creating an impression of authenticity.
DEMORIS, RENE, ed., Mémoires de la vie de Henriette-Sylvie de Molière. Paris: Déjonquères, 2002.
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