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2006 Number 54
KOLESNIK, DELPHINE. "Les occasionalismes en France à l'âge classique. Le 'cas' arnaldien." RMM 1 (March 2006): 41–54.
The author examines Arnauld's use of occasionalism to determine whether Arnauld simply invoked occasionalist arguments or whether he was fully committed to occasionalism as a doctrine.
LE GUERN, MICHEL. Pascal et Arnauld. Paris: Champion, 2003.
Review: N. Hammond in FS 59.4 (2005), 543–544: Le Guern's study follows the development of Pascal and Arnauld's friendship and intellectual association and pays particular attention to their fight with the Jesuits. Le Guern is convincing and compelling as he shows Arnauld's influence on Pascal, but less so for the inverse. This is a generally positive review, but it finds fault with Le Guern for not better exploring studies in English on Arnauld.
GHIOSSO, LAURA, ed. Albert Bailly: La Correspondance d'Albert Bailly. Tome VI. Années 1656–58. Aosta: Valdôtaine, 2004.
Review: P. Rickard in FS 59.3 (2005), 395–396: This review seems to appreciate Ghiosso's edition of Bailly's letters, which are mostly sent to Madame Royale. The reviewer does an overview of the letters, yet provides little commentary on the editor's work. The tone of the review is however positive and would indicate that this collection will be of value to Bailly scholars.
MOMBELLO, GIANNI. "Lettres et documents comptables inédits sur Mgr Albert Bailly et sur les eaux minérales de Courmayeur." SFr no. 146 (2005): 357–76.
Fascinating article of historical, social and medical interest contains, as well, in the previously unpublished letters, several verses of poetry extolling the virtues of these waters that are at once a "simbole de la Trinité" (369) and a source of physical healing. Demonstrates that Bailly who served in Paris from 1641 to 1658 was indeed "un pionnier convaincu de l'hydrothérapie dans la Vallée d'Aoste" (362).
MOMBELLO, GIANNI & PAOLA CIFARELLI, eds. La Correspondance d'Albert Bailly, volume 5, années 1654–1655. Aoste: Académie Saint-Anselme, 2003.
Review: P. Wolfe in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 583–584. "L'érudition de cette correspondance est impeccable par sa présentation et par son érudition. Elle sera précieuse pour les spécialistes de l'histoire diplomatique, aussi bien que pour les historiens des ordres religieux et de la cour de France."
MONTOYA, ALICIA C. & SCHRÖDER, VOLKER, eds. Marie-Anne Barbier, Cornélie, mère des Gracques (1703). Toulouse: Société de Littératures Classiques, 2005.
Review: P. Gethner in PFSCL XXXIII, 64 (2006), 305–306. Reviewer is particularly impressed with the introduction which is "of enormous interest" thanks to "meticulous archival research." Montoya's textual analysis is "insightful" and Schröder's annotations are "helpful and thorough." Overall, "a very solid piece of scholarship that should prove profitable to those interested in classical tragedy and in the history of French women writers."
SILVERA, MYRIAM, ed. Jacques Basnage. Corrispondenza di Rotterdam (1685–1709). Amsterdam: Holland UP, 2000.
Review: D. Tollet in DSS 230 (2006), 173–174: A collection of 143 letters engaging 29 correspondents on various subjects, carefully edited and annotated by Silvera. Basnage sought and received permission to leave France with his family after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Though in Rotterdam, he never severed ties with his countrymen as his letters reveal. "Le premier thème d'intérêt de ces lettres [...] est la recherche d'informations concernant la vie littéraire." The information garnered often appeared in his serial publication, l'Histoire des ouvrages savants. He was further preoccupied with matters of theology.
DOUVIER, CATHERINE. "Henri IV vu par Bassompierre, note." TL 18 (2005): 157–65.
Demonstrates the emotions, notably the reciprocal affection between the king and the memorialist, or the "'privauté' [qui] permet au mémorialiste de tirer le portrait d'un homme au quotidien. . . un Henri IV passionné de jeu, grand chasseur, homme d'esprit et d'humour, et. . . porté à la galanterie" (159). Henri IV as king is shown to be decisive, conscientious, "habile politique", a lover of peace over war, and, finally, resolute in the face of death.
BOST, HUBERT. Pierre Bayle. Paris: Fayard, 2006.
Review: J.-M. Goulemot in QL 927 (du 16 au 31 juillet 2006), 13–14: 《 Remercions Hubert Bost de sa biographie minutieuse qui nous rappelle ce que l'histoire de la critique militante et érudite doit à Pierre Bayle. 》 Le critique loue l'érudition de cette biographie qui contient plus de cent pages de notes, une bibliographie importante et un index de noms et d'oeuvres. Le critique espère que cette oeuvre fera découvrir Bayle à d'autres lecteurs, pas seulement des universitaires car elle 《 leur donnera un autre regard sur notre monde et sur l'érudition au service de la quête de la vérité. Il est si rare que d'un seul ouvrage on tire un si grand profit. 》
MCKENNA, ANTONY, LAURENCE BERGON, HUBERT BOST, WIEP VAN BUNGE, EDWARD JAMES, ELISABETH LABROUSSE, ANNIE LEROUX, and CAROLINE VERDIER, eds. Correspondence de Pierre Bayle, vol. IV: Janvier 1684-juillet 1684. Lettres 242–308. Oxford : Voltaire Foundation, 2005.
Review : J. C. Laursen in MLR 101.4 (2006), 1117–1118 : 《 This is the latest volume in one of the most significant projects to help us understand [Bayle] : a new edition of his correspondence that is expected to run to twenty volumes. It is a splendid edition, with ample notes to all references to people, places, and books in the letters."
GETHNER, PERRY, ed. Femmes dramaturges en France (1650–1750): pièces choisies. Tome II. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2002 (Biblio 17, 136).
Review: J. Clarke in FS 59.4 (2005), 545–546: This work brings many unknown or little-known plays (and femmes dramaturges) to light, and deservedly so in the reviewer's eyes. The theme that unites the plays in this edition is the femme forte. Authors include Françoise Pascal, Mlle de Villedieu, Mme Deshoulières, Mme Bédacier, the baronne de Staal and Mme Boccage.
ESCOLA, MARC, ed. Nouvelles galantes du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Flammarion, 2004.
Review: C. Zonza in DSS 231 (2006), 351–352: A useful selection of six "fictions historiques de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle," found here in a pocket edition. Organized around the absent Princesse de Clèves, the texts are: La Princesse de Montpensier, La Comtesse de Tende de Mme de Lafayette, Dom Carlos de Saint-Réal, La Duchesse d'Estramène de Du Plaisir, Le Comte d'Amboise et Inès de Cordoue de Catherine Bernard.
ROBERT, RAYMONDE, ed. Mademoiselle Lhéritier, Mademoiselle Bernard, Mademoiselle de La Force, Madame Durand, Madame d'Auneuil. Contes. Paris: Champion 2005.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr 147 (2005): 637: This highly useful second volume of the Bibliothèque des Génies et des Fées includes a general introduction, a general bibliography on 17th c. women's writing, the Contes de fées, popular literature, and useful dictionaries. Notices for the contes include the author's biography, specific bibliography, annotations, indices of principal characters and illustrations.
Review: M.-A. Thirard in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 592–597. Detailed description of the contents of the volume. Concludes: "Grâce soit donc rendue à Raymonde Robert qui nous propose de redécouvrir des textes souvent injustement méconnus et qui permettra à une nouvelle génération d'adeptes des contes de fées de retrouver avec un autre regard que celui de l'enfance le royaume de la merveille."
BANDERIER, GILLES. "Notes sur Béroalde de Verville." BHR 67.2 (2005), 395–98.
Banderier présente un poème liminaire inconnu signé 《 Béroalde 》 (publié dans la seconde édition du Trompette françois, ou fidele François, suivi du Miroir des Alchimistes, 1609) et une lettre adressée à Béroalde de la part de Pierre Davity (1573–1640), auteur des Travaux sans travail (1599).
MOREAU, HELENE & ANDRE TOURNON, eds., with the collaboration ofJEAN-LUC RISTORI. François Beroalde de Verville: Le Moyen de Parvenir. Tomes I et II. Paris: Honoré Champion, Texte de la Renaissance, 2004.
Review: N. Kenny in FS 60.3 (2006), p. 388–389: This overwhelmingly positive review chronicles the improvements in this re-edition of Beroalde de Verville's work. Not that Moreau and Tournon's first edition was lackluster, but this boasts revised introduction, much augmented endnotes, and improved binding for easier readability and a longer shelf-life. This "scholarly and useful critical edition" also contains variants and well-done indexes and themes.
MCCOSKER, PHILIP. "The Christology of Pierre de Bérulle." DownR 435 (2006), 111–134.
The author provides a biography and detailed anaylsis of what he terms Bérulle's (1575–1629) "theology" and "christology". He argues that "Bérulle's christological synthesis is of contemporary theological interest" despite being significantly neglected in contemporary scholarship on the "founder of the religious community of the Oratory in France."
SCOTT, PAUL. "Subversive Revisions in the Work of Charles de Beys." FS 60.2 (2006), 177–190.
This article is an interesting and close reading of "L'Hospital des Fous" (1636) and, in particular, its revision and re-publication under the title "Les Illustres fous" (1653). The article opens with the imprisonment of Charles de Beys for suspicion of having participated in the creation of a cutting Mazarinade. This confrontation with the state provides, according to Scott, the impetus for rewriting "L'Hospital" and reinforcing the role of the concierge—the director of the hospital. In the latter version, the director is painted as more sinister and more oppressive than in the original play. Thus, the original play, focused on typically baroque themes of illusion and love, becomes a commentary (though a highly subtle one) on political power and abuse. Scott convincingly argues that Beys' adaptation of the play is not, as some have argued, a minor revision, but a re-thinking and subtle rewriting that conveys his experiences in prison and within the court. The article is of interest to those studying in particular the ways in which discourses of madness are retooled from baroque mechanisms of illusion to more classical tools of subversion. Of course, students of Beys and seventeenth-century theater and history in general will also find interesting tidbits in Scott's article.
MALLINSON, JEFFREY. Faith, Reason, and Revelation in Theodore Beza (1519–1605). Oxford and New York: OUP, 2003.
Review: J. Raitt in BHR 68.1 (2006), 190–91 : 《 Mallinson joins theological historians who challenge those who judge Theodore Beza guilty of intellectualizing or rationalizing or scholasticizing, and thereby corrupting, the insights of John Calvin, Beza's inspiration and mentor. 》
LEIBACHER-OUVRARD, LISE. "Libelles-pharmakon et justice d'Etat : La vindicte discursive de Pierre Corneille Blessebois." PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 447–458.
Examines the theme of vengeance in the work of Pierre Corneille Blessebois. Asks: "Même à considérer que toute écriture est déjà 《 pharmakon 》 (et donc à la fois remède et poison, comme l'a démontré Derrida), le libelle doublement empoisonné n'a-t-il pas été, d'abord et avant tout, une de ces 《 subtiles variétés de vengeance 》 dont a parlé Nietzsche, et en particulier cette 《 vengeance imaginaire 》 par laquelle certains individus — désormais obligés à la compétence mais interdit de performance, se sont appropriés les compensations symboliques que la justice d'Etat leur refusait?"
PAPERS ON FRENCH SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE. Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature. "Boileau: poésie, esthétique." 31, 61 (2004).
Review: C. Rolla in SFr 147 (2005): 635–36: This volume contains selected proceedings from the May 2003 Colloque at Versailles and ranges from subjects as diverse as the esthetics of Boileau's heroic ode, the burlesque, the classic, various comparative studies (Allen Wood, for example, compares "le repas ridicule" chez Boileau and Régnier), and Boileau's bestiary (Dorothée Scholl).
SEIFERT, LEWIS C. "Boisrobert's Cabinet and the Seventeenth-Century Closet." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 261–270.
The space of the cabinet, like the closet, offers a space of both lesser and greater privacy, intimacy, and secrecy. Scandals surrounding the homosexuality of Boisrobert show that his cabinet "allowed him to adopt a social persona whose equivalent, in terms of openness, would remain rare until our own time."
GUION, BEATRICE. "L'aigle de Meaux, le cygne de Cambrai et Louis le Grand: Louis XIV devant Bossuet et Fénélon." TL 18 (2005): 195–215.
Close and thorough examination of numerous texts: political writings, correspondence, sermons of Bossuet preached at court, and writings of a preceptory nature concerning Louis's successors. Divided into sections treating "Jugements sur Louis XIV," "Le grand homme, héros guérrier?"and "Les grand rois," Guion demonstrates both "jugements divergents sur la politique et la personne de Louis XIV" and "definitions respectives et des grands rois et de la vraie gloire [qui]. . . sont fort proches" (214).
HOULE, MARTHA. "Naming the 'Confessions' of Jean-Jacques Bouchard." CdDS 9.2 (2005), 1–10.
"The study of the title of Bouchard's short work reveals the breadth of meaning that has been brought to the term 'confession' in France over the centuries, reflecting perhaps the breadth of what actually occurs in confessionals: people make both complete and incomplete confessions, they are both guilty and guilt-free, and they are both repentant and unrepentant." Author analyzes whether or not Bouchard's title, "confession," is a "titre abusif."
BEUGNOT, BERNARD & GILLES DECLERCQ, eds. Dominique Bouhours. Les Entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène. Sources classiques 47. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2003.
Review: A. Génetiot in SFr no. 145 (2005): 156–57: Judged at once erudite and inviting, this new edition of a work neglected by modern editors makes available a "texte capital pour comprendre l'articulation entre mondains et lettrés au Grand Siècle" (156). The reviewer includes his own appreciation of Bouhours's work which offers a reflection on 17th c. reading as it relates to citation and the "lieu commun" as well as demonstrates to "honnêtes gens. . . [comment] civiliser la doctrine" (156). Bibliography and notes provide rich suggestions for further exploration.
Review: M.-O. Sweetser in FR 79 (2005), 410–11: A reprinting of six dialogues by Père Bouhours: La Mer, La Langue française, Le Secret, le Bel Esprit, Le Je ne say quoy, and les Devises. "Ces textes représentent une élégante adaptation au dix-septième siècle de la tradition humaniste de l'Antiquité à la Renaissance européenne, destinés à un public mondain cultivé" (411). Each entretien is given a helpful introduction and bibliography by the volume's editors.
BAYARD, MARC. "Les faiseurs d'artifices: Georges Buffequin et les artistes de l'éphémère á l'époque de Richelieu." DSS 230 (2006), 151–164.
New research brings to light the contribution of Buffequin, among others, to the art of "la décoration éphémère de théâtre ou de spectacles publics sous le règne de Louis XIII."
GROSPERRIN, JEAN-PHILIPPE, ed., Campistron et consorts : tragédie et opéra en France de 1683 à 1733. Littératures classiques, 52. Paris: Champion, 2004.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr no. 146 (2005): 414: This volume, reflecting the Toulouse colloque of 2002, is divided into three sections: analyses of the diverse versions of the tragic genre, the case of Campistron (tragedies and operas), and the interactions of "la tragédie déclamée" and "la tragédie en musique." Jean-Philippe Grosperrin provides both an introduction and a rich bibliography. The mulitfaceted and wide-ranging essays are both erudite and stimulating and the participation in the colloque and resultant volume international (including, for example, from North America, Buford Norman's contribution on "Opéra et fable tragique. . ." and Guy Spielman's "tragédies en musique et tragédies déclamées. . .").
Review: P. Gethner in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 566–571. Reviewer comments: "The articles are of consistently high quality: well written, highly informative and often very insightful." Despite "a few minor flaws," this is "very useful collection, containing much valuable information and analysis."
ROSNER, ANNA. "La déconstruction du corps féminin dans le roman pieux de Jean-Pierre Camus," PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 483–498.
Examines "la déconstruction du corps féminin par le biais de la rhétorique des Pères de l'Eglise dans deux romans pieux, Dorothée ou récit de la pitoyable issue d'une volonté violentée (1621) et La Pieuse Julie (1625). Tandis que le vice est loin d'être une pratique exclusivement féminine, les romans de Camus mettent en scène une notion très traditionnelle de la vertu et du vice chrétiens, opposition qui se réalise pleinement dans son traitement de la femme et du corps féminin."
SHOEMAKER, PETER. "Violence and Piety in Jean-Pierre Camus's histoires tragiques." FR 79 (2006), 549–560.
Shoemaker addresses the meaning of violence in the work of histoire tragique writer Jean-Pierre Camus, whose fascination with gore which has baffled many readers due to Camus' status as a bishop. Whereas previous scholars have sometimes unconvincingly explained this violence in terms of retribution and punishment, Shoemaker notes that "[w]hatever moral or religious beliefs Camus may in fact hold, he allows the reader occasionally to experience violence as something fragmentary and contingent. . . resistant to stable interpretation" (556). This incomprehensibility is then related back to God, with Shoemaker suggesting that Camus' religiosity lies precisely in his presentation of violence as something beyond human reason, a kind of punishment we cannot understand. The article also considers the relationship between histoires tragiques and journalistic writing.
PROUST, JACQUES & MARIANNE, eds. and trans. Le Puissant Royaume du Japon, La description de François Caron (1636). Paris: Éditions Chandeigne, 2003.
Review: J. G. Rosso in SFr 146 (2005): 377–78: Welcome translation with important critical apparatus including detailed notes, bibliography, indices and illustrations which are at once "curieuses et éclairantes," "une belle porte ouverte sur le Japon du XVIIe siècle" (378). The three texts presented here illuminate moeurs and customs (justice, honor, religion, marriage, education, woman's condition, commerce, etc.) from the viewpoint of Caron, of French Huguenot heritage who was in the service of the Compagnies de Commerce des Indes Orientales and who married a Japanese woman with whom he had several children.
KAPP, VOLKER. "Un jésuite à la recherche du 'grand homme': La Cour sainte de Nicolas Caussin." TL 18 (2005): 179–94:
Careful and fascinating analysis of Caussin's work which enjoyed considerable prestige during the 17th c. as representative of a genre exalting exemplary persons "au modèle de l'héroïsme qui véhiculait. . . le culte du grand homme," one of Catholicism's strategies in face of the double threat of the Reformation and "la pensée profane" (181). Kapp examines negatives and positives of Caussin's work, in particular as it concerns themes, gender and rhetoric, making an important contribution to the scholarship relating to hagiography in general as well as to the mentality of the 17th c.
DEMORIS, RENÉ, "La Figure féminine chez Challe: du côté de Mme Murat et de Courtilz de Sandras" dans Robert Challe: sources et héritages. Actes du Colloque International Louvain-Anvers 21–23 mars 2002. Études réunies par Jacques Cormier, Jan Hermann, et Paul Pelckns. Louvain, Paris, Dudley, MA, 2003, 87–99.
Review: F. Piva in SFr no. 146 (2005): 422: This important article in the Acts of an international colloque devoted to Challe is rich and wide-ranging, retracing the principal stages of the "transformation épocale" in the construction of an "identité féminine moderne". Demoris analyzes a series of narrative texts from Mme de Villedieu's Mémoire d'Henriette Sylvie de Molière to others by Catherine Bernard, Mme d'Aulnoy, Eustache Lenoble, l'abbé de Villiers, Mme de Murat, Courtilz de Sandras and Challe. Demonstrates how Challe's work is at once "une synthèse" and "un dépassement, une ouverture vers la nouvelle société et les nouvelles valeurs. . ." (422).
GIROU SWIDERSKI, MARIE-LAURE, ed. Challe et son temps. Actes du colloque de l'Université d'Ottawa, 24–26 septembre 1998. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: C. Martin in RF 117 (2005): 250–52: Welcome and indispensable volume of essays organized around Challe's Illustres Françaises, Journal d'un voyage fait aux Indes, and Difficultés sur la religion. Martin finds the essays well-argued and well-documented—of interest not only to Challe specialists but also to scholars of culture during the reign of Louis XIV. The volume includes global interpretations, close readings, studies of intertextuality, sensiblities, and so forth.
GOSSIP, C. J. 《 The Orateur in Seventeenth-Century French Theatre Companies. 》 MLR 101.3 (2006), 691–700 :
Treatment of Book III of Samuel Chappuzeau's 1674 work, Le Théâtre françois, on the nature and functions of the orateur. Gossip acknowledges the scholarly analysis of William Brooks on Chappuzeau yet takes exception to some of his conclusions and finds Chappuzeau's treatment of the three main theatre companies and their orateurs "to be more balanced that Brooks would have us believe."
MATERO, ANNE & OLIVIER MILLET, éd. Jean-Baptiste Chassignet. Actes du colloque du Centre Jacques-Petit, Besançon (4, 5 et 6 mai 1999). Paris : Champion, 2003.
Review : P. Martin in BHR 67.3 (2005), 786–89 : 《 . . .18 articles répartis en quatre sections, encadrés par une présentation d'O. Millet et une réflexion argumentée sur la réception de Chassignet par B. Degott. . .. Le tout est complété par un index des poèmes mentionnés et vers cités, un index nominum et une bibliographie. 》
Review: A. Moss in FS 59.3 (2005), 391–392: Though this review mentions a number of strong contributors to this volume of collected papers, overall it paints the portrait of undiscerning editors who "refuse to refuse" and thus create a "mixed bag" of choices. The investigation of the source bibles for Chassignet's poetry seems to be intriguing and is brought out in several papers, but there is, to paraphrase the reviewer, a lack of overall vision.
ARENBERG, NANCY. "Mirrors, Cross-Dressing and Narcissism in Choisy's Histoire de Madame la Comtesse des Barres." CdDS 10.1 (2006), 11–30.
Examination of gender issues, as expressed through cross-dressing. Study argues that "Choisy's ambiguous body is represented as an elastic, malleable surface, oscillating between masculine and feminine polarization." Also examines how Choisy exploits gender ambiguity to reveal the body as a dangerous erotic site.
HARRIS, JOSEPH. "Novel Upbringings: Education and Gender in Choisy and Lafayette." Romanic Review 97.1 (2006), 3–14.
Examines questions of cross-dressing and gender in Choisy's "Histoire de la Marquise-Marquis de Banneville" as a reflection of the "social, moral, and sentimental education orchestrated" in Lafayette's novel La Princesse de Clèves. Shows how Choisy pays homage to Lafayette's novel but also attempts to rework her text and renegotiate her claims to authorship.
BANNISTER, MARK. "The Mediatization of Politics during the Fronde: Condé's Bureau de Presse." CdDS 10.1 (2006), 31–44.
Study examines Condé's Bureau de presse to reveal the numerous advantages of brief political treatises, among them flexibility and rapid distribution. Bannister then explores Condé's techniques: a condensed presentation, repeated slogans, ironic asides and rapid responses.
MARRACHE-GOURAUD, M. & PIERRE MARTIN, eds. Paul Contant. Le Jardin et cabinet poétique (1609). Rennes : PU de Rennes, 2004.
Review : A. Cullière in BHR 68.2 (2006), 445–448: Dans Le Jardin et cabinet poétique (1609), l'apothicare poitevin Paul Contant (1562–1629) reprend et enrichit son Bouquet printanier (La Rochelle : Jérôme Haultin, 1600). A la 《 description en vers des plantes médicinales les plus remarquables 》, Contant ajoute 《 une description des plus belles pièces de son cabinet, fossiles, minéraux, objets divers et autres singularités de la nature. 》 Dans la dernière version du poème (oeuvres collectives de 1628), Contant compose 《 un ajout de quelque 250 vers 》 pour répondre tardivement à un très violent réquisitoire 》 apparu lors de la parution de l'oeuvre. Cullière note 《 quelques imperfections 》 et des défauts techniques et regrette 《 que les éditeurs n'aient pas eu connaissance de la première version de l'oeuvre publiée en 1600. 》
BAKER, SUSAN READ. "Attila (1667): Fathers and Huns." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 85–94.
Corneille's monstrous Attila lends this little-known play an air of archetypal mythologizing that casts absolutism in Freudian terms of tyrannical fathers and castrated sons. The play's providential ending points to a tragicomedy and the blurring of the distinctions between comedy and tragedy.
CLARKE, JAN. "Pierre Corneille dans les répertoires des troupes de Molière et de l'Hôtel Guénégaud." RHLF 106.3 (2006), 571–598.
Survey of the period between 1659–1680 and refined analysis of Molière's relationship with the troupes. Particular attention devoted to questions of geography. Reference to Tite et Bérénice and Psyché. Meant to facilitate our understanding of the relationship between Molière and Corneille. Author concludes that "Molière se voua à être l'interprète de Corneille."
CUENIN-LIEBER, MARIETTE. "Corneille et l'aparté." OeC 30.2 (2005), 121–27:
"Mais avant d'étudier ainsi la pratique du poète, nous regarderons de plus près ses écrits théoriques, pour voir si l'expression de son hostilité à l'aparté éclaire la mise en oeuvre du procédé dans son théâtre."
DOSMOND, SIMONE. "D'un centenaire à l'autre (1984–2006) ou: Vingt ans après (1984–2004)." OeC 30.2 (2005), 149–60.
"Il s'agit donc de bien rendre compte de vingt ans de critique cornélienne, alors que vingt-deux ans séparent en réalité les deux commémorations [le tricentenaire de la mort de Pierre Corneille, octobre 1984, et le quadricentenaire de sa naissance, juin 2006]."
EKSTEIN, NINA. "Over the Top: From the Tragic to the Comic in Corneille." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 73–84.
The author examines moments in Corneille's tragedies and heroic comedies where the playwright "goes over the top" (i.e., astonishes the reader to the point where he or she questions the dramatist's seriousness) in order to show the delicate interplay and overlapping of comic and tragic elements in Corneille's theater.
FERNEY, FREDERIC. Performance review of Le Cid, mise-en-scène, Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman, Comédie Française, 2005–2006. Le Point 1733 (2005), 124.
"Alexandre Pavloff (Rodrigue) et Audrey Bonnet (Chimène) sont à la fois trop contemporains et trop guindés pour qu'on y croie. Tout cela manque d'âme, de cohérence et d'humour." Ferney concludes that it is the worst performance that the Comédie-Française has staged in some time.
FERNEY, FREDERIC. Performance review of L'Illusion comique, mise-en-scène, Marion Bierry, Théâtre de Poche, summer 2006. Le Point 1764 (2006), 94.
Pridamant is played by a woman, Alcandre sings with the voice of Freddie Mercury, and it works: "Avant Molière, Corneille a compris qu'au théâtre il s'agissait de plaire au public plutôt que de convaincre les doctes. Ce spectacle qui nous enchante le prouve."
FORESTIER, GEORGES. "Un Corneille hors texte." RHLF 106.3 (2006), 515–518.
Introduction of the issue. Announces that this anthology is comprised of two parts. The first part contains four individual studies of Corneille "hors de ses textes", as perceived through the relationship with the actors, editors, and "marchands-libraires" of the period. The second part includes three essays of different interests.
HOWE, ALAN. "Corneille et ses premiers comédiens." RHLF 106.3 (2006), 519–542.
Intends to shed new light on the relationship between Corneille and the first actors who staged his plays by addressing issues that Descotes has left out in his study. Refers to the lives and roles of individual actors, analyzes public decrees and dedicatory epistles.
KOPP, ROBERT. 《 Le Grand Corneille : un centenaire oublié ? 》 RDM (mai 2006), 15–19.
Kopp regrette l'absence d'événements marquants en 2006 pour Pierre Corneille : 《 Malheureusement, notre culture est devenue une culture de l'événement. Il nous faut des anniversaires pour nous souvenir de nos peintres, de nos savants, de nos écrivains. Encore faudrait-il qu'on n'oublie pas les plus importants. Ainsi, le grand Corneille semble avoir passé à la trappe. 》 Pourtant, Kopp loue 《 la toute nouvelle et très vivante biographie de Corneille par Alain Niderst 》 (Fayard 2006) et aussi 《 le joli volume illustré de Christian Biet, Moi Pierre Corneille 》 (Gallimard 2006).
LYONS, JOHN D. "Le moment d'Othon." OeC 30.2 (2005), 93–103.
"Le jugement généralement défavorable porté sur les dernières tragédies de Corneille est lié à une vision des héros de ces oeuvres. On conçoit une idée de l'idéale tragédie cornélienne en se fondant sur Le Cid, sur Horace, sur Cinna et sur Polyeucte, et ce critère assez rigide nous empêche trop souvent de bien voir ce que Corneille, véritable protée dramatique, fait dans ses pièces tardives. Je prends en exemple, Othon, pièce peu comprise, me semble-t-il, justement à cause de l'inventivité de Corneille en matière d'héroïsme."
MALLINSON, JONATHAN. "Les comédies de Corneille: problèmes familiers, perspectives nouvelles." OeC 30.2 (2005), 19–28.
"Et pourtant, ce qui frappe c'est justement la théâtralité de ces pièces, qui amènent le public aux sources et aux limites même de la comédie; elle mêlent le familier à l'inattendu, elles provoquent en même temps qu'elles plaisent. Corneille comique, comme Corneille tragique, ne suit pas une formule rigide; il ne se répète pas, il expérimente, et il se renouvelle sans cesse; il incombe aux critiques de faire autant, de devenir spectateurs autant que lecteurs, de se soumettre à ces illusions comiques et de relever leur défi."
MARGITIC, MILORAD R. Cornelian Power Games. Variation on a Theme in Pierre Corneille's Theatre from Mélite to Polyeucte. Tübingen: Narr, 2002.
Review: S. Schreckenberg in RF 117 (2005): 399–401. Margitic's aim in this rich and stimulating study is to examine in twelve plays the "desire for power" (9) as the important motivating force of characters and common feature of the plays. Outstanding close readings are central; Margitic states: "every observation and assertion will be based on and backed by the evidence drawn from direct readings of the plays' text, with speculative developments kept to a minimum" (11). Strategies of sight and disguise are particularly crucial. Selected bibliography.
MASLAN, SUSAN. "The Dream of the Feeling Citizen: Law and Emotion in Corneille and Montesquieu." Substance 35 (2006), 69–83.
The article examines Corneille's Horace and Montesquieu's Les Lettres Persanes in tracing a pre-history of the figure of the man-citizen posited by the Déclaration des Droits de L'Homme et du Citoyen, a figure whose citizenship was cast as including sentiment. In analyzing Horace, Maslan notes the differing views of Camille and Sabine on whether grief and feeling should be kept private in the home, or whether they should enter the public realm of politics. Maslan suggests that Corneille's play endorses a divided existence and projects bad faith upon King Tulle for treating Horace's crimes as a "state of exception" rather than judging them as crimes of passion which could be deemed either condemnable or forgivable. Maslan criticizes as too 1789-anticipatory Fumaroli's reading of the play as presaging a "fusion of love and law, of citizenship and sentiment."
MAZOUER, CHARLES,coord. Présences de Corneille. Oeuvres et critiques, Vol. 30, no. 2. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2005.
Fascicule dédié à la mémoire de Wolfgang Leiner, fondateur et directeur de la revue Oeuvres et critiques de 1976 à 2005. "Avant propos éditorial" de Rainer Zaiser; "Wolfgang Leiner in memoriam" de Yvonne Bellenger; "Avant propos" de Charles Mazouer. Treize articles sur Pierre Corneille à l'occasion du quatrième centenaire de sa naissance. Voir les auteurs: A. Niderst, J. Mallinson, J.-Y. Vialleton, A. Soare, A. Teulade. E. Minel, M.-F. Wagner, J. D. Lyons, L. Picciola, M. Cuénin-Lieber, H. Merlin-Kajman, S. Dosmond, C. Mazouer.
MAZOUER, CHARLES. "Un metteur en scène cornélien: Jean-Marie Villégier." OeC 30.2 (2005), 161–70.
L'auteur tente de présenter le parcours cornélien de Jean-Marie Villégier et "de donner quelque idée de ses réalisations."
MERLIN-KAJMAN, HELENE. "Corneille, une politique de l'image scénique." OeC 30.2 (2005), 133–147.
"Ma question sera la suivante: quel sens politique peut-on donner au théâtre cornélien tant dans son contexte de production que pour nous, aujourd'hui? Dans sa double détente, cette question implique deux problèmes: si l'on tient pour acquis, avec Barthes, qu'une forme artistique réussie, a fortiori une forme aussi complexe que celle du théâtre, s'offre toujours à une saisie plurielle, faut-il supposer que le théâtre cornélien n'ait eu qu'une seule fonction politique possible dans son propre contexte de production? A l'inverse, peut-on supposer qu'un certain type de fonction politique perdure sur le très long terme, dans des conditions contextuelles aussi radicalement différentes, politiquement, que celles de la monarchie absolue et celles de notre propre société?"
MINEL, EMMANUEL. "Caractère royal et caractère héroïque chez Corneille (Rodogune, Pertharite et Attila)." OeC 30.2 (2005), 67–77.
"Dans les tragédies premières de l'éclat héroïque et de la grandeur royale, les deux caractères se définissent aussi activement par un échange de services. Le Héros est celui qui sauve le trône en un moment critique, le Roi est celui qui fait grâce au héros, en situation de culpabilité, et lui assure la main de celle qu'il aime, tout en le lançant dans un travail héroïque sans échéance. Dans les tragédies ultérieures, qu'on pourra qualifier de tragédies de l'identité (qui est roi, qui est héros) ou de tragédies de la nature (est-il digne d'être roi) on retrouve, sous une forme parfois indicielle, cet échange de services caractérisant."
NEUSCHAFER, ANNE. "L'Illusion comique (1636) de Pierre Corneille. Un bilan ou un nouveau depart?" In Erdmann, Eva and Konrad Schoell, eds. Le comique corporel: Mouvement et comique dans l'espace théâtral du XVIIe siècle. Biblio 17 Number 163. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 59–68.
Corneille's "étrange monstre" offers a vision of reality that can only be understood through the violation of the conventions of theater and dramatic genres.
NIDERST, ALAIN. Pierre Corneille. Paris: Fayard, 2006.
Review: n. a. in BCLF 683 (2006), 65–66: "A. Niderst fait alterner les éclairages sur l'homme et les remarques sur l'oeuvre, et l'on voit bien que la soudure ne se fait pas. . .. Là réside le principal défaut dont souffre la composition de ce volume. . .: il eût mieux valu dissocier complètement l'écrivain de sa création. Le lecteur déplorera également la minceur du cahier iconographique et son caractère convenu." Cette biographie "se lit néamoins avec agrément et met l'accent sur les aspects les moins familiers du personnage, sa poésie religieuse et ses rapports tendus avec les contemporains (Molière, Racine), entre autres."
NIDERST, ALAIN. "Pierre Corneille: une biographie.' OeC 30.2 (2005), 9–17.
"La biographie de Corneille nous apprend peut-être la banalité de Corneille et de tous les hommes. Elle nous instruit aussi sur les singularités de son siècle, et au lieu de nous faire suivre une démarche linéaire qui serait le développement d'un caractère, elle nous montre, elle nous permet de comprendre toutes ces forces auxquelles le poète s'est mesuré, ces dunes et ces rocs parmi lesquels il a dû faire son chemin."
PICCIOLA, LILIANE. Corneille et la dramaturgie espagnole. Tübingen: Narr, 2002.
Review: V. Gély in RLC 315 (2005), 378–379. "Servi par une excellente connaissance du théâtre espagnol du siècle d'or, le livre de Liliane Picciola est bien plus qu'une étude de sources et qu'une analyse des procédés de traduction, d'imitation et d'adaptation: elle permet une réflexion théorique d'envergure sur la notion même d'imitation créatrice."
Review: W. Matzat in RF 117 (2005): 405–407: Welcome and praiseworthy, Picciola's extensive examination focuses on both direct and indirect sources, structural as well as historical-thematic perspectives. Analyses are judged ample and useful for Spanish theatre in addition to Corneille's.
PICCIOLA, LILIANE. Hispanités de Corneille." OeC 30.2 (2005), 105–119.
Quatre des pièces de Corneille sont "des récritures avouées de pièces espagnoles: Le Cid, Le Menteur, La Suite du Menteur, Don Sanche d'Aragon. . .." Picciola voudrait "formuler encore quelques hypothèses sur ces effets [de la culture espagnole]. Celles-ci concernent la variété métrique des comédies de Corneille, qui s'accompagne d'une assomption de la convention théâtrale, son goût 'espagnol' pour les fables dramatiques sur le mérite dans la roture, et, dans un registre plus grave, la proximité de notre auteur avec Rojas Zorrilla, qu'il s'agisse de la création de figures féminines impressionnantes ou d'un traitement particulier de l'horreur."
RIFFAUD, ALAIN. "L'impression du Cid (1637–1648)." RHLF 106.3 (2006), 543–570.
This article is divided into various parts, in which the author compares the different editions published between 1637 and 1645. Particular attention is paid to conditions of production, evolution of the text, distribution, and quality of the print.
RYAN, ANGELA. "《 . . .Ou d'elle ou de deux rois 》: La Médée de Corneille et la bienséance dans les représentations du pouvoir et de l'absolutisme royaux." PFSCL XXXIII, 64 (2006), 47–59.
"La présente étude a pour objectif de lire en parallèle quelques passages des Médée d'Euripide et de Corneille afin de mettre en lumière pour les comparer certaines références à la royauté, et plus spécifiquement à une notion de royauté qui a cessé d'exister dès la fin de l'ancien régime. Il s'agit de la royauté incarnée."
SERROY, JEAN, ed. Pierre Corneille. Rodogune. Paris: Gallimard (Collection Folio Théàtre), 2004.
Review: C. Musio in SFr no. 146 (2005): 410–11: Welcome new edition of this tragedy "meno famose" of Corneille which was first staged in the 1644–45 season. Serroy's critical apparatus includes a chronology of Corneille's life, an analysis of the sources, the structure and mise en scène, and reception of the play from the 18th-20thc. Bibliography, notes and reassessment of Rodogune.
SOARE, ANTOINE. "Les Querelles du Cid et d'Horace continuent." OeC 30.2 (2005), 41–44.
"La critique cornélienne continue à fonctionner dans ce cadre moral polarisé dont nous avons essayé d'esquisser l'historique, et que deux vers résumaient dans Horace: Tel porte jusqu'au cieux leur vertu sans égale,/Et tel l'ose nommer sacrilège et brutale. (v. 777–78) La discorde se concentre sur quelques aspects qui régissent la réception, les uns du Cid, les autres d'Horace, et partant celle de l'héroïsme cornélien en général."
TEULADE, ANNE. "Corneille et le théâtre hagiographique: un moment singulier dans la pensée de l'effet tragique." OeC 30.2 (2005), 55–66.
En écrivant deux pièces hagiographiques, Polyeucte martyr et Théodore, vierge et martyre, Corneille "ne nie pas la possibilité de donner une forme théâtrale à cette matière réputée stérile, et il tente en outre de lui conférer une légitimité théorique. Il dépasse en fait totalement les enjeux du débat en dotant ce 'subject bien difficile & peu capable du Theatre' d'une triple potentialité: le saint peut être un héros de théâtre, il peut même être un héros de tragédie, et la forme de cette tragédie constitue une proposition innovante et acceptable du point de vue des règles."
VIALLETON, JEAN-YVES. "Le Silence de Mélite." OeC 30.2 (2005), 29–40.
"Dans son 'coup d'essai', Corneille n'imite pas seulement la 'conversation des honnêtes gens': ingénieusement, il fait d'une question littéraire qui travaillera toute son oeuvre, celle de l'imitation de la parole au théâtre, le sujet même de la pièce."
VIALLETON, JEAN-YVES. "La vie de Corneille comme moment de la réflexion des classiques sur la littérature." RHLF 106.3 (2006), 599–628.
Offers a new perspective on the life of Corneille in order to deconstruct the "mythographie cornélienne". A new insight which is based on lesser known sources.
WAGNER, MARIE-FRANCE. "Point de vue des pièces à machines de Corneille: du visuel au rhétorique." OeC 30.2 (2005), 79–92.
"Andromède est la seconde pièce mythologique de Pierre Corneille après Médée, et La Conquête de la Toison d'or est la quatrième après Oedipe. . . Ces pièces invitent à une lecture linguistique et temporelle, car la cohérence de leur message est établie par les mots et non par les dessins. . .. Il sera question dans cet article du visuel, à la fois dans la représentation du réel et dans la représentation figurée."
FENET, ALAIN and ASTRID GUILLAUME. Eméric Crucé: Le Nouveau Cynée; ou, discours d'Etat représentant les occasions et moyens d'établir une paix générale et liberté du commerce par tout le monde. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2004.
Review: K. Ibbett in FS 60.1 (2006), 102–103: In this "useful and thorough edition," Crucé's nuanced and interesting philosophy on diplomacy and international relations come to light. While the review focuses on Crucé and not the edition, it is clear that this work will be of interest to historians, particularly those studying early attempts at building alliances and umbrella organizations such as (to be anachronistic) the U.N.
DARMON, JEAN-CHARLES, ed. Cyrano de Bergerac. Les Etats et Empires de la Lune et du Soleil. Littératures classiques 53-Supplément, 2004.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr 147 (2005): 634: Wide-ranging and multi-dimensional, this number of LC focuses on "les références, les allusions, les sources affichées ou dissimulées, et les interprétations possibles" of Cyrano's work. Rich bibliography.
TOBIN, RONALD W. 《 Les Aventures de Dassoucy ou l'odyssée d'un gosier 》 in Avez-vous lu Dassoucy ? Actes du colloque international du CERHAC, Clermont-Ferrand, 25–26 juin 2004. Ed. Dominique Bertrand. 241–256.
Article traces Dassoucy's attention to questions of hospitality and gastronomy in his travels as two worthy subjects of his literary talent, particularly in light of the role of Homer's Odyssey as inspiration for the Aventures. Tobin concludes by suggesting that 《 l'hospitalité sous-tend la poursuite de l'honneur, du respect et de l'identité qui informe les Aventures de Dassoucy. 》
FERRER, VERONIQUE, éd. Agrippa d'Aubigné. Œuvres complètes, vol. 1 : 《 Petites Œuvres meslées 》 suivies du 《 Recueil des vers de Monsieur d'Ayre. 》 Paris : Champion, 2004.
Review : G. Banderier in BHR 68.1 (2006), 207–212 : 《 Mme Ferrer a le mérite de nous donner la première édition moderne et scientifique des Petites Œuvres meslées, conçues par leur auteur comme un recueil autonome. 》 Cependant, Banderier adresse de nombreux reproches à cette édition critique des Œuvres et son impression d'ensemble est plutôt 《 mitigée 》 à cause, par exemple, du manque 《 d'explication sur le plan d'ensemble qui sera suivi 》 , d'une bibliographie qui n'a pas été mise à jour depuis la publication de sa thèse de doctorat soutenue en 1999 dont ce volume est issu, de l' 《 ignorance accablante 》 de Véronique Ferrer vis-à-vis la bibliographie matérielle et de 《 son manque de familiarité avec l'anatomie du livre. 》
FORSYTH, ELLIOTT. La Justice de Dieu: Les Tragiques d'Agrippa d'Aubigné et la réforme protestante en France au XVIe siècle. Paris: Champion, 2003.
Review : S. Junod in MLR 101.4 (2006), 1111–1112 : 《 . . .this work, though it does well to touch on crucial problems dealing with the notions of justice, pardon, and individual and collective responsibility, produces little in the way of new elements in the interpretation of Les Tragiques. 》
Review: n.a. in BCLF 673 (2005), 65: Ouvrage qui traite des "thèmes de la justice de Dieu dans la Bible et dans la pensée des grands réformateurs de la Renaissance." Forsyth "montre comment d'Aubigné s'y prend pour discerner dans le chaos d'événements plus ou moins contemporains la trace d'un dessein divin. Cet ouvrage est donc également en livre sur d'Aubigné et la Bible."
FRAGONARD, MARIE-MADELEINE. La Pensée religieuse d'Agrippa d'Aubigné et son expression. Paris : Champion, 2004.
Review: A. Conacher in FS 59.4 (2005): This is a "timely reedition of... a classic," according to the review. Fragonard's work covers d'Aubigné's oeuvre in breadth and in detail, and provides subtle interpretations of the baroque author's thought and writing. The value of the book, beyond its scope and attention to meticulous detail, can be found in the relative paucity of works treating the whole of d'Aubigné's corpus. This text is "encyclopedic" and a "reference."
Review : V. Ferrer in BHR 67.2 (2005), 539–41 : 《 Il s'agit plus précisément de dégager une 'poétique religieuse' à partir de l'examen de la pensée structurante de l'œuvre, en alliant une interrogation sur son contenu théologique et un questionnement sur 'le langage et sa place dans l'histoire.' 》
SCHRENK, GILBERT, ed. Autour de l'Histoire universelle d'Agrippa d'Aubigné: Mélanges à la mémoire d'André Thierry. Genève: Droz, 2006.
Review: n. a. in BCLF 683 (2006), 66–67: "Cet élégant volume est divisé en deux parties: la première donne à lire ou à relire sept articles savants qu'André Thierry a publiés sur l'Histoire universelle, de 1970 à 1999, et qui forment l'escorte de sa these. . .. La seconde partie rassemble neuf contributions nouvelles, dues à des collègues ou à des amis."
BIRBERICK, ANNE L. "Changing Places: d'Aulnoy's Le Nouveau gentilhomme bourgeois." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 285–292.
The author focuses on the relationship between d'Aulnoy's fairy tale "Belle-belle ou le chevalier fortune" and the frame tale of Le Nouveau gentilhomme bourgeois that holds the individual tales into a coherent whole in order to explore the refashioning of social identity.
EKMAN, Mary C. "Concealing Identities, Revealing Stories: Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy's Relation du voyage d'Espagne." CdDS 10.2 (2006), 49–64.
This article considers "the representation. . . of the relationship between the real and the fictional through an examination of how the author/narrator situates the veracity of her account and negotiates narration of the story of her trip to and stay in Madrid." It also looks at the reception of d'Aulnoy's travel narrative, addresses the questions of authorship, authenticity and/or fiction.
JASMIN, NADINE, ed. Madame d'Aulnoy, Contes des fées: suivis des Contes nouveaux, ou Les fées à la mode avec une introduction de Raymonde Robert. Paris: Champion, 2004.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr 147 (2005): 636: Highly recommended for anyone wishing to study D'Aulnoy, this is the first of a planned series, La Bibliothèque des Génies et des Fées. Includes here Jasmin's summary of the 20 projected volumes, two introductions by Raymonde Robert treating sources, form, defining the "l'âge d'or" of the fairy tale, and Jasmin's presentation of the first volume. Annotations, notices complete with analyses and comments, rich bibliography and index of principal characters.
Review: M.-A. Thirard in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 571–577. Detailed review with considerable bibliographical information in its own footnotes.
STEDMAN, ALLISON. "Sacred Writings, Secular Identities: d'Aulnoy's Manipulation of the Psalm-Paraphrase Tradition." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 347–356.
D'Aulnoy's authorship of two texts of psalm paraphrases and commentaries represent women's writing as "a sacred vocation" that justifies her entire literary career as well as inspiring generations of future female authors. By appropriating Psalm 51, she links her literary career with divine inspiration; her creation of a female "I" to replace the ambiguously neuter "I" of tradition allows her to inscribe a implicitly female reader/audience in the text and create a new legitimacy for women authors.
TRINQUET, CHARLOTTE. "Voix clandestines dans les contes de fées: L'exemple de 'Finette Cendron' de Madame d'Aulnoy. " CdDS 10.2 (2006), 65–82.
Through a close reading of "Finette Cendron," Trinquet portrays how "female spaces" are created in the conte de fée, their function, and the social meaning implied. The "clandestine message", i.e., the lack of protection for young girls in the higher classes of seventeenth-century France, is embedded in a fictional universe, which the reader needs to decipher.
ROBERT, RAYMONDE, ed. Mademoiselle Lhéritier, Mademoiselle Bernard, Mademoiselle de La Force, Madame Durand, Madame d'Auneuil. Contes. Paris: Champion 2005.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr 147 (2005): 637: This highly useful second volume of the Bibliothèque des Génies et des Fées includes a general introduction, a general bibliography on 17th c. women's writing, the Contes de fées, popular literature, and useful dictionaries. Notices for the contes include the author's biography, specific bibliography, annotations, indices of principal characters and illustrations.
Review: M.-A. Thirard in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 592–597. Detailed description of the contents of the volume. Concludes: "Grâce soit donc rendue à Raymonde Robert qui nous propose de redécouvrir des textes souvent injustement méconnus et qui permettra à une nouvelle génération d'adeptes des contes de fées de retrouver avec un autre regard que celui de l'enfance le royaume de la merveille."
WAQUET, JEAN-CLAUDE, éd. François de Callières. L'Art de négocier en France sous Louis XIV. Paris: Rue d'Ulm, 2005.
Review: n.a. in BCLF 678 (2006), 112: "Une excellente édition d'un texte d'une importance capitale, notamment pour la connaissance de l'histoire diplomatique du Grand Siècle." Ce traité paru en 1716 par François de Callières "apparaît très marqué par l'époque de sa rédaction: 'il n'est point un traité tourné vers le futur mais plutôt la production tardive d'un homme formé dans les années 1650 et continuant d'évoluer, à la veille de sa mort, dans un univers culturel et politique largement périmé.'"
ALANEN, LILLI. Descartes' Concept of Mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003.
Review: K. Smith in PhQ 56 (July 2006) 449–450. "A rich, sophisticated, and critical examination of Descartes' philosophical views on mind, and in particular, the embodied or human mind." While the reviewer finds fault with some of Alanen's arguments, he concludes that it is a "systematic, coherent, and interesting reading."
ALQUIÉ, FERDINAND. Leçons sur Descartes. Science et métaphysique chez Descartes. Paris : La Table ronde, 2005.
Review : Massimiliano Savini in EP 4 (2005), 567: 《 une exposition scolaire de la pensée des Descartes " qui consiste des cours donnés par " un des plus importants interprètes de la philosophie cartésienne du XXe siècle. 》
ARIEW, ROGER. "Descartes, les premiers cartésiens et la logique," RMM 1 (March 2006): 55–71.
Because Descartes's work on physics and metaphysics were partial and at best general, later Cartesians rushed to fill this void. The author examines these efforts by comparing Cartesian logic texts with scholastic texts from the late seventeenth century.
BEECHER, DONALD. "Mind, Theaters, and the Anatomy of Consciousness." P&L 30 (April 2006), 1–16.
Traces the evolution, from the second half of the sixteenth century, of the use of theatrical metaphors to explain consciousness, with a substantial treatment of Descartes and Dennett's critique of his model of consciousness. Concludes that despite significant revisions in recent theories of consciousness (many of which decentralize and dissolve the self), the theatrical metaphor remains useful to describe the interaction of mind and reality.
BUZON, FRÉDÉRIC DE. "Mathématiques et dialectique: Descartes ramiste?" EP 4 (2005), 455–467.
Researches the as-yet insufficiently unexplored possibility that Pierre de la Ramée's work in mathematics and dialectics may have had a direct or indirect influence on Descartes.
CHARRAK, ANDRÉ. "La critique du syllogisme dans Bacon et Descartes." EP 4 (2005), 469–484.
Compares and contrasts Bacon and Descartes in their critiques of syllogism as part of their respective quests to "renouveler la connaissance de la nature."
CLARKE, DESMOND. "Body and Soul: Was Descartes a Cartesian?" TLS 5378 (April 28, 2006), 5–6.
Clarke argues that it is an oversimplification to say that Descartes believed that body and soul were distinct. Believes Descartes' experiments and his work as a whole suggest that the philosopher thought it "remained possible in principle to provide a scientific explanation of mental processes." Cartesian dualism thus becomes a misapprehension based on the Meditations.
CLARKE, DESMOND. Descartes. A Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006.
Review: D. Garber in TLS 5397 (Sept 8 2006), 8–9. Clarke does good job of tracing the details of Descartes' life, but reviewer finds that Descartes and his world "never come fully to life." Book will not bring Descartes and his thought to a wider audience, but "will be of great use to the scholar in the history of philosophy or the history of science who needs to know the complex details of Descartes' life."
DOYLE, BRET J. LALUMIA. "The Logic of Descartes' Scientific Method in the 'Rules', 'Geometry' and 'Optics.' DAI 67/01 (2006), 207.
A detailed anaylsis of structure, unity, and content in Descartes's mathematical and physical inquiries. Historical investigation that provides an insight into the philosopher's motivation to categorize and differ among scientific disciplines and, thus, to reform the Aristotelian system.
DUMONT, PASCAL. "Art et représentation dans la philosophie de Descartes." LC 2 (2004), 19–30.
The author's study attempts to understand how, "chez Descartes, on peut concevoir toute représentation comme la réussite d'un art d'associer des parties de la matière étendue à une signification dans la pensée."
GAUKROGER, STEPHEN, ed. The Blackwell Guide to Descartes' Meditations. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
Review: R. Lee in Choice 44 (2006), 309: Reliable and thorough, the work addresses common questions in Descartes scholarship. Its twelve essays include: "The Meditations and the Objections and Replies," "Descartes and Skepticism," "The Cogito and the Foundations of Knowledge," "The Nature of the Mind," "The Doctrine of Substance," The Doctrine of Ideas," "Proofs for the Existence of God," "The Cartesian Circle," "Judgment and Will," "Descartes' Proof of the Existence of Matter," "The Mind-Body Relation," and "Seventeenth-Century Responses to the Meditations." Also reproduces Molyneux's 1680 translation of the Meditations.
GRAYLING, A. C. The Life of René Descartes and Its Place in His Times. London: Free Press, 2005.
Review: N. Hammond in TLS 5365 (Jan 27 2006), 27. Not the best detailed academic biography, but "as a readable and mostly reliable biography for the general reader, A.C. Grayling's work is the best available." Grayling "writes with flair and insight," though he may have needed a "rigorous copy-editor." Grayling is at his best when he describes Descartes' friendships and many academic disputes. Reviewer not convinced by Grayling's hypothesis that Descartes worked as a spy for the Jesuits, but does find it intriguing.
KOCH, EREC R., "Ethics, Death and the Cartesian Body." PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 379–388.
Argues "that the corporal regimen that prolongs life is intimately tied to the ethical life of the subject, a subject-body, and to the system of corporal passions that motivate morale." Draws primarily on Descartes' correspondence with Elisabeth of Bohemia and his Passions de l'âme.
LOJACONO, ETTORE. "Le point extrême de la transgression cartésienne: la logique 'introuvable.'" EP 4 (2005), 503–519.
Shows that Descartes's logic is "introuvable" because it does not exist in a classical, traditional sense. Suggests that Descartes rejects syllogism and "normes préconstituées" in favor of thought based on "intuitus."
MACLEAN, IAN,trans. René Descartes. A Discourse on the Method. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006.
Review: N. Hammond in TLS 5398 (Sept 15 2006), 30–31. A "precise and readable" translation, "remarkable for its ample introductory material . . . which will be of great use to beginners and specialists alike." Biographical section "contains some lacunae," but sections on genesis and publication of the work, commentary on the work itself, and consideration of Descartes as a writer "display impeccable erudition and exemplary clarity."
MEHL, ÉDOUARD. "Descartes critique de la logique pure." EP 4 (2005), 485–501.
States that Descartes's criticism of logic involves more than a rejection of syllogism, that it includes Lulle's alternative idea of logic as an encyclopedic system, though author notes this does not imply that Descartes makes a claim to universal knowledge.
PICKAVÉ, MARTIN. "La notion d'a priori chez Descartes et les philosophes médiévaux." EP 4 (2005), 433–454.
Uses the perspective of medieval philosophy to explain Descartes's emphasis on the "a priori" in the proofs used in his methodology, particularly parts pertaining to the Meditations and the existence of God.
RADELET-DE-GRAVE, PATRICIA & JEAN-FRANCOIS STOFFEL, éds. Les "enfants naturels de Descartes". Actes du colloque commémoratif du quatrième centenaire de la naissance de René Descartes (Louvain-la-Neuve, 21–22 juin 1996). Turnhout: Brepols, 2000.
Review: F. Duchesneau in RPL 104 (2006), 229–231: A strong collection of articles, each dealing with "l'héritage cartésien" and how it has influenced science, theory and philosophy over the last four centuries.
SASAKI, CHIKARA. Descartes's Mathematical Thought. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003.
Review: M. L. Jones in Ren Q 58 (2005): 998–99: Regretting the pervasive typographical and grammatical errors in Sasaki's volume, Jones nevertheless praises its compelling discussions and "hitherto untranslated letters" as well as "the development of Descartes's mathematical projects, his philosophical accounts of mathematics, and the interaction between the two" (998). Particularly singled out for praise is the "lucid examination of the full range of Descartes's activities" and for the illustration of "the centrality of algebra for the development of Descartes's broader philosophical thought" (998). Index, illustrations, bibliography.
Review: M. Serfati, Isis 96 (December 2006), 657–658. A revised dissertation, the book purports to contextualize Descartes's mathematical thought historically, but the reviewer asserts that "This long and ambitious work is, however, rather deceptive. It turns out to be a very large compilation that never presents any genuine conclusions about Descartes's mathematical thought, while ranging far from the stated subject." He adds that it also "fails to offer any serious analysis of the mathematical contents of the Géométrie."
SMITH, SOSHANA ROSE. "Clear and Distinct Perception in Descartes's Philosophy." DAI 66/08 (2006), 2958.
Intends to show how Descartes answers complaints about unclear definitions of his theory of knowledge, revolving around his concepts of distinct perception and clarity. Reveals the influence of scholasticism, but also the new insight Descartes develops for his transcendental arguments "establishing clarity and distinctness as a criterion of truth."
SORELL, TOM. Descartes Reinvented. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005.
Review: W. F. Desmond in Choice 43 (2006), 3972: Argues that typical assumptions about Descartes often draw on faulty interpretations of his work, then attempts to outline why the rejection of certain portions of "unreconstructed Cartesianism" do not necessitate "a repudiation of all unreconstructed Cartesianism" (1241). The work is deemed especially helpful for those who wish to understand how recent analytic philosophers draw on Descartes.
SOUAL, PHILIPPE. "L'héroïsme de la liberté chez Descartes." RPFE 194.4 (oct. à déc. 2004), 403–422.
Soual veut montrer que Descartes présente "une conception héroïque de la liberté dans les deux sphères de la morale et de la politique, mais comme grandeur dont tout ego semble capable, en vertu de la noblesse du libre arbitre en tout homme."
GETHNER, PERRY, ed. Femmes dramaturges en France (1650–1750): pièces choisies. Tome II. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2002 (Biblio 17, 136).
Review: J. Clarke in FS 59.4 (2005), 545–546: This work brings many unknown or little-known plays (and femmes dramaturges) to light, and deservedly so in the reviewer's eyes. The theme that unites the plays in this edition is the femme forte. Authors include Françoise Pascal, Mlle de Villedieu, Mme Deshoulières, Mme Bédacier, the baronne de Staal and Mme Boccage.
STIKER-METRAL, CHARLES-OLIVIER, ed. François Desrues. Les Marguerites françoises ou thresor des fleurs du bien dire. Fac-similé de l'édition de T. Reinsart, Rouen, 1609. Reims: Publication du Centre de Recherche sur la Transmission des Modèles Littéraires et Esthétiques, 2003.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr no. 145 (2005): 153: Welcome testimony of "un certo tipo della cultura letteraria dell'inizio del Seicento," the volume is organized in the form of a dictionary of maxims, metaphors, narrative extracts, etc. A critical bibliography and a list of editions complete the volume whose introduction treats authors, construction, function, and importance of these expressions "della prosa francese stile Nervèze" (153).
Review: N. Kenny in FS 60.2 (2006), 270–271. This positive review applauds the editors for bringing this seventeenth-century best-seller into the light once again. While the Marguerites' influence on authors such as Furetière and Sorel are known, it merits attention in its own right as an aide to eloquence and for what it says about the history of "manners, mentalities, and language."
VIGNALI, STEFANIA & ALESSANDRO BARGONI. "Le bref séjour de la 'Colombina d'amore' à Turin. Relation du médecin Bartolomeo Torrini sur les causes de son décès." SFr no. 145 (2005): 97–114.
Welcome and particularly well-documented study traces "les étapes qui amenèrent Charles-Emmanuel II au mariage avec Françoise-Madeleine d'Orléans" and presents an unedited document from the "Archives de l'État de Turin" which illuminates the mysterious and premature death of Françoise (97–98). The marriage of Françoise, duchesse de Savoie and daughter of Gaston, duc d'Orléans and his second wife, Marguerite de Lorraine, was the hope of the duché de Savoie "de garder le soutien de Louis XIV" and of France to "maintenir un pied en Italie" (97–98, n. 5). After considerable negotiation, Louis XIV agreed to call the duc de Savoie "frère" and the marriage was celebrated in Paris in the Chapelle du Louvre, February 14, 1663. Less than a year later, Françoise died to the dismay of the prince and the entire court. Vignali's article cites verses in her memory by Claude-François Menestrier. Bargoni edits the Latin text of Torrini's "relation" of Françoise's illness and causes of death, elucidating the precise medical descriptions and the findings of the autopsy (peritonitis caused by what we call today Crohn's disease.
GOEURY, JULIEN, ed. Laurent Drelincourt, Sonnets Chrétiens sur divers sujets. Paris: Champion ("Sources Classiques"), 2004.
Review: P. Bayley in FS 60.3 (2006), 394–395: This positive review focuses less on Goeury's edition than on the contents of Drelincourt's Huguenot literature. It is implied that Drelincourt's writings are a worthwhile supplement to our understanding of the protestant seventeenth century, which largely falls off the radar in the latter half of the grand siècle. While Goeury's edition is not seen by the reviewer as a major literary discovery, the editor is lauded for a "thorough and learned apparatus of notes."
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr no. 145 (2005): 157: Highly praiseworthy, this edition of Drelincourt's sonnets by Goeury who previously edited Drelincourt's sermons provides not only the poetry but also valuable commentary on both the "agrément" and the "utilité" of the neglected corpus. Drelincourt is important for both the 17th c. lyric and the formation of classical taste as Roger Zuber has shown. Goeury's study allows us to appreciate Drelincourt's personality as well as his contributions to Protestant poetics and generally to 17th c. literature.
ESCOLA, MARC, ed. Nouvelles galantes du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Flammarion, 2004.
Review: C. Zonza in DSS 231 (2006), 351–352: A useful selection of six "fictions historiques de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle," found here in a pocket edition. Organized around the absent Princesse de Clèves, the texts are: La Princesse de Montpensier, La Comtesse de Tende de Mme de Lafayette, Dom Carlos de Saint-Réal, La Duchesse d'Estramène de Du Plaisir, Le Comte d'Amboise et Inès de Cordoue de Catherine Bernard.
ESMEIN, CAMILLE, ed. "Poétiques du roman. Scudéry, Huet, Du Plaisir et autres textes théoriques et critiques du XVIIe siècle sur le genre romanesque." Paris: Champion, 2004.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr no. 146 (2005): 411–12: This rich and stimulating anthology of principal 17th c. texts (including prefaces to novels) is well annotated. Esmein's introduction situates and defines the problem, and each text is furnished with a critical bibliography. The reviewer finds that while some aspects of this work may be open to criticism or discussion, it is overall an indispensable research tool.
Review: F. Greiner in DSS 231 (2006), 347–348: Destined to become a very useful reference book, Esmein has assembled a varied selection of textes: "épîtres, préfaces, extraits de fictions et traités dont l'abondance évoque moins une anthologie [...] qu'une de ces bibliothèques que les érudits du XVIIIe siècle consacrèrent autrefois au même genre." The collection, its annotation, and preface form something of a companion compendium to Esmein's thesis (L'Avènement d'une poétique romanesque au XVIIe siècle: Discours théorique et constitution d'un genre littéraire (1641–1683)).
Review: G. Peureux in RHLF 106.2 (2006), 426–427. "Cette anthologie. . . contient notamment d'utiles indices des noms, des romans et des notions, ainsi qu'une bibilographie analytique des sources utilisées. Chaque extrait ou texte intégral contenu. . . est introduit, ses enjeux théoriques sont mis en évidence et la bibliographie récente en est signalée." Some shortcomings concerning "la périodisation. . . [qui est] coupée au cordeau."
BOUDON-MACHUEL, MARION. François du Quesnoy : 1597–1643. Paris : Arthena, 2005.
Review : n.a. in BCLF 678 (2006), 51 : 《 La qualité du travail de M. Bourdon-Machuel, au-delà de la finesse et de la sensibilité des analyses des oeuvres, réside dans la rigueur avec laquelle le personnage historique et le catalogue raisonné de son oeuvre ont été débarassés des scories, des mythes, des attributions abusives. Ressort du long et patient travail d'archive, la première monographie sérieuse, riche et attentive à toute forme de contextualisation. 》
ROBERT, RAYMONDE, ed. Mademoiselle Lhéritier, Mademoiselle Bernard, Mademoiselle de La Force, Madame Durand, Madame d'Auneuil. Contes. Paris: Champion 2005.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr 147 (2005): 637: This highly useful second volume of the Bibliothèque des Génies et des Fées includes a general introduction, a general bibliography on 17th c. women's writing, the Contes de fées, popular literature, and useful dictionaries. Notices for the contes include the author's biography, specific bibliography, annotations, indices of principal characters and illustrations.
Review: M.-A. Thirard in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 592–597. Detailed description of the contents of the volume. Concludes: "Grâce soit donc rendue à Raymonde Robert qui nous propose de redécouvrir des textes souvent injustement méconnus et qui permettra à une nouvelle génération d'adeptes des contes de fées de retrouver avec un autre regard que celui de l'enfance le royaume de la merveille."
PETEY-GIRARD, BRUNO & ALEXANDRE TARRETE, EDS. Guillaume Du Vair, parlementaire et écrivain (1556–1621). Colloque d'Aix-en-Provence, 4–6 octobre 2001. Genève : Droz, 2005.
Review : L. Pétris in BHR 68.2 (2006), 448–50 : 《 Guillaume Du Vair : sa famille et sa trajectoire, l'homme politique, l'orateur, l'écrivain et le philosophe, le juriste. Voilà tour à tour les champs explorés par ces contributions éclairantes et stimulantes, qui multiplient les approches et où l'on ne regrettera que la relative indigence de la section consacrée à Du Vair le juriste, perspective qui aurait certainement gagnée à être éclairée par des historiens du droit. Si les pistes à explorer sont encore nombreuses, ce recueil n'en pose pas moins des jalons essentiels. 》
HARRIS, JOSEPH. "《 La force du tact 》: La représentation du corps tabou dans le Traité des hermaphrodits (1612) de Jacques Duval." CAEIF 57 (2005), 445–461.
Awarded the Association's prize for a meritorious young researcher, this article takes a close look at Duval's particularly striking treatise on hermaphroditism (centered on the case of Marie/Marin le Marcis) as a means to approach and understand contemporary views and discussion of proscribed identity, practice, and behaviour.
BROOMHALL, SUSAN and COLETTE H. WINN, eds. Le Verger fertile des vertus. Composé par defuncte Madame du Verger augmenté et amplifié par Philippe du Verger sa fille, femme d'un Procureur de la Cour. Paris: Champion (Textes de la Renaissance, 85), 2004.
Review: D. Cecchetti in SFr 147 (2005): 630: Welcome edition of this manual of education for parents and their children by a mother and her daughter. Broomhall and Winn's edition reproduces the text from the one extant edition of the time (Bibliothèque Mazarine 25001) and includes notes on classical, modern, biblical and patristic sources, a repertoire of similar works from 1502 to 1609, sociological perspectives, analyses of structure, glossary, indices and useful bibliography.
BROOMHALL, SUSAN and COLETTE H. WINN, eds. Le Verger fertile des vertus. Composé par defuncte Madame du Verger augmenté et amplifié par Philippe du Verger sa fille, femme d'un Procureur de la Cour. Paris: Champion (Textes de la Renaissance, 85), 2004.
Review: D. Cecchetti in SFr 147 (2005): 630: Welcome edition of this manual of education for parents and their children by a mother and her daughter. Broomhall and Winn's edition reproduces the text from the one extant edition of the time (Bibliothèque Mazarine 25001) and includes notes on classical, modern, biblical and patristic sources, a repertoire of similar works from 1502 to 1609, sociological perspectives, analyses of structure, glossary, indices and useful bibliography.
GREINER, F., ed. François Dorval-Langlois, sieur de Fancan. Le Tombeau des Romans, texte établi d'après l'édition de Claude Morlot, Paris, 1626. Reims: Publication du Centre de Recherche sur la Transmission des Modèles Littéraires et Esthétiques, 2003.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr no. 145 (2005): 154: Valuable reproduction and annotation of one of the first critical texts on the novel. This "importantissima testimonianza critica sul genere nuovo" is organized in two sections: "Contre les romans" and "Pour les romans" and includes notes, an index of names, and an introduction which treats the author, the work, sources, language, style and reception.
BLANCHARD, JEAN-VINCENT. "Entre cité terrestre et cite céleste: la machine de Télémaque." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 337–346.
While the representation of "machines" in literature advance narrative and symbolize an understanding of history as progressive, the chariot of Amphytrite in book IV of Télémaque represents a linkage of heaven and earth and marks a moment of contemplation.
CUCHE, FRANÇOIS-XAVIER & JACQUES LE BRUN, eds. Fénélon, Mystique et Politique (1699–1999). Actes du colloque international de Strasbourg. Paris: Champion, 2004.
Review: P. Bayley in FS 60.1 (2006), 109–110: This book is divided in to papers on the respective Fénelon works, with literary historians and critics taking on the one, and religious historians taking on the other. The reviewer is dissapointed to find few connections made between the two works within the conference proceedings. Nonetheless, notable papers on Quietism by J-L Quantin and on Télémaque by Volker Kapp are both "fascinating" and "scholarly," and Alain Niderst provides an interesting reading of Quietism in Télémaque. In the the reviewer's words, this is a useful but "unadventurous" book.
Review: B. Papasogli in SFr 147 (2005): 636–37: Wide-ranging and valuable for the lacunae it fills, the volume includes sections on: "Le Procès des Maximes des Saints et la spiritualité de Fénélon," "Télémaque: poétique, thématique et signification," and "Contexte et postérité." Testifies to the impressive breadth and vigor of Fénélon scholarship.
GUION, BEATRICE. "L'aigle de Meaux, le cygne de Cambrai et Louis le Grand: Louis XIV devant Bossuet et Fénélon." TL 18 (2005): 195–215.
Close and thorough examination of numerous texts: political writings, correspondence, sermons of Bossuet preached at court, and writings of a preceptory nature concerning Louis's successors. Divided into sections treating "Jugements sur Louis XIV," "Le grand homme, héros guérrier?"and "Les grand rois," Guion demonstrates both "jugements divergents sur la politique et la personne de Louis XIV" and "definitions respectives et des grands rois et de la vraie gloire [qui]. . . sont fort proches" (214).
MILLOT, CATHERINE. "Madame Guyon dirige Fénelon." L'Infini. 93 (2005), 102–09.
In loose, casual prose, Millot considers the correspondence between Guyon and Fénelon. Guyon is presented as attempting to correct in the bishop a certain dryness and repugnance toward others, as well as an unwillingness to exist in childlike docility, and an inability to conceptualize indifference to human desire as a welcoming of God. Guyon is quoted as claiming that she believed herself sent by God to destroy "par ma folie votre sagesse" (107); Millot suggests that Fénelon never entirely moved beyond his cold and dry manner of being spiritual; his final letter to Guyon (then kept under surveillance at Blois) is shown to be highly ambivalent.
TREMOLIERES, FRANCOIS. "L'art sacré au prisme de Fénelon." DSS 230 (2006), 49–69.
The author finds Fénelon relevant on the topic of sacred art because he is a noteworthy cleric who expressed an opinion on the topic in De l'éducation des filles, he is a relevant observer of his times, and in as much as he is an artist, "non pas certes en tant que peintre, mais en tant qu'écrivain."
HEPP, NEOMI & VOLKER KAPP, eds. Claude Fleury. Ecrits de jeunesse: tradition humaniste et liberté d'esprit. Paris: Champion, 2003.
Review: D. J. Culpin in FS 60.1 (2006), 108–109: This volume contains three little-known but important texts by Fleury on the rhetoric of 'plaidoyers,' Homer and Plato. Implied in the review is that this critical edition will be of interest to anyone researching Fleury or the ethics and aesthetics of Classicism.
MAISTRE WELCH, MARCELLE. "Le Congo de Gabriel de Foigny." CdDS 10.2 (2006): 143–155.
Examines ethnological questions in Foigny's Terre australe connue and points to his racism. Demonstrates how, apart from its exotic component, this text was meant as religious propaganda that blamed the African continent for the existence of Evil.
GRELE, DENIS. "Travailler en utopie: L'Ajaoien, ses femmes et ses esclaves." CdDS 9.2 (2005): 61–78.
How does utopia present the question of work and how does it use this concept to debunk the notion of happiness in the afterlife? The author strives to answer these questions by means of a close look at how the Ajaoiens are depicted in Fontenelle's text, but also points to the paradox and alienation involved in depictions, in which humans beings liberate themselves from God through work.
BOMBART, M. & N. SCHAPIRA, eds. Antoine Furetière. Nouvelle Allégorique ou Histoire des derniers troubles arrivés au Royaume d'éloquence. Collection de réditions de textes rares du XVIIe siècle, suppl. de la revue Littératures classiques, Toulouse: Société de Littératures Classiques, 2004.
Review: C. Nédélec in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 557–558. Although certain questions could have been more developed in the introduction, the reviewer concludes that "cette publication [. . .] doit permettre de revenir sur des chantiers à réexplorer, et en tout premier lieu celui (des querelles) de la modernité."
Review: L. Rescia in SFr no. 146 (2005): 412: This welcome re-edition of Fureitère's allegorical and satirical description of the contemporary literary world is also valuable as a "metaliterary" and "metalinguistic" text. This useful research tool includes an introduction and index of names.
GADHOUM, SONIA. "L'éducation du noble dans le Dictionnaire universel d'Antoine Furetière." CdDS 10.1 (2006): 75–94.
This study seeks to understand the fundamental principals of aristocratic education by means of a theoretical investigation, its practical realization and its increasing modernization at the end of the century. It turns to Furetière's dictionary as a base and tool for its quest.
MILLOT, CATHERINE. "Madame Guyon dirige Fénelon." L'Infini. 93 (2005), 102–09.
In loose, casual prose, Millot considers the correspondence between Guyon and Fénelon. Guyon is presented as attempting to correct in the bishop a certain dryness and repugnance toward others, as well as an unwillingness to exist in childlike docility, and an inability to conceptualize indifference to human desire as a welcoming of God. Guyon is quoted as claiming that she believed herself sent by God to destroy "par ma folie votre sagesse" (107); Millot suggests that Fénelon never entirely moved beyond his cold and dry manner of being spiritual; his final letter to Guyon (then kept under surveillance at Blois) is shown to be highly ambivalent.
TRONC, DOMINIQUE, ed. Madame Guyon. Correspondance. Tome I. Directions spirituelles. Paris, Champion, 2003.
Review: P. Riley in FS 59.3 (2005), 400–401: Tronc's edition of Guyon's letters will be "invaluable" to scholars both of Guyon and mysticism in seventeenth-century France, says this overtly positive review. Guyon's work and relationships with people such as Fenelon come to life here, as does the author's deeply felt and lived quietism.
LEONIDE, SANDRINE, éd. Alexandre Hardy. Alceste, ou la Fidélité (1624), preface byB. Louvat-Molozay. Toulouse: Société de Littératures Classiques, 2004.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr no. 146 (2005): 410: This edition's critical apparatus includes a bibliography, glossary and brief appendix as well as a brief preface, the latter focusing on thematics and the place of this play in Hardy's production and that of his era. Léonide's longer introduction treats the place of Alceste in Hardy's career, the play's structure and use of sources, and the question of genre (Léonide recommends the double reading of the play, "come lettura 'tipologica' e 'simbolica'").
Review: A. Riffaud in PFSCL XXXIII, 64 (2006), 291–297. Reviewer provides a detailed account of the principal critical issues discussed in Léonide's introduction, and, despite some queries concerning the establishment of the text, praises the editor for "la qualité de son etude."
Review : n.a. in BCLF 680 (2006), 82–83 : 《 L'introduction de S. Léonide montre bien que cette pièce est une oeuvre de transition, entre la tragédie humaniste, rhétorique jusqu'à la verbosité, et la tragédie classique proprement dite. 》 On regrette la modernisation de l'orthographe tout en maintenant la ponctuation d'origine.
MAZOUER, CHARLES. "Dire et vivre l'amour dans les tragi-comédies d'Alexandre Hardy." PFSCL XXXIII, 64 (2006), 85–95.
"Comment se dit le désir amoureux chez [Hardy]? Quels trajets dramatiques parcourent ses personnages en proie au désir? Eu égard à la peinture de la vie amoureuse que proposent les tragi-comédies de Hardy, l'exposé se fera en deux étapes, l'une consacrée à la force du désir, l'autre à la maîtrise du désir."
DOUVIER, CATHERINE. "Henri IV vu par Bassompierre, note." TL 18 (2005): 157–65.
Demonstrates the emotions, notably the reciprocal affection between the king and the memorialist, or the "'privauté' [qui] permet au mémorialiste de tirer le portrait d'un homme au quotidien. . . un Henri IV passionné de jeu, grand chasseur, homme d'esprit et d'humour, et. . . porté à la galanterie" (159). Henri IV as king is shown to be decisive, conscientious, "habile politique", a lover of peace over war, and, finally, resolute in the face of death.
ESMEIN, CAMILLE, ed. "Poétiques du roman. Scudéry, Huet, Du Plaisir et autres textes théoriques et critiques du XVIIe siècle sur le genre romanesque." Paris: Champion, 2004.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr no. 146 (2005): 411–12: This rich and stimulating anthology of principal 17th c. texts (including prefaces to novels) is well annotated. Esmein's introduction situates and defines the problem, and each text is furnished with a critical bibliography. The reviewer finds that while some aspects of this work may be open to criticism or discussion, it is overall an indispensable research tool.
Review: F. Greiner in DSS 231 (2006), 347–348: Destined to become a very useful reference book, Esmein has assembled a varied selection of textes: "épîtres, préfaces, extraits de fictions et traités dont l'abondance évoque moins une anthologie [...] qu'une de ces bibliothèques que les érudits du XVIIIe siècle consacrèrent autrefois au même genre." The collection, its annotation, and preface form something of a companion compendium to Esmein's thesis (L'Avènement d'une poétique romanesque au XVIIe siècle: Discours théorique et constitution d'un genre littéraire (1641–1683)).
Review: G. Peureux in RHLF 106.2 (2006), 426–427. "Cette anthologie. . . contient notamment d'utiles indices des noms, des romans et des notions, ainsi qu'une bibilographie analytique des sources utilisées. Chaque extrait ou texte intégral contenu. . . est introduit, ses enjeux théoriques sont mis en évidence et la bibliographie récente en est signalée." Some shortcomings concerning "la périodisation. . . [qui est] coupée au cordeau."
RAPETTI, ELENA. Percorsi anticartesiani nelle lettere a Pierre-Daniel Huet. Le corrispondenze lettererie, scientifiche ed erudite dal Rinascimento all'età moderna, 4. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2003.
Review: T. M. Lennon in Ren Q 58 (2005): 999–1001: Praiseworthy for its "impeccable scholarship" and numerous and valuable notes, this study illuminates our understanding of Huet's significance. Rapetti includes a useful discussion, based on these materials and others, of the concept and role of the honnête homme in the debates concerning philosophy and faith. Index, appendix.
BADIOU-MONFERRAN, CLAIRE. Les Conjunctions de coordination ou "l'art de lier ses pensées" chez La Bruyère. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: E. Stark in RF 117 (2005): 355–59: Highly useful for both scholars of 17th c. linguistics and 17th c, literature, Badiou-Monferran's substantial work is organized into two main sections: "Du caractère des conjonctions de coordination; étude linguistique" and "Les conjonctions de coordination dans Les caractères. Études stylistique et littéraire". Individual chapters treat fascinating themes, such as form and sense, ethical and spiritual horizons, etc. Bibliography, annexes.
LUONI, FABIO. "La Passion de l'amour chez La Rochefoucauld et La Bruyère." SFr no. 147 (2005): 527–35.
Careful extensive study of love chez La Rochefoucauld and La Bruyère finds, as it illustrates the contrast between the two moralists, that it resembles the opposition occurring chez Racine and Corneille: "Chez Corneille, tout comme chez La Bruyère, la passion de l'amour suit la meme voie d'épurement intérieur: elle se spiritualise jusqu'à se confondre 'avec l'estime qu'on accorde à la vertu elle-même'" (Bénichou qtd. in Luoni 534).
NOYE-CLAUSADE, CHRISTINE. "Le comique et la poétique du faux-semblable (Molière, La Bruyère)." LC 2 (2004), 235–248.
A close look at the debate between La Bruyère and Molière on the subject of "vraisemblance." "C'est alors en étudiant la question de la vraisemblance en liaison avec la poétique du genre comique (prosaïque ou dramatique), que l'on pourra forumler trois hypothèses complémentaires sur la crise de la vraisemblance chez ces deux auteurs."
CAMPBELL, JOHN. "Restoration or Destruction? La Princesse de Clèves Seen through Nathaniel Lee's Adaptation." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 59–67.
The author reconsiders the critical response to this English restoration play based on Lafayette's novel. Lee's text is far more than an artifact that highlights the differences between French and English culture; indeed, the play performs a critical reading of the novel, making it the first analysis of the novel in English.
ESCOLA, MARC, ed. Nouvelles galantes du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Flammarion, 2004.
Review: C. Zonza in DSS 231 (2006), 351–352: A useful selection of six "fictions historiques de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle," found here in a pocket edition. Organized around the absent Princesse de Clèves, the texts are: La Princesse de Montpensier, La Comtesse de Tende de Mme de Lafayette, Dom Carlos de Saint-Réal, La Duchesse d'Estramène de Du Plaisir, Le Comte d'Amboise et Inès de Cordoue de Catherine Bernard.
HARRIS, JOSEPH. "Novel Upbringings: Education and Gender in Choisy and Lafayette." Romanic Review 97.1 (2006), 3–14.
Examines questions of cross-dressing and gender in Choisy's "Histoire de la Marquise-Marquis de Banneville" as a reflection of the "social, moral, and sentimental education orchestrated" in Lafayette's novel La Princesse de Clèves. Shows how Choisy pays homage to Lafayette's novel but also attempts to rework her text and renegotiate her claims to authorship.
HÖFER, BERNADETTE. "Une insubordination clandestine, ou la relation entre l'esprit et le corps chez Surin et Lafayette." CdDS 10.2 (2006), 19–48.
Portrayal of Surin and Lafayette's work as eminently contemporary and antagonistic to the dominant rationalistic discourse of the time. Underscores how the seventeenth-century understanding of physical illness also refers to underlying mental distress.
ALBANESE, RALPH. "Codes naturels/codes normatifs dans les Fables de La Fontaine." CdDS 9.2 (2005), 93–106.
Sociocritical analysis of the Fables, arguing "que le poète s'engage à formuler un ensemble de préceptes normatifs afin d'établir la primauté d'un 'naturel' individuel et socio-culturel." Proves its point by analyzing those characters who "font preuve d'un comportement contre-nature et, plus précisément, contre leur propre nature.
AUCHET, MARC. "Andersen et La Fontaine: deux écrivains représentatifs des cultures danoise et française?" OL 60.6 (2006): 414–31.
Comparative analysis of Andersen and La Fontaine. Similar in their representivity of Danish and French cultures, their few texts, the socio-critical dimension of their work, and their point of departure in established genres, the two differ significantly in style, though their stylistic innovations are both revolutionary.
COWART, GEORGIA. "La Fontaine on Opera: Musical Commentary as Political Critique." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 209–214.
La Fontaine contrasts the operas of Lully and Quinault with chamber music, lamenting the opera's belligerent aggrandizing and praising the private world of the salon. His diatribe on music constitutes a critique of the appropriation of opera for political ends.
DUCHARME, ISABELLE. "Au cœur du sentiment, au cœur du texte. . . la poésie des Amours de Psyché." PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 511–531.
Examines the role of the twenty-eight poems which La Fontaine integrated into his 1669 prose text.
ESCOLA, MARC, ed. Lupus in fabula. Six façons d'affabuler La Fontaine. Saint-Denis: Presses universitaires de Vincennes, 2003.
Review: V. Bellott in FR 79 (2006), 615–16: Engages a variety of analytic approaches in its readings of the poems; urges readers to continually renew them through rewritings and rereadings posited on a search for fables within the Fables. "Lupus in fabula affords a satisfying opportunity to, like the wolf, roam the Fables to discover one's own fables possibles and thus enhance our vision of the fabulist. This well-annotated volume would make an enticing seminar text either as a study of La Fontaine. . . or as a foray into theory" (615–16).
Review: A. Birberick in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 562–563. Reviewer finds volume an "intelligent and ingenious study. [. . .] The analyses of the fables in each chapter highlight Escola's attention to detail as well as his breadth of knowledge. [. . .] In spite of his limited engagement with recent Lafontainain scholarship, Escola offers us an exploration of the Fables that is both rich and enjoyable."
MARANGONI, ALESSANDRA. "Rabelais à la jonction de deux fables (XII, 5–6) de La Fontaine." SFr 145 (2005): 61–64.
Rich and stimulating, if brief, examination of a source or "reminiscence textuelle éclairant la proximité de deux textes, voire imposant un ordre séquentiel à deux d'entre les fables" (61). Thus a "morceau textuel" from Rabelais's Tiers Livre (ch. 21) is seen explicitly in the lexical and situational choice (fable 6). Finally this "reminiscence textuelle issue de Rabelais s'avère être à la base-la base-de leur rapport de proximité" (64). Some twenty notes, rich in bibliographical reflections, add to the usefulness of Marangoni's study.
SWEETSER, MARIE-ODILE. Parcours lafontainien. D'Adonis au livre XII des Fables. Tübingen, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2004.
Review: A Calder in FS 60.1 (2006), 106–107: This a collection of articles by Sweetser organized around La Fontaine's development and career as a poet. The book's coherence comes from the author's critical approach of close readings and on-going interest in themes of friendship, affection and escape from the rules of genre. While the book, like almost any collection of articles, has some repetition, its "elegantly written pieces" are not to be missed by students of La Fontaine.
Review: A. Génetiot in DSS 231 (2006), 352–354: Assembling two decades of her articles on Lafontaine, Sweetser explores "l'intinéraire discrètement spirituel de La Fontaine, poète de la promenade dans les jardins, à la croisée des morales épicurienne et chrétienne, ce Parcours lafontainien, malheureusement sans inédits, vient aussi couronner dans sa propre cohérence la continuité et l'excellence d'un parcours de chercheur."
ROBERT, RAYMONDE, ed. Mademoiselle Lhéritier, Mademoiselle Bernard, Mademoiselle de La Force, Madame Durand, Madame d'Auneuil. Contes. Paris: Champion 2005.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr 147 (2005): 637: This highly useful second volume of the Bibliothèque des Génies et des Fées includes a general introduction, a general bibliography on 17th c. women's writing, the Contes de fées, popular literature, and useful dictionaries. Notices for the contes include the author's biography, specific bibliography, annotations, indices of principal characters and illustrations.
Review: M.-A. Thirard in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 592–597. Detailed description of the contents of the volume. Concludes: "Grâce soit donc rendue à Raymonde Robert qui nous propose de redécouvrir des textes souvent injustement méconnus et qui permettra à une nouvelle génération d'adeptes des contes de fées de retrouver avec un autre regard que celui de l'enfance le royaume de la merveille."
ROIG MIRANDA, MARIE, ed. Les Visions de Quevedo, traduites par le Sieur de la Geneste. Paris: Champion, 2004.
Review: M. Pavesio in SFr no. 145 (2005): 154: Welcome edition of this "opera capitale per lo studio della letteratura francese del XVII e XVIII secolo" (154). La Geneste's version of Quevedo's Visions was the first French translation of the Sueños and of La Casa de los locos de amor. Rich critical apparatus includes bibliography, a répertoire of successive editions and translations in several European modern languages as well as in Latin. An interesting introduction contributes not only an assessment of the importance of Quevedo's work but also a detailed analysis of La Geneste's translation.
GAUDIN, LUCILE. "Peindre en France au XVIIe siècle: Un mot, deux arts, une praxis." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 189–198.
The author examines Lamy's Rhétorique and Traité de perspective in order to develop the interplay of painting and literature. While literature draws on painting as a model, painting nevertheless remains subordinate to the verbal as a branch of rhetoric.
BUZON, FRÉDÉRIC DE. "Mathématiques et dialectique: Descartes ramiste?" EP 4 (2005), 455–467.
Researches the as-yet insufficiently unexplored possibility that Pierre de la Ramée's work in mathematics and dialectics may have had a direct or indirect influence on Descartes.
LUONI, FABIO. "La Passion de l'amour chez La Rochefoucauld et La Bruyère." SFr no. 147 (2005): 527–35.
Careful extensive study of love chez La Rochefoucauld and La Bruyère finds, as it illustrates the contrast between the two moralists, that it resembles the opposition occurring chez Racine and Corneille: "Chez Corneille, tout comme chez La Bruyère, la passion de l'amour suit la meme voie d'épurement intérieur: elle se spiritualise jusqu'à se confondre 'avec l'estime qu'on accorde à la vertu elle-même'" (Bénichou qtd. in Luoni 534).
HOHNER, ELS., éd. Anne de la Roche-Guilhen. Histoire des favorites : contenant ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable sous plusieurs règnes (1697). Saint-Etienne : U de Saint-Etienne, 2005.
Review : n.a. in BCLF 680 (2006), 85–86 : Edition critique d'une oeuvre d'Anne de la Roche-Guilhen, romancière protestante de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle. Publiée à Amsterdam, cette collection de récits 《 était propre à satisfaire le goût des contemporains pour la nouvelle historique. 》
DOE, MIRIAM & KEITH CAMERON, éds. Pierre Le Loyer. La Néphélococugie ou la nuée des cocus. Genève, Droz, 2004.
Review : P. Glardon in BHR 67.2 (2006), 537–38 : 《 Comme le souligne la riche introduction de M. Doe [décédée en juillet 2002] et K. Cameron, le travail de Pierre Le Loyer (1550–1634), publié en 1579, est intéressant à plus d'un titre. Le Loyer livre non une traduction mais une adaptation à la fois ambitieuse et audacieuse, versifiée et largement amplifiée (4046 vers contre 1765), de la comédie d'Aristophane. 》
LOSKOUTOFF, YVAN. L'Armorial de Calliope. L'œuvre du Père Le Moyne S.J. (1602–1671): littérature, héraldique, spiritualité. Tübingen: Narr, 2000.
Review: E. Bouyé in DSS 231 (2006), 367–369: "L'ouvrage d'Yvan Loskoutoff, même s'il semble a priori restreint dans son objet (l'étude d'une figure de style dans l'oeuvre d'un jésuite un peu oublié), ouvre en réalité de grandes perspectives et brosse un large panorama. La construction précieuse et savante de ces héraldismes en cascade nous instruit sur la forma mentis des lecteurs du règne de Louis XIII; le prisme héraldique était l'un de ceux dont la société cultivée usait pour contempler l'univers social, diplomatique, politique et spirituel de son temps."
MEYER, VERONIQUE. "L'illustration du Saint Louis du Père Le Moyne." CAEIF 57 (2005), 47–73.
The author traces the complex publication history of Le Moyne's Saint Louis as a function of the multiple issues surrounding the creation, choice, and inclusion of illustrations in each edition, some of which are reproduced to great effect in this article.
ROBERT, RAYMONDE, ed. Mademoiselle Lhéritier, Mademoiselle Bernard, Mademoiselle de La Force, Madame Durand, Madame d'Auneuil. Contes. Paris: Champion 2005.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr 147 (2005): 637: This highly useful second volume of the Bibliothèque des Génies et des Fées includes a general introduction, a general bibliography on 17th c. women's writing, the Contes de fées, popular literature, and useful dictionaries. Notices for the contes include the author's biography, specific bibliography, annotations, indices of principal characters and illustrations.
Review: M.-A. Thirard in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 592–597. Detailed description of the contents of the volume. Concludes: "Grâce soit donc rendue à Raymonde Robert qui nous propose de redécouvrir des textes souvent injustement méconnus et qui permettra à une nouvelle génération d'adeptes des contes de fées de retrouver avec un autre regard que celui de l'enfance le royaume de la merveille."
STEDMAN, ALLISON. "Charmed Eloquence: Lhéritier's Representation of Female Literary Creativity in Late Seventeenth-Century France." CdDS 9.2 (2005), 107–121.
Author argues that the "frame narrative of one particular late seventeenth-century fairy tale encouraged the extradiegetic reader to acknowledge that fairy tales originating in novel/fairy-tale hybrids in fact represented a separate literary tradition—one whose origins, morals, form, publication strategies, social concerns and anticipated reader-response differed radically from those of the neo-classical fairy-tale tradition popularized by Perrault."
FRASER, ANTONIA. Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King. New York: Doubleday, 2006.
Review: M. Marshall in NYTSBR (Oct. 15, 2006): Described by the reviewer as "short on analysis," she nevertheless finds Fraser's latest biography an enjoyable casual read chronicling the "marital — or coital — history of the French court" during the reign of Louis XIV.
GUION, BEATRICE. "L'aigle de Meaux, le cygne de Cambrai et Louis le Grand: Louis XIV devant Bossuet et Fénélon." TL 18 (2005): 195–215.
Close and thorough examination of numerous texts: political writings, correspondence, sermons of Bossuet preached at court, and writings of a preceptory nature concerning Louis's successors. Divided into sections treating "Jugements sur Louis XIV," "Le grand homme, héros guérrier?"and "Les grand rois," Guion demonstrates both "jugements divergents sur la politique et la personne de Louis XIV" and "definitions respectives et des grands rois et de la vraie gloire [qui]. . . sont fort proches" (214).
LEVI, ANTHONY. Louis XIV. London: Constable, 2004.
Review: R. Mettam in FS 59.3 (2005), 398–399: Levi's biography is only worthy of court gossip, says the author of this generally negative review. Levi is "extreme in his willingness to believe... improbable sexual tittle-tattle." There are also errors in the descriptions of the institutional machinery and the court hierarchies, and the footnotes do not reveal much recent scholarship. The reviewer is likewise disappointed to find the author to be trapped in his own arguments about Louis XIV's insecurities.
GORCE, JEROME DE LA. Jean-Baptiste Lully. Paris: Fayard, 2002.
Review: P. Hourcade in DSS 230 (2006), 179–180: A refreshing, detailed, and innovative approach to a familiar subject, the author divides his study between Lully's life and works. "Jérôme de La Gorce, historien de l'Art à ses heures et ici musicologue et biographe minutieux, peut se lire comme un état présent de nos connaissances, de nos doutes et enfin de nos ignorances touchant non seulement Lully, mais l'histoire de la musique de son époque."
CONLEY, JOHN J., ed. and trans. Madame de Maintenon. Dialogues and Addresses. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2004.
Review: J. Couchman in Ren Q 58 (2005): 941–44: Basing his translation on an early 18th c. manuscript, Conley produces a "lively" and "accessible" translation of a "representative selection of the Dialogues on ethical questions" written to be performed by the girls at St.-Cyr, and of her Addresses to the students and their instructors" (943). Conley argues for an appreciation of Maintenon's "pedagogical innovations," urging us to acknowledge her "apology for the right of women to their own culture" (Conley 2). Index, illustrations, bibliography.
GETHNER, PERRY. "Toward the Classical Unities: How Mairet Adapted d'Urfé for the Stage." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 37–43.
In Mairet's Chryséide et Arimand (1630), an adaptation of an intercalated tale from d'Urfé's grand pastoral novel, the young playwright grapples with the theoretical implications of tragicomedy and the three unities during a period of transition from baroque to classical dramaturgy.
LOUVAT, BENEDICTE, ALAIN RIFFAUD, and MARC VUILLERMOZ, eds. Jean Mairet, Théâtre complet. Sous la direction de Georges Forestier. Tome I. La Sophonisbe, Le Marc-Antoine ou la Cléopatre, Le Grand et Dernier Solyman ou la mort de Mustapha. Paris: Champion, 2004.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr 147 (2005): 633–34: Welcome first volume of Mairet's theatre is based on the original 1639 edition confronted with the one of 1705. Impressive critical apparatus includes the following: Avant-propos by G. Forestier, preface by Dominique Moncond'huy and an Au lecteur by the three editors. Each play is accompanied by a long introduction, taking into account the circumstances of the composition, sources, thematics, representations, etc. Annexes include the following: a bibliography, a biography, a glossary, an index of names.
Review: M. Hawcroft in FS 60.3 (2006), 391–392: "Outstanding quality" scholarship set this critical edition apart from the pack, according to the reviewer. This volume is also important for its quality and for being the first-ever critical edition for two of Mairet's works. Attention is paid to variances in earlier versions of these texts, and a strong biographical and bibliographical spirit fills this seminal work on Mairet.
SCHOELL, KONRAD. "Présence du physique dans Les galanteries du duc d'Ossonne de Jean Mairet." In Erdmann, Eva and Konrad Schoell, eds. Le comique corporel: Mouvement et comique dans l'espace théâtral du XVIIe siècle. Biblio 17 Number 163. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 45–58.
Mairet's comedy straddles the baroque and pre-classical theater by combing farcical elements with refinement and regularity.
CULLIERE, ALAIN. 《 Dans le sillage de Robert Garnier, la tragédie Psamménite de Pierre et Baptiste Marye (1603). 》 BHR 68.1 (2006), 87–107.
Etude d'un travail scolaire des frères et coauteurs normands Pierre et Baptiste Marye et leur dette envers Robert Garnier : 《 Si l'on fait une lecture approfondie de Psamménite, on s'aperçoit que toutes les scènes, tant par les répliques que par les situations, renvoient systématiquement à Porcie et aux Juives, comme si l'on avait voulu trouver dans ces deux pièces, méticuleusement désordonnées puis de nouveaux agencées, tous les éléments d'une troisième. 》 Cullière note que Psamménite 《 sera prochainement accessible sur le site de la Médiathèque de Bourg-en-Bresse (www.bm-bourgenbresse.fr/), transcrite intégralement en mode texte par Mme Aurélie Rezzouk. 》
SERE, DANIEL. "Mazarin et la 《 comédie de Lyon 》: au-delà de la légende." DSS 231 (2006), 327–340.
Séré examines the secret 1658/59 meetings between Mazarin and Spain's envoy from Philippe IV that resulted in "le retournement rapide et inattendu de l'Espagne dans son attitude à l'égard de la paix, a permis d'écarter tous les obstacles qui s'y étaient opposés jusqu'alors. L'étude de ce moment crucial est essentielle pour éclairer les conditions du retour à la paix."
DESCOTES, DOMINIQUE, ed. Marin Mersenne: La Vérité des sciences contre les Sceptiques ou Pyrrhoniens. Paris, Champion, 2003.
Review: M. Moriarty in FS 60.3 (2006), 389–390: This critical edition of Mersenne's anti-skeptic, anti-hedonist, anti-libertine (all terms Mersenne links together) work is valuable for its ample and "admirable" introduction by Descotes and, of course, for the insights into seventeenth-century attitudes on display in Mersenne's writing. The praise of the science of music, the use of math and geometry justify the "harmony" of aristocratic culture and find their way into this dialogue. The edition is fully annotated and sheds light not only on Mersenne, but on larger figures such as Descartes and Pascal.
AUDRAN, MARIE. Performance review of Le Tartuffe, mise-en-scène, René Loyon, Théâtre 14 Jean-Marie-Serreau, summer 2006. Le Point 1762 (2006), 108.
In spite of a weak ending, the direction and actors "font apprécier la langue de Molière et toutes ses vérités, aussi cruelles soient-elles." In this version, Orgon's wife strips naked to reveal the truth about Tartuffe to her husband.
BASCHERA, MARCO. "Le corps — une guenille? A propos du rapport entre matérialité et maternité dans les Femmes savantes." LC 2 (2004), 131–143.
The author identifies "une réflexion théâtrale qui se trouve impliquée dans le texte de Molière sur le statut double du corps du comédien en tant que signe scénique. Il s'agit d'[en] tirer [...] une réflexion non-thétique en acte sur la question du rapport entre la matérialité d'un signe et sa dimension idéelle du sens — un rapport théâtral avant la lettre."
BASCHERA, MARCO. "Le Dom Juan et les limites de la représentation théâtrale." LC 2 (2004), 51–63.
"On peut dire que le Dom Juan de Molière constitue une des grandes victoires du théâtre profane sur la mainmise de la part du monde religieux et, en même temps, une grande manifestation de l'autonomie paradoxale puisque ce que le théâtre présente est et n'est pas."
BIET, CHRISTIAN. "Perspectives libertines et débordement comique: libertinage et corrosion du rire dans L'Avare et Les Fourberies de Scapin." LC 2 (2004), 163–185.
"En analysant L'Avare et Les Fourberies de Scapin, il essaie de montrer que le travail de masquage opéré par Molière sert plutôt à dévoiler des enjeux beaucoup plus dangereux, où 《 les valeurs les plus morales et les plus sociales 》 se trouvent être mises en doute."
BLAIKNER-HOHENWART, GABRIELLE. "Un texte dramatique 'traduit' en mouvements. Le canevas allemand du Médecin malgré lui." In Erdmann, Eva and Konrad Schoell, eds. Le comique corporel: Mouvement et comique dans l'espace théâtral du XVIIe siècle. Biblio 17 Number 163. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 133–147.
The scenario for Der Artzt Wider seinen Willen which was performed at a Viennese carnival in 1692 is a unique document that shows how Molière's Médecin malgré lui was deconstructed into an improvisational commedia dell'arte performance. In the scenario, Molière was simplified, reduced to gestural comedy, and filled with stock characters and the language of the highly stylized commedia dell'arte tradition.
CLARKE, JAN. "Pierre Corneille dans les répertoires des troupes de Molière et de l'Hôtel Guénégaud." RHLF 106.3 (2006), 571–598.
Survey of the period between 1659–1680 and refined analysis of Molière's relationship with the troupes. Particular attention devoted to questions of geography. Reference to Tite et Bérénice and Psyché. Meant to facilitate our understanding of the relationship between Molière and Corneille. Author concludes that "Molière se voua à être l'interprète de Corneille."
DEMONPION, DENIS. Performance review of Les Fourberies de Scapin, mise-en-scène, Arnaud Denis, Théâtre du Lucernaire, summer 2006. Le Point 1761 (2006), 106.
The actors, including Jean-Pierre Leroux and Arnaud Denis (as the fourbe), are exceptional. "C'est vif, saillant, inventif, virevoltant, articulé, désopilant."
DOTOLI, GIOVANNI. Le jeu de Dom Juan. Fasano: Schena / Paris: Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2004.
Review: S. Fleck in PFSCL XXXIII, 64 (2006), 283–286. "Si l'on doit savoir gré à l'auteur de son tour d'horizon habile et souvent stimulant de la critique récenteportant sur Dom Juan, il faut néanmoins constater que la récolte d'idées neuves se révèle assez mince."
FERNEY, FREDERIC. Performance review of L'Ecole des femmes, mise-en-scène, Coline Serreau, Théâtre de la Madeleine, summer 2006. Le Point 1751 (2006), 108.
Coline Serreau herself plays Arnolphe, and it doesn't work: "Dans son habit noir, elle a beau faire, on voit un clown habile qui serait travesti en barbon, une femme, une comédienne." Ferney adds that the actress playing Agnès plays her as a rouée, concluding "pour le reste, à mi-chemin entre le drapé et le grunge, le spectacle associe les baskets et les rubans, le marcel et les brocarts, la rhingrave et la redingote."
GOODKIN, RICHARD E. "Molière and the Novel." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 13–32.
The relationship between Molière's comic theater and the novel is more complex than the satiric parody suggested in Les précieuses ridicules. Molière instead engages novelistic themes and structures and contrasts theatrical and novelistic discourse in order to test theater's limitations.
HAMPTON, WILBORN. Performance review of The Miser, directed by Dan Zisson, Jean Cocteau Repertory, Bouwerie Lane Theater, March 2006. NYT (March 6, 2006), B9.
Hampton judges this revival to be "tedious and dull," "peppered with contemporary references to television shows and celebrities," although the cast is said to "bring a lot of energy to the enterprise."
HERZEL, ROGER W. "Célimène's Last Word. CdDS 10.1 (2006), 45–54.
Skillfully attempts to resolve the puzzling closure of Molière"s Misanthrope through the study of patterns, signals, and performing strategies, based on dramaturgy in seventeenth-century theater and opera.
HONG, RAN-E. "L'Astrologie à la croisée des cultures: l'exemple de Molière." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 297–305.
Molière's Les Amants magnifiques (1670) offers a biting critique of the court's fascination with astrology and ridicules the belief that the stars influence human destiny.
KOPPISCH, MICHAEL S., Rivalry and the Disruption of Order in Molière's Theater. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2004.
Review: J. Perlmutter in FR 79 (2006), 612–13: "[A] comprehensive study of rivalry and its consequences in ten of Molière's best-known comedies" (612). Koppisch examines conflict between supporters and opponents of monarchy, but also considers rivalry in more general terms. Contains ten chapters, one for each play.
Review: K. Willis Wolfe in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 579–581. Reviewer regrets the absence of a concluding chapter in which the author could have "drawn some general conclusions from the specific cases he treated," but the volume offers "some interesting readings of individual plays."
MAZOUER, CHARLES. "La comédie-ballet: un genre improbable?" SFr 145 (2005): 13–21.
Focusing on Molière's "tentative. . . d'inventer un nouveau genre de spectacle," Charles Mazouer presents and analyzes it emergence, terminology and theory (hesitations by gazetiers, equivocations and errors in dictionaries), and the esthetic problem of "le mélange de trois arts et de leurs langages" (18). Both erudite and engaging, Mazouer concludes: "On ne me fera pas croire que Molière, sans formuler aucun propos théorique, n'était pas parfaitement conscient de l'enjeu esthétique de son genre nouveau!" (20). The interested reader will find further elaboration on this genre in Mazouer's 1993 work, Molière et ses comédies ballets. Its 20-page bibliography is completed here with a note giving some 15 recently published studies or editions.
NIDERST, ALAIN. Molière. Paris: Perrin, 2004.
Review: S. O'Hara in FR 79 (2006), 613–14: Attempting to piece together a biography of Molière despite the paucity of information the latter himself left about his life, Niderst adopts an approach of probing and questioning. He gives considerable attention to the relationship between Armande and Madeleine Béjart (were they sisters, or mother and daughter?), and develops much of the book as a history of the circumstances surrounding Molière's plays. Aimed at a general public.
NORMAN, LARRY. "Molière, les 《 mémoires 》 et le mythe de la transparence." LC 2 (2004), 67–89.
Norman "soulève la question du rapport entre la mascarade sociale et le jeu scénique des masques pris au sens figuré. Par une lecture de La Critique de 《 L'Ecole des femmes 》, L. Norman traite le problème de la portraiture comique et de sa ressemblance ressentie à l'époque par le public."
NOYE-CLAUSADE, CHRISTINE. "Le comique et la poétique du faux-semblable (Molière, La Bruyère)." LC 2 (2004), 235–248.
A close look at the debate between La Bruyère and Molière on the subject of "vraisemblance." "C'est alors en étudiant la question de la vraisemblance en liaison avec la poétique du genre comique (prosaïque ou dramatique), que l'on pourra forumler trois hypothèses complémentaires sur la crise de la vraisemblance chez ces deux auteurs."
PENSOM, ROGER. "Le mystère du Misanthrope." LC 2 (2004), 91–129.
L'auteur "s'intéresse au rapport qui s'instaure entre les éléments traditionnels et topiques du caractère atrabilaire et l'impression de réalisme psychologique qui se dégage de cette comédie de Molière. Autrement dit, il analyse de près la transformation qui s'y opère d'un pantin topique, au caractère rigide, en vrai personnage."
PLOCHER, HANSPETER. "Comique corporel dans la haute comédie de Molière. Le Misanthrope (1666)." In Erdmann, Eva and Konrad Schoell, eds. Le comique corporel: Mouvement et comique dans l'espace théâtral du XVIIe siècle. Biblio 17 Number 163. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 117–132.
In Le Misanthrope, Molière turns away from a physical, popular comedy in order to embrace a form comedy that relies solely on verbal discourse and rhetoric. The play's performance history, however, shows that directors have magnified physical comic elements thereby defiguring the play.
RIGGS, LARRY. Molière and Modernity : Absent Mothers and Masculine Births. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2005.
Review: M.-C. Canova-Green in MLR 101.4 (2006), 1115–1116 : 《 In his revisionist study of Molière, Larry Riggs develops an approach sketched in his earlier book on the seventeenth-century French playwright (Molière and Plurality: Decomposition of the Classist Self (Bern: Peter Lang, 1989)), in which he combines insights from post-structuralist and post-modernist theory with borrowings from the theory of performance and ecologically oriented cultural commentary." Reviewer finds this work "a stimulating if at times debatable reading" and regrets "the cavalier refusal to contextualize the plays."
SCHLOSSMAN, BERYL. "Le Féminin et l'Art de l'amour: Eros et Done Elvire dans le Dom Juan de Molière." LC 2 (2004), 145–161.
"Schlossman s'intéresse au discours amoureux tel qu'il s'esquisse dans le personnage d'Elvire. Ce faisant, elle analyse surtout le rapport entre le masque langagier du désir ponctuel de Dom Juan et l'amour mystérieux de Done Elvire."
SERROY, JEAN, ed. Molière: Les Fâcheux. Paris: Gallimard, 2005.
Review: J. Prest in FS 60.3 (2006), 393–394: This is a "useful edition of a somewhat neglected work," according to the reviewer. Serroy's work stresses the comédie-ballet aspects of Molière's play, and provides interesting historical background. A detailed chronology of Molière's life, play sources, a performance history and a bibliography make it into this edition. Serroy also makes "worthwhile" parallels to Molière's more well-known plays.
VON STACKELBERG, JÜRGEN. "Don Juan als Heuchler; Molière und die Moralistik" RF 117 (2005): 481–88.
Von Stackelberg delves deeply into Don Juan, presenting a well-thought out analysis of the play's central character as a hypocrite. Starting point is A. Adam's question: "Comment concilier le Don Juan piaffeur et gai du 1er acte, et le sinistre hypocrite de la fin?" Von Stackelberg finds significant points in common between Molière and the moralistes, in particular La Rochefoucauld. Includes important considerations on the concept of "l'amour propre".
WOOD, ALLEN G. Opening Moves, Dialectical Opposites, and Mme Pernelle. CdDS 10.1 (2006), 55–66.
Argues that to understand the opening of Molière"s Tartuffe, we must look at former versions and performances of the play. Includes social and political considerations to study the various revisions made by Molière himself.
WOODROUGH, ELIZABETH. "'Quand nous serons à dix, nous ferons une croix': Molière's L'Etourdi or the Secret Life of a Master Fencer." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 95–107.
Not only does L'Etourdi abound in fencing metaphor, the play's structure also draws a deeper analogy with fencing that gives order to what appears to be a chaotic play.
ZARAGOZA, GEORGES. "《 Jouer juste 》 selon Molière." LC 2 (2004), 187–200.
"Zaragoza analyse l'Impromptu de Versailles du point de vue de la conception de l'espace scénique ainsi que de la direction d'acteurs." "Il développe l'idée qu'il s'agit dans L'Impromptu d'une espèce de laboratoire théâtral où l'on assiste à la continuelle création et naissance de l'espace scénique et où le comédien se trouve toujours en route vers le texte qu'il est en train de représenter."
TROUVE, STEPHANIE. "Les écrits de Molinier, Pader et Vendages de Malapeire et la peinture religieuse à Toulouse au XVIIe siècle." DSS 230 (2006), 101–115.
Looking at the texts of these three authors, Trouvé sheds light on a uniquely Toulousian approach to sacred art.
CHERBULIEZ, JULIETTE. "Performing Print: Montpensier and the Politics of Elite Textual Production." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 157–167.
In her post-Fronde exile, Montpensier created an exclusive community that revolved around writing and the production of books. While her coterie's literary production reflects on "the power and danger of writing, knowledge, and conversation," it also utilizes the printed medium as means to police itself and assure the community's adhesion to a set of prescribed aristocratic values.
SHAPIRO, STEPHEN A. "The Fall of the House of Montpensier and the Rise of Richelieu: Geographical Representation in Mademoiselle de Montpensier's Mémoires." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 229–236.
What appears to be a travel narrative in Montpensier's Mémoires is a metonymical figuration of family history where the changes in the political landscape are reflected in geography. As Richelieu builds a new family domain, he swallows up other aristocratic and royal domains, namely the Montpensier clan's property at Champigny-sur-Vaude, imprinting his rise to power on the map of France.
CONIHOUT, ISABELLE DE & FREDERIC GABRIEL. Poésie et calligraphie imprimée à Paris au XVIIe siècle: autour de 'La Chartreuse' de Pierre Perrin, poème imprimé par Pierre Moreau en 1647. Paris: Bibliothèque Mazarine—Chambéry Editions Comp'act, 2004.
Review: L. Grove in FS 59.3 (2005), 394–95: In this extremely positive review, de Conihout's edition garners praise for both the beauty of the illustrated edition and the "thought-provoking" case studies of Pierre Perrin's poetry and music, and Moreau's typesetting. The book is the result of an exhibition at the Bibliothèque Mazarine uncovers much unexplored or under-explored material and will "doubtless provide the starting point of reference" for future study.
BAUMERT, ANNEGRET. Pierre Motin. Ein Dicter zwischen Petrarkismus und Libertinismus. Biblio 17. Volume 170. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006.
WOSHINSKY, BARBARA. Desert, Fortress, Convent, Body: The Allegorical Architecture of Nervèze's L'Hermitage de l'Isle saincte. CdDS 10.1 (2006), 67–74.
Study analyzes the topos of the desert in Nervèze's allegorical work as a means to show "the advances and backslidings of the soul as it navigates its way through the world" and to address predominantly religious questions. It also seeks to understand gender considerations by looking how the bodily distinction between male/female is portrayed in classical spirituality.
TROUVE, STEPHANIE. "Les écrits de Molinier, Pader et Vendages de Malapeire et la peinture religieuse à Toulouse au XVIIe siècle." DSS 230 (2006), 101–115.
Looking at the texts of these three authors, Trouvé sheds light on a uniquely Toulousian approach to sacred art.
BROOKS, WILLIAM. "Nostalgia in the Letters of the Second Madame." CdDS 10.2 (2006), 1–18.
This article sheds new light on Elisabeth Charlotte's (German) letters on court life in France and dismisses arguments of what critics have called her "francophobia." In exploring the question of nostalgia, Brooks concludes that "her nostalgia breaks the bounds of the 1678–1759 definitions of the word, . . . making her more modern than many of her contemporaries."
ARIEW, ROGER, ed. and trans. Blaise Pascal. Pensées. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett, 2005.
Review: N. Hammond in MLR 101.2 (2006), 536–37: "In this new translation, Roger Ariew respects Sellier's order [Paris: Classiques Garner 1991] but comes dangerously close to doing a Martineau [1992] by including the fragment numbers in the right-hand margin and in a miniscule font, thus giving the misleading impression the at the Pensées might be read as a piece of uninterrupted prose." Clear, "generally accurate" version; notes are intended for general readership.
BJORNSTAD, HALL. "Désapprendre à mourir. Pascal and the Philosophers of Death." PFSCL XXXIII, No. 65 (2006), 419–428.
Examines Pascal's discourse on death in the light of the polysemy of the concept "philosopher of death."
CARENA, CARLO, ed. Blaise Pascal, Pensieri. Preface byGiovanni Raboni. Torino: Einaudi, Biblioteca della Pléiade, 2004.
Review: B. Papasogli in SFr no. 145 (2005): 154–55: Judged "un 'bel' Pascal e insieme un Pascal vero," its editor/translator, "un umanista appassionato," brings to this work his experience as translator of Saint Augustine. Important for its cultural and historical perspectives, this "Pléiade italiana" includes Raboni's preface, considered "brillante e rapida" and Carena's long and rich introduction which reconstructs the history of the text through the centuries. Papasogli concludes: "siamo lieti di salutare un Pascal italiano degno di durare a lungo e di confrontarsi con grandi edizioni francesi" (155).
FINAS, LUCETTE. "L'ordre retrouvé des Pensées de Pascal. Entretien avec Francis Kaplan." QL volume 914 (du 1er au 15 janvier 2006), 12–13.
Kaplan répond à des questions concernant sa nouvelle édition des Pensées, classées selon les indications manuscrites de Pascal. Kaplan a suivi le plan annoncé dans une des pensées qui présente au moins quatre chapitres : "1) la religion n'est pas contraire à la raison ; 2) la religion a bien connu l'homme ; 3) la religion promet le vrai bien ; 4) la religion est vraie." Kaplan soutient que la lecture des Pensées devient 《 limpide 》 avec cet ordre retrouvé.
KOCH, EREC R. "Sacred/Secular Rhetoric in Pascal's Lettres provinciales." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 327–335.
In Les Lettres provinciales, Pascal articulates a critique of Jesuit rhetoric in the text's rhetorical patterns and structures themselves: the letters offer a debate on vulgarization, while "simultaneously performing such a vulgarization that displays the nature and function of rhetoric as the aesthetic component of discourse."
LAFOUGE, JEAN-PIERRE. "Le surnaturel est-il nécessairement contre-nature? Éléments de réponse comparés chez Yves de Paris et Pascal."
Pascal's violent opposition to nature is well-known. Yet, there are other lesser-known voices, such as Yves de Paris, who in his works, adopts a more intellectual stance on nature. The latter emphasizes our "grandeur originelle" based on human intelligence and portrays a much more confident image of mankind. Lafouge also reveals that despite their different perspectives, these texts both attempt to resolve the issue of how to encounter and know God.
LE GUERN, MICHEL. Pascal et Arnauld. Paris: Champion, 2003.
Review: N. Hammond in FS 59.4 (2005), 543–544: Le Guern's study follows the development of Pascal and Arnauld's friendship and intellectual association and pays particular attention to their fight with the Jesuits. Le Guern is convincing and compelling as he shows Arnauld's influence on Pascal, but less so for the inverse. This is a generally positive review, but it finds fault with Le Guern for not better exploring studies in English on Arnauld.
MAINGUENEAU, DOMINIQUE. "Déplacer quelques frontières. À propos des lettres de Pascal aux Roannez. Littérature." Littérature 140 (décembre 2005): 42–55.
Through examination of a series of letters Pascal addressed "aux Roannez" or "à Mlle de Roannez," the author proposes several ideas about how the methods of discourse analysis can elucidate the nature of the "literary" text.
NATAN, STEPHANE. "Les Pensées de Pascal: Au Royaume des nécessités. 》 SYM 60.2 (2006), 93–108.
《 Dans notre étude nous allons voir comment les modalités aléthiques et déontiques vont parvenir à s'inscrire dans la rhétorique de la force et de l'efficacité en forçant le destinataire des Pensées à ne reconnaître qu'une seule vérité : la vérité du christianisme, et qui plus est, la vérité du christianisme de Pascal. 》
NATAN, STEPHANE. "Les Pensées de Pascal: une réponse volée." DFS 72 (2005), 3–16.
"Les questions oratoires des Pensées ont annihilé la liberté de l'interlocuteur : sa réponse-dictée par l'émetteur-ne peut que le pousser à admettre le point de vue chrétien, janséniste... Au total, avec Pascal, plus que jamais, la rhétorique s'est placée au service de son projet apologétique, avec une habilité on ne peut plus remarquable."
PARKER, THOMAS ROBERT. "Pascal and the Divided Will: Rhetoric, Volition, and Emotions in the Work of Pascal." DAI 66/05 (2005), 1792.
"Identifies and analyzes a compelling theory and practice of persuasion that integrates the complexity of human desire." Based on the fundamental and ambivalent notion of "volonté," the study intends to show the importance of the notion of will for Pascal's anthropology and rhetoric. Also shows how Pascal was influenced by Augustinian paradigms of desire in his understanding of the will.
WETSEL, DAVID & FREDERIC CANOVAS, with PHILIPPE SELLIER and PIERRE FORCE, eds. Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. Vol. 1. Tübingen: Narr, 2002 (Biblio 17, 143).
Review: W. Mager in FR 117 (2005): 420–22: This volume, in homage to Jean Mesnard, opens with the latter's highly informative, masterful and humorous "Histoire secrète de la recherche pascalienne au XXe siècle." Following is Philippe Sellier's "Pascal: imaginaire et théologie," then contributions from numerous countries are organized into sections on "Port Royal et la littérature," "Pascal's Pensées," and "New Trends in Port-Royal Studies." Exceedingly rich and interdisciplinary, this volume of selected proceedings drawn from the 33rd annual congress of the North American Society for Seventeenth Century French Literature held at Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001 is a testimony to the vitality of Pascal scholarship and, as the other volumes of this very large convention, to the productivity of NASSCFL.
GETHNER, PERRY, ed. Femmes dramaturges en France (1650–1750): pièces choisies. Tome II. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2002 (Biblio 17, 136).
Review: J. Clarke in FS 59.4 (2005), 545–546: This work brings many unknown or little-known plays (and femmes dramaturges) to light, and deservedly so in the reviewer's eyes. The theme that unites the plays in this edition is the femme forte. Authors include Françoise Pascal, Mlle de Villedieu, Mme Deshoulières, Mme Bédacier, the baronne de Staal and Mme Boccage.
CARABIN, DENISE, ed. "Nicolas Pasquier. Le Gentillhome." Edition critique. Paris: Champion, 2003.
Review: C. Magnien-Simonin in RHLF 106.3 (2006), 713–714. Carabin goes back to the 1611 edition while ameliorating and modernizing it. Reviewer argues: "Il ne s'agit donc pas, en dépit de l'annonce du titre, d'une édition critique au sens propre du terme, mais cette édition est en revanche largement annotée et copieusement introduite par la chercheuse, spécialiste du néo-stoïcisme au tournant du siècle." Praises the abundant bibliography and author's convincing reading of Pasquier's formation and concept, bur also refers to numerous errors and inaccuracies in the introduction.
Review: B. Petey-Girard in IL 57.4 (2005), 56. "Carabin ne se contente pas d'éditer le texte ; elle propose une longue introduction. . . qui est une manière d'essai sur l'œuvre et sur l'homme qui confirme par l'exemple les traits essentiels de cette République des Lettres au service des premiers Bourbon." Praises the contextual analysis in which Carabin places her critical edition, the wide-ranging bibliography, and the usefully glossary.
ESCOLA, MARC. Contes de Charles Perrault, Essai et dossier. Paris : Gallimard, 2005.
Review : E. Pieiller in QL volume 913 (du 16 au 31 décembre 2005), 26 : "Marc Escola, après Marc Soriano, notamment, dont il ne partage pas l'analyse, étudie ces Contes, les relie à l'ensemble de la démarche de Charles Perrault, et par là même aux grands enjeux artistiques du XVIIe siècle. Rien, certes, d'absolument tétanisant, mais le propos est clair, argumenté, précis, et souriant, à défaut d'être neuf, il est convaincant : les Contes sont lus comme une machine de guerre dans la Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes..., ils relèvent d'une culture populaire, ils affirment la 'modernité' du merveilleux, du burlesque et du galant, et surtout, et c'est là que Marc Escola retient vraiment l'attention, ils savent faire malicieusement jouer une 'distance ironique,' qui, de détournement parodique des règles classiques en décalage du conteur à l'auteur, permet des glissements, des 'trous', des bifurcations de sens, autorisant l'amateur à des 'lectures affabulantes.'"
ESCOLA, MARC. "La 《 narration enjouée 》: Vraisemblable et merveilleux dans les contes en prose de Perrault (1697)." LC 2 (2004), 249–274.
"Le présent article voudrait poser aux Contes de Perrault des questions simples: 《 A quoi servent les bottes du Chat botté? 》; ou encore: 《 Quelle est la couleur de la barbe de Barbe-Bleue? 》. Il montrera en quoi ces questions sont pertinentes, alors même que des questions comme 《 A quoi servent les bottes de sept lieues? 》 ou 《 Quelle est la taille du Petit Poucet? 》 n'ont rigoureusement aucun sens."
FIASCHI-DUBOIS, ANNICK. "Charles Perrault dans la Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes: la Critique de l'opéra Alceste ou le triomphe d'Alcide de Jean-Baptiste Lully (1674)." OeC 31.1 (2006), 57–72.
"Le texte de Perrault est conçu comme un dialogue entre Aristippe, partisan du respect du texte d'Euripide, défenseur des idées des Anciens, et Cléon, avocat du livret de Quinault, et donc champion des Modernes."
HONG, RAN-E. "Quand le paraître prime l'être: les habits dans les Contes de Perrault." CdDS 9.2 (2005), 35–48.
Point of departure is the importance of clothes in Perrault's tales as "porte-parole, de lieux et d'instruments du destin,. . . [et] présages de son action." Hong captures their importance for the opposition "être/paraître" and demonstrates how their transformational quality is directly played out in the tales.
CONIHOUT, ISABELLE DE & FREDERIC GABRIEL. Poésie et calligraphie imprimée à Paris au XVIIe siècle: autour de 'La Chartreuse' de Pierre Perrin, poème imprimé par Pierre Moreau en 1647. Paris: Bibliothèque Mazarine—Chambéry Editions Comp'act, 2004.
Review: L. Grove in FS 59.3 (2005), 394–95: In this extremely positive review, de Conihout's edition garners praise for both the beauty of the illustrated edition and the "thought-provoking" case studies of Pierre Perrin's poetry and music, and Moreau's typesetting. The book is the result of an exhibition at the Bibliothèque Mazarine uncovers much unexplored or under-explored material and will "doubtless provide the starting point of reference" for future study.
BROOKS, WILLIAM. Philippe Quinault. L'Amant indiscret ou le Maistre estourdi." Liverpool Online Series: Critical Editions of French Texts, vol. 7, 2003.
Review: L. Naudeix in RHLF 106.3 (2006), 717–718. "Il est dommage que W. Brooks ensevelisse d'emblée la pièce de Quinault dans son statut de pastiche, dans la mesure où s'exprime ici une tendance au faux-semblant, à la complexité des machinations qui rappelle d'avantage la tragi-comédie que l'intrigue racinienne." Then praises Brooks meticulous analysis of L'Amant indiscret which detects the allusions to the socio-political context.
CAMPION, EDMUND J., ed. Philippe Quinault. Pausanias, tragédie (1668). Intro.William Brooks. Textes Littéraires Français 560. Genève: Droz, 2004.
Review : E. Safty in DFS 72 (2005), 131–132 : "Ce beau petit volume, rehaussé d'introduction, notes et bibliographie, retrace bien la genèse du Pausanias de Quinault (1668), lequel transposa dans sa tragédie non seulement la situation initiale de l'Andromaque de Racine (1667), mais la dynamique même de l'action des personnages ainsi que le choix de l'histoire grecque. (...) La questions des sources (Plutarque), celle du style plutôt abstrait de l'auteur, et celle de la réception, conforme à l'attente de Floridor, sont bien posées et révèlent, en dépit du ton quelque peu apologétique, une bonne connaissance de l'œuvre et de l' 《 objectif 》 de Quinault. 》 Malgré quelques réserves le critique trouve que c'est 《 un travail sérieux et plein d'enthousiasme 》.
Review: M.-O. Sweetser in FR 79 (2006), 834–35: An excellent, well introduced and annotated edition of a lyric tragedy produced in collaboration with Lully at the Hôtel de Bourgogne. Judged by Campion to have been a success in its time, Pausanias' plot in many ways resembles that of Racine's Andromaque. The reviewer recommends the work for use in courses on French tragedy.
CORNIC, SYLVAIN. "Les 《 Tragédies en musique 》 de Philippe Quinault entre réactions du milieu littéraire et influence des salons précieux." PFSCL XXXIII, 64 (2006), 209–219.
"Tout le théâtre de Quinault, même s'il lui fait paradoxalement écho, met au fond en scène la ruine de l'idéal précieux, dont l'influence sur l'auteur fut donc moins déterminante qu'on ne l'a prétendu."
NORMAN, BUFORD. "Touched by the Graces. The Libretti of Philippe Quinault in the Context of French Classicism. Birmingham, AL: Summa Publications, 2001.
Review: L. Naudeix in RHLF 106.3 (2006), 717–718. Naudeix honors Norman's work as the first English synthesis on Quinault's librettos written between 1673 and 1686. Validates the different axis of interpretation adopted: "la reception, la structure, les vers, la symbolique, proposant ici une lecture politique, là une interpretation 'féministe.'"
Review: H. Schneider in RF 117 (2005): 114–16: This praiseworthy monograph is the first in the English language on Quinault and aims "to understand the texts" of the playwright's tragédies en musique. Highly readable study offers extensive consideration of aesthetic questions and important treatment of socio- historical interpretations. Norman holds that "French classicism was more the exception than the rule" (299) and proposes galant as the more appropriate term for the aesthetic of the second half of the 17th c. as it "shares the goals of all the practitioners and theoreticians of what we call classicism: to please, to be beautiful, and to move" (300).
ABRAHAM, CLAUDE. "Le lieu racinien," in Passages. Mélanges offerts àChristian Wentzlaff-Eggebert. Eds. Susanne Grunwald, Claudia Hammerschmidt, Valérie Heinen & Gunnar Nilsson. Sevilla: Separata, 2004. 39–45.
Author maintains that "c'est dans la particularité du lieu que Racine situe une crise (laquelle nous découvrons n'aurait pu prendre place nulle part ailleurs), et c'est de la particularité de ce lieu qu'émane l'angoisse particulière à ce théâtre." Focusing on Britannicus, Bérénice and Bajazet as plays in which Racine develops a concept of tragic space which will remain with him throughout his career, with particular attention to doors, walls and curtains.
ALBANESE, RALPH. "Sacred Space and Ironic Polarities in Athalie." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 109–117.
Racine takes full advantage of the metaphorical possibilities offered by the sacred space of the temple in order to develop a series of antitheses: fertility/sterility, light/darkness, insight/blindness, purity/corruption, salvation/damnation, and revelation/dissimulation.
BLANC, ANDRE. "Ah! Qu'en termes galants. . .: Du langage de la galanterie à celui de la passion dans le théâtre de Racine." PFSCL XXXIII, 64 (2006), 125–136.
Traces Racine's use of language in his tragedies from La Thébaïde through to Phèdre. Concludes that "très vite, Racine a cessé de jouer avec la terminologie et la phraséologie galante."
BLANC, ANDRE. Racine: trois siècles de théâtre. Paris: Fayard, 2003.
Review: M Hawcroft in FS 59.3 (2005), 399–400: Blanc's hybrid work combines literary criticism, biography and literary history in a volume that is useful to scholars but which is destined to the public at large. The review praises this volume for its breadth, especially as a tool for getting an overview of scholarship on Racine. Likewise, the work garners recognition for cataloging the afterlife of Racine's plays until the present day. The reviewer says this will be the most useful tool for specialists. Short chapters and readability are the hallmarks of this book, according to the review.
CAMPBELL, JOHN. "A Marriage Made in Heaven? 'Racine' and 'Love'." MLR 101.3 (2006), 682–690:
"This article seeks to question this comfortable accommodation of 'Racine' and 'love'. It will first show how this association originated in the particular set of circumstances that accompanied Racine's debuts as a dramatist, circumstances that from early on forged the idea of 'Racine' in opposition to that of 'Corneille'. It will also suggest that such a view, however hallowed by tradition, provides an unsatisfactory critical perspective for interpreting a series of complex and quite distinctive tragic dramas, in each of which love plays a different role."
CAMPBELL, JOHN. Questioning Racinian Tragedy. Chapel Hill: UNCP, 2005.
Review: H. Phillips in MLR 101.4 (2006), 1116–1117: "The 'deliberately pragmatic approach' (p. 15) adapted here is an account of the construction of the explicatory systems seeking to identify a single entity 'Racine', 'Racinian tragedy' or 'le tragique racinien'. Critics' claims to have established such an entity are rigorously examined for their shortcomings and their failure to account for all Racine's plays in their all-encompassing approaches. In addition, certain major areas are singled out for criticism, notably 'pessimism' and 'The God Question'. This elegant, witty, and committed book has much to offer."
CANOVA-GREEN, MARIE-CLAUDE & ALAIN VIALA, eds. Racine et l'histoire. Biblio 17–155. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2004.
Review: M. Pavesio in SFr 147 (2005): 635: These selected proceedings of the 1999 London Colloque honoring the tricentenary of Racine's death contain 14 contributions. Includes sections on "Théâtre racinien et lectures de l'histoire," and "Racine et l'écriture de l'Histoire." Important analyses of ambiguity in Racine as well as of the multifaceted relationship between theatre and history.
Review: M.-O. Sweetser in FR 79 (2006), 1058–1059: Publishes the papers of a conference organized by the editors and converges around the idea that Racine's dual writerly production as both a dramatist and a historian, should be thought of in terms of connection rather than disparity. Includes contributions from Christian Biet, Christian Delmas, Fabrice Preyat, and Christian Jouhaud. Recommended for university libraries and dix-septiémistes; praised by the reviewer.
DECLERCQ, GILLES & MICHELE ROSELLINI, eds. Jean Racine 1699–1999: actes du colloque Ile-de-France—La Ferté Milon 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: PUF, 2003.
Review: A. Wygant in FS 60.1 (2006): In this "great door-stopping brick of a volume," Racine the author and his work (more than the man and his life) come under close scrutiny. This positive review lends acclaim to these conference proceedings for not fearing to deal in frank literary criticism at a time when biography is the "flavour of the month." Covering all the various genres that inform Racine studies, this volume questions most "fascinating[ly]," how "Racine became 'Racine'" and why that question is a literary one as much as it is biographical one in this book, which "should be of interest to all."
FORESTIER, GEORGES. Jean Racine. Paris: Gallimard, 2006.
Review : N. Casanova in QL volume 922 (du 1er au 15 mai 2006), 16: "Il y a dans ce livre une magie et une clarté qui en font un enchantement pour tout public... Plus captivant encore que la brillante chevauchée de Racine à travers le Grand Siècle est le film de sa création littéraire, tel que Georges Forestier le fait défiler devant nous. On voit la grande main démiurgique de Racine modeler ses personnages à sa guise, malgré les contraintes suppliciantes auxquelles il est soumis. La règle des trois unités d'action, de lieu et de temps, n'est rien encore. Il faut que les héros soient pourvus d'une préexistence historique ou légendaire, et que rien n'offense le goût délicat de l'époque. La vraisemblance psychologique est disséquée par un public sensible et féroce."
Review: n. a. in BCLF 683 (2006), 68–69: "G. Forestier reprend sur nouveaux frais l'examen de tous les documents révélés par trois siècles d'investigation biographique, depuis les mémoires rédigés par le propre fils de Racine, jusqu'à l'irremplaçable Corpus Racinianum de Raymond Picard. Il les réinterprète à la lumière des connaissances actuelles sur le théâtre et la société du XVIIe siècle, récusant la démarche critique qui a longtemps consisté, parfois avec une subtilité retorse, à rechercher l'homme dans l'oeuvre et l'oeuvre dans l'homme."
GAINES, JAMES. "Travailler en utopie: False Repentance in Racine." CdDS 9.2 (2005), 21–33.
Gaines captures the importance of repentance in seventeenth-century society, and shows the impact of François de Sales's Introduction à la vie dévote. He then reveals how Racine's characters are estranged from the Salesian model and seem much closer to Descartes's idea of repentance, as voiced in the Traité des Passions.
GOSSIP, CHRISTOPHER. "Retouches raciniennes : interventions supprimées dans Andromaque, Britannicus et Bérénice." PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 499–509.
Examines how a number of modifications made by Racine influence the dénouement of these three plays.
HAWCROFT, MICHAEL. "Comment jouait-on le rôle d'Hippolyte dans la Phèdre de Racine? Témoignage d'un manuscrit inédit." DSS 231 (2006), 243–275.
"Le but de cet article est d'évaluer la contribution que pourra apporter à ces travaux un manuscrit qui, jusqu'ici, est resté sans commentaires et que je transcris en appendice à la fin de cet article. Il s'agit du rôle d'Hippolyte dans la Phèdre de Racine. Le manuscrit date probablement du XVIIe siècle et c'est à partir de ce document qu'un acteur apprenait les vers qu'il devait prononcer en jouant ce rôle."
HAWCROFT, MICHAEL. "Points de suspension chez Racine: enjeux dramatique, enjeux éditoriaux." RHLF 106.2 (2006): 307–336.
Essential to the study of dramatic effects in Racine's theater. Author examines dramatic qualities of the ellipsis through close textual analysis.
HOROWITZ, LOUISE K. "East/West: Mapping Racine." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 247–254.
Racine's characters represent and project a rich history of reflection on the question of the division of East and West and, at the same time, reflect and predict our own contemporary attitudes.
JEANDILLOU, JEAN-FRANÇOIS. "Est-ce que de Baal le zèle vous transporte? Aspects de la métaposition dans l'alexandrin classique." Poétique 145 (2006), 83–97.
Taking Racine's Athalie as a sample corpus of classical alexandrines, Jeandillou examines the movement of prepositional phrases as they relate to metrical constraints. The article takes as its starting point a distinction between alexandrines with hemistiches that can be reversed and still be grammatically accurate, such as "Du pillage du temple / épargnez-moi l'horreur," in which the placement of the prepositional phrase constitutes a stylistic choice and attempt at emphasis, and, on the contrary, alexandrines in which the placement of the prepositional phrase is determined by grammar, such as the 'irreversible' "Remets-lui le bandeau / dont tu couvris ses yeux."
MCCLURE, ELLEN. "Lieu Tenant: Diplomacy and Dementia in Racine's Andromaque." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 237–245.
The author examines Oreste's role as an ambassador of sorts in Andromaque through the lens of seventeenth-century diplomatic theory. The breakdown of Oreste's diplomatic duties points to a paradox: "diplomacy is less a mark of sovereignty that a recognition of the recipient's power [. . .] if sovereignty manifests itself through diplomacy, it is also undercut by it."
PEROVIC, SANJA. "Le Cadavre exquis: the origins of tragic drama in Racine's Bazajet." NLH 36 (2005), 439–460.
Drawing on Bernard Williams' attention to time and the body in the definition of tragic conflict, the article explores Bazajet's 'living dead' body as one which is profoundly tragic. Perovic illustrates how Bazajet's person, slated for death and effectively a corpse already, creates a conflict between pastness and presentness, one which creates a sense that the protagonist is speaking from a realm of timelessness. Perovic then relates this ghostly timelessness to the apparent ahistoricity or time resistance of tragic speech.
PONDEA, LAURA. "Phèdre de Racine: du labyrinthe mythique au chemin de Jérusalem." RomN 45 (2005), 311–18.
Labyrinth in Phèdre becomes not only a mythic space, but psychic, discursive and religious spaces. Pondea makes interesting comparison between labyrinth of myth and the "chemin de Jérusalem" which was traced on medieval cathedral floors to symbolize "les errements de l'homme" on the way to salvation. Believes the play is a "chemin de Jérusalem" both for the eponymous character and for the author, who reconciles with Port-Royal after this play.
WYGANT, AMY. "Fire, Sacrifice, Iphigénie." FS 60.3 (2006), 305–319.
Because Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide never had a formal ending, Wygant takes up the opera's source (Racine's Iphigénie) and the historical context to explain it. Wygant is drawn first to the original performance of Iphigénie at Versailles, where she relies on Félibien's description of the evening's pyrotechnics which punctuated the tragedy's ending. Fire, seen as a transmutative process, becomes a theatrical device that is a metaphor for the play's transcending culmination and for the king's power, his physical and political alchemy. Wygant fast-forwards to the late eighteenth century and the scientific context in which Gluck's opera was creating, noting the transformation of fire from a spiritual, alchemical context to a more scientific, chemical one. Critics have seen in Gluck's soldier chorus a pre-figuration of "popular" movements and "revolution," and Wygant's reading subtly and convincingly brings the irony of the opera's creation for Marie-Antoinette (Gluck's one-time pupil) into conversation with scientific, political and musical discourse of the period.
JUBERT, GERARD, éd. Père des journalistes et médecin des pauvres, Théophraste Renaudot (1586–1653). Paris : Champion, 2005.
Review : n.a. in BCLF 673 (2005), 108 : Cet ouvrage 《 n'est ni un roman historique, ni même une biographie du personnage. Il s'agit d'un recueil, modelé sur celui de Madeleine Jurgens, Cent ans de recherches sur Molière, qui donne à lire un ensemble de quatre cent quarante-quatre documents, tous relatifs à Renaudot. 》
GARNEAU DE L'ISLE-ADAM, MARIE CHRISTINE. "Mémoires d'un chef d'oeuvre: Stendhal, mémorialiste de Retz." FR 79 (2005), 370–81.
The author explores Stendhal's possible self-styling (both writerly and personal) on the model of Retz.
HERSANT, MARC. "Cardinal de Retz. Mémoires." IL 58.1 (2006), 30–39.
Initially studies the historical and social context of the writing of the Mémoires by means of a portrait or "galerie". Then looks at organizational principles inside the text and argues that there exists a strong "souci hiérarchique." Stylistic and rhetorical questions are analyzed in the latter part.
HERSANT, MARC. "Vitesse d'écriture et vérité aristocratique dans les Mémoires du cardinal de Retz et dans les Mémoires du duc de Saint-Simon." DSS 231 (2006), 199–216.
A close look at the authenticity of the improvisational nature of the two Mémoires despite their avowed "mépris pour l'écriture ou pour la parole pensées comme le résultat d'un travail, un dédain pour ce qu'on appelle aujourd'hui le 《 travail de l'écriture 》."
LEPLATRE, OLIVIER. "Ecrire et désecrire l'Histoire dans les Mémoires du cardinal de Retz." IL 58.1 (2006), 21–29.
The author examines the implications of Retz's political career and the genesis of the text before discussing the concept of "plasticité et plis". Combines the study of Retz as a political figure and Retz as a writer.
TOURRETTE, ERIC. "Les perturbations de la causalité selon le cardinal de Retz." IL 57.4 (2005), 11–15.
Rhetorical study of the Mémoires that devotes particular attention to Retz's methods of creating incoherence, distortion, stupor, contradiction, etc. Author focuses on linguistic and referential (chronological) perspectives.
AVEZOU, LAURENT. " Richelieu vu par M. de Mourgues et P. Hay du Chastelet: Le double miroir de Janus." TL 18 (2005): 167–78.
Avezou, whose thèse de doctorat (2002) developed even further the question treated in this essay, reviews the contributions of other researchers, then presents here "un portrait croisé de Richelieu en cumulant le point de vue psychologique et le point de vue littéraire" Avezou's guiding theme, that of "l'écrivain face au pouvoir politique," allows him to discover how the writer "tente d'enfermer l'insaissable—le pouvoir absolu et l'étatisme conquérant—dans ses filets rhétoriques." Morgues and du Chastelet represent "l'ensemble du paysage pamphlétaire sous le règne de Louis XIII" (168).
BLUCHE, FRANCOIS. Richelieu. Essai. Paris: Perrin, 2003.
Review: L. Bienassis in DSS 230 (2006), 184–186: Concentrating on cultural and religious themes, the author states at the outset that his biography does not purport to bring new information to the equation, rather, "son livre se veut un 《 essai 》 et non une étude exhaustive de la personnalité, de la carrière et de l'œuvre de Richelieu." The author's enthusiasm for his subject is unmistakable and, in the end, an audience beyond specialists would enjoy this work.
MORGAIN, STEPHANE-MARIE. "Une grande oeuvre théologique de Richelieu: La méthode la plus facile et la plus assurée pour convertir ceux qui se sont séparés de l'Eglise." DSS 230 (2006), 131–149.
A detailed analysis of this text, published posthumously in 1651, proves "combien le cardinal de Richelieu, trop souvent confiné dans l'image de l'homme politique, est d'abord fondamentalement, viscéralement, osons-nous dire, un homme d'Eglise et un théologien."
SHAPIRO, STEPHEN A. "The Fall of the House of Montpensier and the Rise of Richelieu: Geographical Representation in Mademoiselle de Montpensier's Mémoires." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 229–236.
What appears to be a travel narrative in Montpensier's Mémoires is a metonymical figuration of family history where the changes in the political landscape are reflected in geography. As Richelieu builds a new family domain, he swallows up other aristocratic and royal domains, namely the Montpensier clan's property at Champigny-sur-Vaude, imprinting his rise to power on the map of France.
O'CONNOR, NANCY, ed. De sa propre main. Recueils de choses morales de Dauphine de Sartre, Marquise de Robiac (1634–1685). Birmingham, AL: Summa Publication, 2003.
Review: H. Goldwyn in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 589–592. Reviewer examines the originality of the Marquise de Robiac's writings, and welcomes the appearance of this "contribution originale à l'histoire littéraire et sociale de la lecture feminine." Reviewer praises the editor's "recherche pointilleuse et méticuleuse."
BERREGARD, SANDRINE. "Le spectacle de la mort et le problème des bienséances dans L'Hypocondriaque ou le mort amoureux et l'Hercule mourant de Rotrou." PFSCL XXXIII, 64 (2006), 193–206.
Examines how Rotrou sets out in these two plays to reconcile the dual considerations of both respecting the bienséances and yet satisfying his audience's taste for the spectacular .
BURRICHTER, BRIGITTE. "Le (d)rôle du corps dans les comedies de Jean Rotrou." In Erdmann, Eva and Konrad Schoell, eds. Le comique corporel: Mouvement et comique dans l'espace théâtral du XVIIe siècle. Biblio 17 Number 163. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 27–43.
Rotrou's comedies accord very little importance to the body and corporality, making his work either an early manifestation of the classical aesthetic or an example of an author's leaving a play's actors the freedom to embellish and improvise corporeal humor.
SPAGNOLO SADR, TABITHA. "Jean Rotrou and the Trappings of Identity." CdDS 9.2 (2005), 49–56.
Examines questions of cross-dressing in Rotrou's corpus. Study "focuses on this asymmetric distinction in the prevailing attitude toward cross-dressing, not purely in the intellectual realm, but on its most public literary proving ground — the stage." Subtle analysis and numerous comparisons.
GUEMY, CHRISTIAN. "Un traité de peinture manuscrit resté inédit: la Seconde Nature du frère carme Sébastien de Saint-Aignan." DSS 230 (2006), 71–79.
A brief but close look at Saint-Aignan's (better known as an architect) previously unknown, unpublished treatise on painting.
DUROSOIR, GEORGIE. "Les musiques de Saint-Amant." OeC 31.1 (2006), 41–56.
"Pourtant, s'il semble légitime de chercher à faire un bilan des musiques de ce poète, on ne tentera pas de proposer une analyse de la musique intrinsèque de sa poésie-encore que celle-ci le mériterait. On s'attachera à relever les interpellations, métaphores, éléments lexicaux et figures de styles qui renvoient à la musique pour en tirer une vision aussi fidèle que possible, et montrer que l'oreille est, dans les Oeuvres, la première des muses."
PEUREUX, GUILLAUME. Le Rendez-vous des Enfans sans soucy. La poétique de Saint-Amant. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2002.
Review: T. Gheeraert in DSS 230 (2006), 182–184: The reviewer identifies this ambitious book as the first to deal with the entirety of Saint-Amant's work, "en se frayant un chemin dans cette multiplicité de tonalités [...] et fournisse ainsi au lecteur un précieux guide pour l'accompagner dans son parcours dans l'œuvre du poète normand."
ROBERTS, WILLIAM. "Saint-Amant, Holland House, and the Queen of England. Analecta Husserliana 81 (2004): 45–60.
Review: C. Rolla in SFr 147 (2005): 633: Roberts's article usefully includes his English translation of the ode "A leurs Serenissimes Majestez de la Grand'Bretagne" and analyses the moment and the events of its inspiration. Roberts underscores the characteristics of this "poema-spettacolo" as well as the descriptions of the residence (the setting for this "balletto ambientato nello splendido parco").
GARIDEL, DELPHINE de. Poétique de Saint-Simon. Cours et détours du récit historique dans les Mémoires. Paris: Champion, 2005.
Review: M. Stefanovska in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 563–565. "En dépit d'un certain éparpillement dû au désir d'exhaustivité, le point fort de la démarche de l'auteur consiste à appliquer rigoureusement des catégories narratives développées sur la fiction et d'en démontrer la pertinence pour l'écriture mémorialiste."
HERSANT, MARC. "Vitesse d'écriture et vérité aristocratique dans les Mémoires du cardinal de Retz et dans les Mémoires du duc de Saint-Simon." DSS 231 (2006), 199–216.
A close look at the authenticity of the improvisational nature of the two Mémoires despite their avowed "mépris pour l'écriture ou pour la parole pensées comme le résultat d'un travail, un dédain pour ce qu'on appelle aujourd'hui le 《 travail de l'écriture 》."
GOUVERNET, GÉRARD, ed. Antoinette de Salvan de Saliès, Oeuvres complètes. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2004.
Review: N. Grande in DSS 231 (2006), 348–350: A welcome publication in which Antoinette de Saliès' works have been published together for the first time, including novellas, letters, poetry, and treatises.
Review: R. Parish in FS 60.2 (2006), 272–273: This critical edition shines for its documentation and for the intrinsic interest of some of Salvan de Saliès' texts, which would, according to the reviewer, "easily merit an honourable place in an anthology." While not all of the author's works are compelling, her historical nouvelles and Réflexions chrétiennes are worthy entries. This work will be of interest to those studying the history of the seventeenth century, women writers, and early-modern feminism.
Review: M. Pavesio in SFr no. 146 (2005): 414: Madame de Saliès's literary production, previously studied in Myriam Maître's Les Précieuses (1999) and Nathalie Grande's Stratégies de romancières. . . (1999), here finds its modern edition which includes an historical novel, a work of religious reflections, letters and poetry. Gouvernet also provides the modern scholar-reader a study of de Saliès's life, the principal themes of her work, numerous authentic documents of her life, a glossary of juridical and religious terms, a rich bibliography, illustrations and other valuable materials.
GRAEBER, WILHELM. " 'Un raccourci de la misère humaine'. Aspects idéologiques du comique corporel dans l'oeuvre de Paul Scarron." In Erdmann, Eva and Konrad Schoell, eds. Le comique corporel: Mouvement et comique dans l'espace théâtral du XVIIe siècle. Biblio 17 Number 163. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 69–84.
In Jodelet ou le maître valet, corporality distinguishes Jodelet the servant from his master Don Juan. This representation of the servant's body mirrors Scarron's physical autoportrait which offers the bodily grotesque as an ideological counterpoint to the regularity and uniformity of salon and court culture.
VOS-CAMY, JOLENE. "Theatrical Intersections in the Novel: Scarron's Roman comique." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 53–58.
Scarron's comic novel about an itinerant troupe of actors also reflects the influence of theater in its structure and narrative. The author focuses on "lazzi-like" comic interludes that are interspersed throughout the text as well as the inscription of a theatrical spectator in the text.
ESMEIN, CAMILLE, ed. "Poétiques du roman. Scudéry, Huet, Du Plaisir et autres textes théoriques et critiques du XVIIe siècle sur le genre romanesque." Paris: Champion, 2004.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr no. 146 (2005): 411–12: This rich and stimulating anthology of principal 17th c. texts (including prefaces to novels) is well annotated. Esmein's introduction situates and defines the problem, and each text is furnished with a critical bibliography. The reviewer finds that while some aspects of this work may be open to criticism or discussion, it is overall an indispensable research tool.
Review: F. Greiner in DSS 231 (2006), 347–348: Destined to become a very useful reference book, Esmein has assembled a varied selection of textes: "épîtres, préfaces, extraits de fictions et traités dont l'abondance évoque moins une anthologie [...] qu'une de ces bibliothèques que les érudits du XVIIIe siècle consacrèrent autrefois au même genre." The collection, its annotation, and preface form something of a companion compendium to Esmein's thesis (L'Avènement d'une poétique romanesque au XVIIe siècle: Discours théorique et constitution d'un genre littéraire (1641–1683)).
Review: G. Peureux in RHLF 106.2 (2006), 426–427. "Cette anthologie. . . contient notamment d'utiles indices des noms, des romans et des notions, ainsi qu'une bibilographie analytique des sources utilisées. Chaque extrait ou texte intégral contenu. . . est introduit, ses enjeux théoriques sont mis en évidence et la bibliographie récente en est signalée." Some shortcomings concerning "la périodisation. . . [qui est] coupée au cordeau."
GALLI PELLEGRINI, ROSA, ed. Ibrahim ou l'Illustre Bassa. Introduction et notes à l'Épître et à la Préface parGalla Pellegrini.Établissement du texte, notes, annexes et fiches historiques parAntonella Arrigoni. Fasano-Paris: Schena-Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, n.d.
Review: M. Bertaud in SFr no. 147 (2005): 599–600: Praiseworthy "travail à quatre mains" offers an important contribution to the current revival of Scudéry studies which Bertaud helpfully indicates in some detail. Galli Pellegrini's introduction to this "pièce majeure dans l'importante production de 'turqueries' qui marqua l'Age classique" is both rich and concise, "un précieux guide pour le lecteur" (599). Madeleine's role is deftly circumscribed, the novel and its historical sources are considered in the context of Richelieu's foreign politics, and other key movements and concepts ("les salons", "l'analyse du Coeur") receive attention. Arrigoni has transcribed the 1665 Rouen edition, but also offers a comparison with that of 1641–44. In spite of Bertaud's indication of several errors, some "bénignes" while others altering the sense of the text, she concludes in appreciation that "un roman long du Grand Siècle" is now available and that more and more Italian scholars are devoting themselves to "les études dix-septiémistes" (600).
BOURQUI, CLAUDE. "La transmission des sujets galants hispaniques à la scène française du XVIIe siècle: l'hypothèse sur le rôle du Grand Cyrus." PFSCL XXXIII, 64 (2006), 97–108.
Examines the hypothesis that Scudéry's Grand Cyrus may have played an intermediary role in the transmission of subjects from Spanish to French theatre. That role may have been either one of transformation (where the subject is transformed from its original) or incitation (that is, where Scudéry's treatment of a subject incites the French dramatist to return to the original Spanish subject).
DONAWERTH, JANE & JULIE STRONGSON, eds. and trans. Madeleine de Scudéry: Selected Letters, Orations, and Rhetorical Dialogues. Coll. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Review: C. Jordan in Ren Q 58 (2005): 315–17: Focuses on passages drawn from Scudéry's Lettres amoureuses (1641), Les femmes illustres (1642), and Conversations sur divers sujets (1680, 1684). Images may mirror Scudéry's thoughts, as that of Miriam "points to Scudéry's belief in what might be termed the existence of a public conscience, the inner life of persons who serve as mentors of a political ethics" (316), Conversations demonstrates Scudéry's observations on wit and indicate how Scudéry "internalized the resources of rhetoric" (317). Praiseworthy introduction, notes, indices, illustrations, and bibliography.
Review: S. Toczyski in PFSCL XXXIII, 64 (2006), 281–283. Reviewer concludes that despite "occasional errors" and a "somewhat uneven" index, "this volume will doubtless prove useful to faculty who wish to illustrate women's rhetorical prowess in the seventeenth century; the texts are, for the most part, well chosen and ably rendered."
ESMEIN, CAMILLE, ed. "Poétiques du roman. Scudéry, Huet, Du Plaisir et autres textes théoriques et critiques du XVIIe siècle sur le genre romanesque." Paris: Champion, 2004.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in SFr no. 146 (2005): 411–12: This rich and stimulating anthology of principal 17th c. texts (including prefaces to novels) is well annotated. Esmein's introduction situates and defines the problem, and each text is furnished with a critical bibliography. The reviewer finds that while some aspects of this work may be open to criticism or discussion, it is overall an indispensable research tool.
Review: F. Greiner in DSS 231 (2006), 347–348: Destined to become a very useful reference book, Esmein has assembled a varied selection of textes: "épîtres, préfaces, extraits de fictions et traités dont l'abondance évoque moins une anthologie [...] qu'une de ces bibliothèques que les érudits du XVIIIe siècle consacrèrent autrefois au même genre." The collection, its annotation, and preface form something of a companion compendium to Esmein's thesis (L'Avènement d'une poétique romanesque au XVIIe siècle: Discours théorique et constitution d'un genre littéraire (1641–1683)).
Review: G. Peureux in RHLF 106.2 (2006), 426–427. "Cette anthologie. . . contient notamment d'utiles indices des noms, des romans et des notions, ainsi qu'une bibilographie analytique des sources utilisées. Chaque extrait ou texte intégral contenu. . . est introduit, ses enjeux théoriques sont mis en évidence et la bibliographie récente en est signalée." Some shortcomings concerning "la périodisation. . . [qui est] coupée au cordeau."
GENIEYS-KIRK, SEVERINE. "Le nu féminin dans la Clélie de Madeleine de Scudéry." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 199–208.
The descriptions of paintings and verbal portraits in Scudéry's novel are highly suggestive. In order to respect the norms of bienséance and vraisemblance, Scudéry appeals to her readers' visual sense and knowledge of art through diverse rhetorical strategies.
MORLET-CHANTALAT, CHANTAL, ed. Clélie: histoire romaine (Première à Quatrième Parties). Paris: Champion, 2001–2004.
Review: J. Mallinson in FS 59.3 (2005), 396–398: "One cannot," says the reviewer, "welcome too warmly this edition," positioning it in the tradition of scholarship by Denis, Spica, Grande and Godenne. These editions are useful for their plot summaries and contextual introductions. There is also an overall introduction that draws on much recent scholarship. While the reviewer would have liked more textual analysis and comments on the illustrations in the introduction, the work as a whole is recognized as a major undertaking and achievement for the editors, one for which scholars will be "immensely grateful."
NIDERST, ALAIN. "La 'remise en cause' de René Godenne." PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 551–553.
Argues that a 'key' does exist for Scudéry's Clélie and Artamène and that 'lectures à clé' are possible.
JACQUETIN-GAUDET, ALBERTE, trad. & ed. Joannes Serreius [Jean Serrier], Grammaire française (1623). Paris: Honoré Champion, 2005.
Review: n. a. in BCLF 683 (2006), 37–38: "Cette rédition reproduit anastatiquement un exemplaire de l'édition de 1623, considéré comme le dernier état du texte avant la mort de son auteur. A la suite du reprint, est donnée la traduction de l'ouvrage, accompagnée de nombreuses notes infrapaginales qui explicitent le texte ou signalent les emprunts et les parallèles chez les prédécesseurs de Serreius."
LANDRY, BERTRAND. "Le fils caché de la 'Correspondance': Charles de Sévigné." DAI 66/03 (2005), 1019.
Charles de Sévigné as a historical personage and as a key figure in the Correspondance. "Other avenues of research including historical, sociological, and psychoanalytical sources are utilized to construct a biographical study, presenting the Baron as the man who emerges at the intersection of his mother's letters and real life." Analyzes his military career, his liaisons, his relationship with Louis XIV and his love life before turning to the Marquise's "reconstruction of her son as an honnête homme."
FINN, THOMAS. "Tragedy in the Histoire comique de Francion." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 45–52.
In the second half of Sorel's comic novel, Francion "springs from, or claims, a most noble lineage, embarks on a mission of great societal import which forces him to choose in a no-win situation, and is blind to the fatal flaw that presages the failure of his mission," thereby showing a great affinity with Corneille and Racine's tragic heroes.
LEPAPE, PIERRE. La Disparition de Sorel. Paris : Grasset, 2006.
Review : J.-C. Abramovici in QL 931 (du 1er au 15 octobre 2006), 13 : 《 Que trouver à redire à un tel projet, si ce n'est qu'à bien examiner le menu de La Disparition, on se persuade que l'essayiste a moins pris appui sur les mots de Sorel que sur ceux de ses têtes de turc, en particulier du pauvre Émile Roy chez qui Lepape puise sa matière... Il ne fait aucun doute que les jugements péremptoires et compassés d'Émile Roy sont aujourd'hui aussi illisibles qu'est roborative et très souvent stimulante la prose de Pierre Lepape avec son art de la formule bien frappée... et son usage circonspecte de l'anachronisme... Il y a toutefois quelque facilité à traiter de haut des études vieilles de plus d'un siècle... tout en les récrivant dans l'ignorance tranquille de plusieurs décennies de recherche universitaire internationale qui, depuis les travaux de Jean Serroy, s'est attachée à arracher l'auteur de Sorel de l'oubli comme des simplifications. 》
WALLIS, ANDY. Frisquemore: A Northern Passage to Literary Creation. CdDS 10.1 (2006), 95–109.
This study addresses questions of intertextual links and analyzes spatial representation as a form of psychological discourse. It argues in the introduction "that the work must necessarily contain traces or umbilical scars of its creation, a photographic negative, that it is not a work sui generis."
HÖFER, BERNADETTE. "Une insubordination clandestine, ou la relation entre l'esprit et le corps chez Surin et Lafayette." CdDS 10.2 (2006), 19–48.
Portrayal of Surin and Lafayette's work as eminently contemporary and antagonistic to the dominant rationalistic discourse of the time. Underscores how the seventeenth-century understanding of physical illness also refers to underlying mental distress.
WOLFE, PHILIPPE. "Confession catholique, confession protestante dans les Historiettes de Tallemant des Réaux." CDDS 9.2 (2005), 11–20.
Examines the discrete but noticeable opposition between Catholic and Protestant faith in the Historiettes by looking at narrative structures, demonstrating that Tallemant insists on the comic nature of the confession, writing primarily for a non-clerical readership.
BERREGARD, SANDRINE. "La folie du page ou le sage disgracié." CTH 27 (2005): 9–26.
Examines relationships in structure, characters, and narrative between Le Page disgracié (1643) and Tristan's tragi-comedy first performed the following year, La Folie du sage (1645).
BERREGARD, SANDRINE. Tristan L'Hermite 《 héritier 》 et 《 précurseur 》. Imitation et innovation dans la carrière de Tristan L'Hermite. Biblio 17. Volume 159. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006.
CAMPAGNOLI, RUGGERO, ERIC LYSOE, & ANNA SONCINI FRATTA, eds. La Mariane de Tristan l'Hermite. Seminari pasquali di analisi testuale, Seconde série 1, Bologne, Club, 2003.
Review: V. Adam in CTH XXVIII (2006), 97–99: "Cet ouvrage présente trois volets: le texte des conferences, le résumé des discussions, et enfin un mini cd-rom sur lequel on peut trouver le texte intégral de la pièce et son lexique classé par ordre alphabétique, puis par thèmes (corps et couleurs)." Authors have paid attention to judgments by Tristan's contemporaries; there is a strong focus on Hérode as the main character. Reviewer notes, however, that "Ces multiples lectures restent très classiques..., et n'apportera pas de véritables nouveautés sur la Mariane à l'exception des interventions de Dominique Moncond'huy et de Charles Mazouer qui utilisent des angles d'éclairage inusités sur Tristan. . ."
CTH 25 (2003) includes: ABRAHAM, C. "Tristan outre-Atlantique;" CHAUVEAU, J.-P.. "Quand Tristan inspirait les musiciens;" DALLA VALLE, D. "El Hado et le songe dans 'El mayor monstruo del mundo' de Calderon et dans 'La Mariane' de Tristan;" GRAZIANI, F. "L'ami des livres;" GROVE, L. "Un précurseur de Carriat: Napoléon-Maurice Bernardin (1856–1915);" GUICHEMERRE, R. "Un lyrisme burlesque: 'Le Parasite' de Tristan;" GUILLUMETTE, D. "Tristan et la fable;" LANDY, R. "Sur quelques airs de Tristan;" MALLET, N. "L'aumône à la belle disgraciée;" PREVOT, J. "Le Je de cache-cache;" SERROY, J. "Tristan/Bernard, Le Tristan l'Hermite de Jean-Marc Bernard."
CTH 26 (2004) includes: LABENHEIM, A. "Une esthétique du flou, entre dissimulation et travestissement;" PEUREUX, G. "Un douloureux sillon diversement creusé. Notes sur Tristan et les misères humaines;" PHILIPPS, L. "Sens et pratique de l'achèvement dans les 《 Vers Héroïques 》;" TONOLO, S. "L'épître chez Tristan: Une forme poétique vigoureuse et révélatrice" and "La métaphore du nourisson à l'époque mondaine. Autour de quatre épîtres;" DUVAL, F. and A.-M. SPICA. "《 Le Cabinet de Louis XI 》 ou l'histoire d'une imposture."
CTH 28 (2006) includes: CHAUVEAU, J.-P., "Thèmes et variations;" BERREGARD, S., "Tristan et la pastorale: des Plaintes d'Acante à l'Amarillis;" THOMMERET, L., "L'autonomie du lyrisme dans Panthée;" LABENHEIM, A. "《 Un mixte compose de lumière et de fange 》: une stylistion du contraste chez Tristan L'Hermite;" PHILIPPS, L., "Le Poète et le Prince dans les Vers héroïques: agonie d'une relation mythique;" and "Tristan et Billaut face à Gaston d'Orléans: la louange désabusée. Autour de deux odes," présenté parL. PHILIPPS.
D'ANGELO, FILIPPO. "Aspects de la mise en intrigue dans Le Page discracié." CTH 27 (2005): 79–87.
Despite being incomplete, the novel has a coherent narrative through which the narrator attempts to reassemble fragments of his past, and in its incomplete narrative enacts the compromise between desire to attribute meaning to the past and accepting its necessary incoherence outlined by Ricœur.
GÉNETIOT, ALAIN. "Les poèmes du Page disgracié." CTH 27 (2005): 67–71.
Briefly traces the evolution of the poems contained within the novel, which ultimately give closure to the unfinished novel by making it a book about learning to appreciate and write poetry.
ORWAT, FLORENCE. "Galanterie et tentation mondaine dans Le Page disgracié" CTH 27 (2005): 27–39.
Explores the importance of the ideals of galanterie, civility, and politesse expressed by Castiglione in Tristan's novel, which reveal him to be a man of his time.
PHILIPPS, LIONEL. "Tristan chez Cyrano: le page disgracié comme personnage de L'Autre Monde." CTH 27 (2005): 40–50.
Analyzes how Cyrano de Bergerac goes beyond simple praise for Tristan through the mouth of the Demon and integrates his character fully into his narrative.
RIARD, PATRICK. "Le page et son initiation: quelle alchimie pour devenir poète?" CTH 27 (2005): 51–65.
Examines the participation of astrology, alchemy, and other sciences still important in the period in the portrayal of the initiation and development of the narrator.
HOCHGESCHWENDER, LUDWIG." 'il faut bien que le corps exulte' (J. Brel). Ordre et désordre dans Les Corrivaux (1612) de Pierre Troterel, sieur d'Avès." In Erdmann, Eva and Konrad Schoell, eds. Le comique corporel: Mouvement et comique dans l'espace théâtral du XVIIe siècle. Biblio 17 Number 163. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 13–25.
Although grounded in the comic tradition, Troterel nonetheless innovates in structure, language, style, and in the adaptation of characters from the traditional comic repertoire. By focusing on the corporality of Clorette, the young heroine of the play, Troterel offers a study of feminine independence and personal choice.
BANDERIER, GILLES. "La Bibliothèque d'Honoré d'Urfé : Notes complémentaires. 》 BHR 68.2 (2006), 321–32 :
L'enquête de Banderier enrichit de dix-neuf volumes l'inventaire de la bibliothèque d'Honoré d'Urfé : 《 One ne peut qu'être à nouveau surpris par l'étendue des préoccupations intellectuelles que révèle un tel choix de livres : Philosophie, théologie, histoire, symbolique. . .. 》
GETHNER, PERRY. "Toward the Classical Unities: How Mairet Adapted d'Urfé for the Stage." In Beasley, Faith E. & Kathleen Wine, eds. Intersections. Actes du 35e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Dartmouth College, 8–10 mai 2003. Biblio 17 Number 161. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005. 37–43.
In Mairet's Chryséide et Arimand (1630), an adaptation of an intercalated tale from d'Urfé's grand pastoral novel, the young playwright grapples with the theoretical implications of tragicomedy and the three unities during a period of transition from baroque to classical dramaturgy.
LEOPIZZA, MARCELLA. Les sources documentaires du courant libertin français. Giulio Cesare Vanini, préface deGiovanni Dotoli. Fasano: Schena, 2004.
Review: M. Mastroianni in SFr 147 (2005): 631: A rich and highly useful bibliography complements this long (over 800 page) and welcome study which offers numerous corrections and precisions on Vanini's life and work, including his important sojourn at Toulouse. Leopizza's study examines 1) "L'aventure humaine", 2) "L'aventure culturelle", 3) "L'aventure libertine", and 4) "La présence de Vanini dans l'oeuvre de quelques esprits forts" (the latter includes 17th c. figures such as Cyrano, Sorel and Bayle).
TROUVE, STEPHANIE. "Les écrits de Molinier, Pader et Vendages de Malapeire et la peinture religieuse à Toulouse au XVIIe siècle." DSS 230 (2006), 101–115.
Looking at the texts of these three authors, Trouvé sheds light on a uniquely Toulousian approach to sacred art.
GETHNER, PERRY, ed. Femmes dramaturges en France (1650–1750): pièces choisies. Tome II. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2002 (Biblio 17, 136).
Review: J. Clarke in FS 59.4 (2005), 545–546: This work brings many unknown or little-known plays (and femmes dramaturges) to light, and deservedly so in the reviewer's eyes. The theme that unites the plays in this edition is the femme forte. Authors include Françoise Pascal, Mlle de Villedieu, Mme Deshoulières, Mme Bédacier, the baronne de Staal and Mme Boccage.
KELLER-RAHBÉ, EDWIGE, ed. Madame de Villedieu romancière. Nouvelles perspectives de recherche. Lyon: Presses universitaires de Lyon, 2004.
Review: M.-C. Pioffet in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 578–579. Although the reviewer regrets the concentration on Villedieu's prose to the detriment of her theatre (an approach to be expected from the title), she welcomes this timely collection of twelve essays which "décuplera sans aucun doute l'intérêt des universitaires pour cette pionnière."
Review: C. Zonza in DSS 231 (2006), 350–351: Acts of a 2004 colloquium organized at Lyon are comprised of 12 papers on Madame de Villedieu that celebrate the diversity of her work. Articles appear by Rudolf Harneit, Roxanne Lalande, Donna Kuizenga, Nathalie Grande, Faith Beasley, and Juliette Cherbuliez among others.
KUIZENGA, DONNA, ed. & trans. Mme de Villedieu (Marie-Catherine Desjardins). Memoirs of the Life of Henriette-Sylvie de Molière. A Novel. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Review: E. Goldsmith in PFSCL XXXIII, 65 (2006), 581–582. This is "an important contribution to the project of rendering early modern women writers accessible to English readers." Reviewer praises particularly the introduction, which is "an essay offering new insights into the novel's reception in England and its prominent place in a tradition of narrative fiction" outside France. Concerning the translation, "the English reads beautifully, capturing the feisty, expansive and self-deprecating humor of the narrator's voice in French."
LETEXIER, GÉRARD. Madame de Villedieu: une chroniqueuse aux origines de La Princesse de Clèves. Paris, Minard 2002.
Review: L. Horowitz in FR 79 (2005), 409–10: Situating Villedieu in terms of those who influenced her and those whom she went on to shape, Letextier points to Molière and Segrais, with particular emphasis on La Fayette as one of Villedieu's true followers. However, this seemingly anodyne analysis is delivered in a rather polemical framework, with Letextier trying "to create a dramatic brouhaha. . .by writing his book against the ravages of the "politiquement correct". . . led by "nos feministes" (409). The reviewer notes Letexier's assessment of Villedieu's writing as something quite separate from her audacious, courageous life, as well as total failure to engage American scholarship in his notes.
Review: E. Keller-Rahbé in PFSCL XXXIII, 64 (2006), 297–299. Reviewer regrets the "positionnement timide" of the author, commenting: "En dernier ressort, c'est donc à la supériorité de Mme de Lafayette que renvoie l'étude." However, the author does succeed in highlighting the important influence of Villedieu on her contemporary. "En cela réside la nouveauté, non négligeable, de son étude."
JACQUOT, DOMINIQUE, JEAN-LUC NANCY, MAXIMILIEN DURAND, et al. Loth et ses filles de Simon Vouet. Strasbourg: Musées de Strasbourg, 2005.
Review: S. Loire in Burlington 148 (2006), 345–346: Published as a complement to an exhibition held at Strasbourg's Musée de Beaux-Arts that closed in January 2006. "Explores in great depth the painting's origins, its iconography and the position it occupies in Vouet's œuvre." Also included are a number of other works by Vouet as well as his pupils, including paintings, drawings, engravings and tapestries. Contains updated documentation of the chronology of Vouet's works, as well as new attributions to Vouet himself or his circle.
Review: n.a. in BCLF 679 (2006), 55: "Le musée des beaux-arts de Strasbourg a mis ce tableau à l'honneur dans le cadre d'une remarquable exposition ['Eclairages sur un chef-d'oeuvre, Loth et ses filles', 20 octobre 2005 au 22 janvier 2006]. Le catalogue édité à cette occasion a "le caractère de véritable monographie sur l'oeuvre du peintre."
LAFOUGE, JEAN-PIERRE. "Le surnaturel est-il nécessairement contre-nature? Éléments de réponse comparés chez Yves de Paris et Pascal."
Pascal's violent opposition to nature is well-known. Yet, there are other lesser-known voices, such as Yves de Paris, who in his works, adopts a more intellectual stance on nature. The latter emphasizes our "grandeur originelle" based on human intelligence and portrays a much more confident image of mankind. Lafouge also reveals that despite their different perspectives, these texts both attempt to resolve the issue of how to encounter and know God.
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