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Sonoma State University |
Modern Language Association |
UNL Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
2009 Number 57
BOMBART, MATHILDE. Guez de Balzac et la querelle des “Lettres.” Écriture, polémique et critique dans la France du premier XVIIe siècle. Paris: Champion, 2007.
Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 155 (2008): 448—449. Important investigation for both its historical and literary dimensions. Praiseworthy as well for its attention to the social aspect of B.’s “Lettres.” B. helpfully locates Balzac’s work in a “panorama nell’ epistolografia secentescà” (448). Also included are sections on the contested elements of the work and the three phases of the polemics with the respective “actors.” Arguments (aesthetic, moral, political) are examined as well as the circulation of texts. Judged convincing, the volume is supported by a rich bibliography of primary and secondary sources. Two appendices.
RESCIA, LAURA, ed. Charles Bauter. La Rodomontade. Editrice Università degli Studi di Trento, 2007.
Review: M. Pavesio in S Fr 155 (2008): 447—448. Welcome edition of one of B.’s tragedies is both “bella ed accurata” and based on the “editio princeps” of 1613. R.’s rich introduction sheds light on the genre itself and on B.’s indebtedness to his predecessors. Includes a rich glossary and helpful annotations.
BAYLE, PIERRE. Pensées diverses sur la comète. Introduction, notes, glossaire, bibliographie et index par Joyce et Hubert Bost. Paris: Flammarion, 2007.
Review: I. Moreau in DSS 244 (2009), 558—559: In this well-produced edition, the authors “offrent en introduction une présentation synthétique de l’ouvrage—sa genèse, son originalité littéraire et stylistique, ses principaux enjeux, sa postérité—tout en insistant sur son inscription dans une conjuncture historique et politique précise. L’intérêt majeur de leur approche reside dans le déplacement d’éclairage qu’elle opère de la stricte question de la superstition vers la question [. . .] des mécanismes d’adhésion et de crédulité.”
VOS-CAMY, JOLENE. “L’amitié et l’amour dans Eléonor d’Yvrée de Catherine Bernard.” CdDS 12.1 (2008): 87—97.
Mme de Bernard’s catholic beliefs influenced her writings and led to a pessimism, which the Vos-Camy studies through the question of communication and friendship in the nouvelle. The topic is then linked to François de Sales’s conception of the dangers of friendship. While virtuous friendship is not discarded in itself, the type of friendship in the nouvelle fails to comply to the ideal model proposed by François de Sales.
CONSTANT, VENESOEN. “La Pucelle de Chapelain. . .et de Nicolas Boileau.” DFS 85 (2008), 95—107.
L’auteur soutient que La Pucelle de Chapelain a été attaqué pour de mauvaises raisons et qu’“on peut même se demander si Boileau avait vraiment lu en entier cette Pucelle où il n’avait qu’à picorer çà et là quelques expressions dites rudes pour en faire des centons ridicules.”
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS, ed. Les cinq auteurs. La Comédie des Tuileries et l’Aveugle de Smyrne. Paris: Champion, 2008.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 156 (2008): 655—656. Welcome modern edition of these two theatrical texts is adorned by L.’s precision in his treatment of the various problems associated with the works revolving around Richelieu and Jean Chapelain. The collective work is examined as well as, in a separate section, that of Pierre Corneille. The two texts are based on the A. Courbé edition found in the Bibliothèque Mazarine (reviewed along with other editions such as the ms. Le Masle. Contains a glossary, index and bibliography.)
TAUSSIG, SYLVIE. “Les Atrides dans les Confessions de Jean-Jacques Bouchard: présence du burlesque?” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 221—243.
Analyses the link between the use of Atreides family figures, the burlesque and the genre of autofiction in Bouchard’s Confessions.
CAMUS, JEAN-PIERRE. Trans. Anne E. Duggan. “The Jealous Princess.” Marvels & Tales 22.2 (2008), 312—17.
“This translation of ‘La princesse jalouse’ (1630), by Jean-Pierre Camus, contributes to our knowledge of sources for Charles Perrault’s ‘Sleeping Beauty.’ Although the main source for Perrault’s tale clearly is Giambattista Basile’s ‘Sun, Moon, and Talia,’ certain elements . . . suggest Perrault borrowed . . . elements from Camus’s tragic story.”
CAMUS, JEAN-PIERRE. L’Amphithéâtre sanglant. Ed. Stéphan Ferrari. Paris: Champion, 2001. Divertissement historique. Ed. Constant Venesoen. Tübingen: Narr, 2002.
Review: Nathalie Grande in RHLF 109.1 (2009): 214—215. [Repeated in RHLF 109.2 (2009): 453—454]. Reviewer welcomes these two new editions in times where the works of Jean-Pierre Camus have regained our interest. Ferrari’s edition is to be commended for its rich introduction. He moreover modernizes the text, but there are some minor issues, which the reviewer finds fault with, among them the order and the incompleteness of some of the material (e.g., alphabetically enumerating some characters but leaving out others). The reviewer is less content with Venesoen’s edition, which makes a few negligent statements (e.g., characterizing the work as “one œuvre de dilettante”). The brief introduction is far from being complete. In addition, the reviewer criticizes in great length some important bibliographical omissions.
FISCHER, DAVID HACKETT. Champlain’s Dream: The European Founding of North America. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008.
Review: N. Greenfield in TLS 5541 (June 12 2009): 26. An example of how historians can use stories of “great men,” “not as triumphal panegyrics, but, rather, as prisms through which much else can be seen.” Fischer examines what the reviewer calls Champlain’s “extraordinary openness” towards Native Americans and includes “a fascinating presentation of the complicated dance Champlain engaged in with his various financial backers.” “Perhaps Fischer’s greatest achievement is his representation of Champlain’s sense of wonder at and love for the rivers and lands he discovered.”
CONSTANT, VENESOEN. “La Pucelle de Chapelain. . .et de Nicolas Boileau.” DFS 85 (2008), 95—107.
L’auteur soutient que La Pucelle de Chapelain a été attaqué pour de mauvaises raisons et qu’“on peut même se demander si Boileau avait vraiment lu en entier cette Pucelle où il n’avait qu’à picorer çà et là quelques expressions dites rudes pour en faire des centons ridicules.”
HUNTER, ALFRED C., ed. Jean Chapelain, Opuscules critiques. Introduction, révision des textes et notes par ANNE DUPRAT. Geneva: Droz, 2007.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 154 (2008): 179. This re-publication of the first part of Hunter’s 1936 edition of C. (STFM) is amplified by textual revision, notes and a rich introduction by D. 17th C scholars have D. to thank for “una sistesi mirabile del pensiero critico francese” of this vast period. D. has added to the texts the Discours contre l’Amour and the Dialogue contre la Gloire. Abundant updated bibliography.
GIRAUD, YVES, ed. Chapelle et Bachaumont. Voyage d’Encausse. Paris: Champion, 2007.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 154 (2008): 179. Welcome authentic edition by renowned scholar includes an accurate introduction treating the history of the text, sources, diverse variants and qualities of the two authors. Rich annotations and bibliography.
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS, ed. Les cinq auteurs. La Comédie des Tuileries et l’Aveugle de Smyrne. Paris: Champion, 2008.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 156 (2008): 655—656. Welcome modern edition of these two theatrical texts is adorned by L.’s precision in his treatment of the various problems associated with the works revolving around Richelieu and Jean Chapelain. The collective work is examined as well as, in a separate section, that of Pierre Corneille. The two texts are based on the A. Courbé edition found in the Bibliothèque Mazarine (reviewed along with other editions such as the ms. Le Masle. Contains a glossary, index and bibliography.)
EKSTEIN, NINA. Corneille’s Irony. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville, VA: Rookwood Press, 2007.
Review: M. Sweetser in FR 82 (2009), 840—41: In her book’s first half, Ekstein discusses examples of dramatic, verbal, and situational irony in Corneille. In a second part, she addresses linguistic and rhetorical signs (such as repetition, symmetry, parody, antithesis and paradox) which reveal a kind of latent irony. “Avec une connaissance remarquable des théoriciens de l’ironie et une analyse approfondie et précise des texts, l’auteur a su présenter à ses lecteurs une interprétation solide et personnelle” (841).
Review: S. Toczyski in SCN 66 (2008), 239—242: “From her brief overview of irony and its various components to a series of close readings of several plays from Corneille’s repertoire, Ekstein offers a clearly written and in-depth analysis of the pervasive—yet never dominating—place of irony in Corneille’s theater and critical writings. Moreover, the very nature of irony itself, containing as it does a fundamental ambiguity, results in a multifaceted and often open ended reading that, rather than providing all the answers, provokes Ekstein’s reader to ask still more questions—a very satisfying challenge for any dix-septiémiste.”
GILBY, EMMA. “‘Émotions’ and the Ethics of Response in Seventeenth-Century French Dramatic Theory.” MP 107.1 (Aug. 2009), 52—71.
The author examines d’Aubignac’s writings with those of Pierre Corneille’s to show that to show that Corneille, unlike d’Aubignac, is able to equate humanly accessible ‘vérités’ and ‘grandes et fortes émotions.’”
HARRIS, JOSEPH. “Oser pleurer: Horace and the Power of Tears.” SCFS, 31.2 (2009), 163—174.
Examines how the representation of weeping in Corneille’s Horace can be seen as doubly transgressive: firstly, by according women an important mechanism whereby “the perceived contagiousness of feminine weakness threatens to infect men and compromise their autonomy,” and secondly by “symbolically [challenging] the positivistic, anti-tragic ethos of Roman society.”
HUBERT, JUDD D. “Corneille’s Theatrical Approach to Perfection in Sophonisbe.” EMF 12 (2008): 156—168.
Hubert shows us how Sophonisbe, through her suicidal performance, acquires a sort of theatrical perfection. He then argues for a “performative plenitude” in Sophonisbe, suggesting perfection in the sense of “completeness and wholeness rather than flawlessness.” Sophonisbe’s heroism produces the admiration both of the theater public as well as that of the on-stage audience.
LASSERRE, FRANCOIS. “Horace, élaboration d’un sujet historique.” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 245—265.
Examines Corneille’s approach to history by analyzing his use of sources and his modifications to history in the case of Horace.
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS, ed. Les cinq auteurs. La Comédie des Tuileries et l’Aveugle de Smyrne. Paris: Champion, 2008.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 156 (2008): 655—656. Welcome modern edition of these two theatrical texts is adorned by L.’s precision in his treatment of the various problems associated with the works revolving around Richelieu and Jean Chapelain. The collective work is examined as well as, in a separate section, that of Pierre Corneille. The two texts are based on the A. Courbé edition found in the Bibliothèque Mazarine (reviewed along with other editions such as the ms. Le Masle. Contains a glossary, index and bibliography).
TAORMINA, MICHAEL. “Magnanimous Women: Gender and Souls in Corneille’s Tragic Theater.” CdDS 12.1 (2008): 38—60.
This study centers on a primarily metaphysical approach to gender in terms of soul, studying Corneille’s female characters to pose the question whether they display greatness of soul. Taking into consideration Corneille’s Discours de l’utilité et des parties du poème dramatique and Cleopatra as an explicit example of greatness of soul, the author then turns to Pauline and Camille to examine the magnanimity of the two Cornelian Heroines. This essay also examines how Corneille’s elevated view of magnanimous women reevaluates Aristotelian metaphysics.
VALENTIN, JEAN-MARIE. “Pierre Corneille en Allemagne (XVIIe—XIXe s.). Une fortune paradoxale.” DSS 243 (2009), 307—320.
“Quelles particularités en retenir, étant entendu dès l’abord que Corneille ne doit rien aux Allemands, dont la littérature, à la vie malgré tout extraordinairement intense notamment à travers les traductions, ne s’exporte pas vraiment (une exception : la Nef des fous (1493) de Brant) avant 1750, le point de référence absolu étant le Werther (1774) de Goethe? Mais qu’en revanche ses pièces, du moins certaines d’entre elles, sont accueillies sous des formes diverses au point de constituer, pour la littérature comparée mais aussi pour l’histoire des lettres françaises et allemandes, auxquelles cette « réception » tend un miroir instructif, un véritable cas d’école.”
DASSOUCY, CHARLES COYPEAU. Les Aventures et les Prisons. Ed. Dominique Bertrand. Paris: Champion, 2008.
Review: Jacques Prévost in RHLF 109.2 (2009): 455—457. The reviewer starts out with the good points of this edition, among them the long introduction, which allows for a better understanding of the text. In it, the editor examines questions of genre, homosexuality, burlesque writing and provides us with a moral portrait of Dassoucy that outlines the seventeenth-century writer’s contradictions. Nevertheless, the reviewers find fault with this edition: “D. Bertrand néglige un peu de nous intéresser à l’art d’écrire, à la joie d’écrire Dassoucy. Elle traite le burlesque de Dasscoucy, décrié par Boileau, en termes trop généraux. Il manque, au fond, une moitié de Dassoucy, sa sensualité, son amour de la vie [. . .] son habileté dans le dialogue, son inépuisable verve parodique, ses virtuosités d’ironie, les finesses et trouvailles de son jeu avec la langue, parfois la force de sa rhétorique argumentative, sincère ou non” (455). Bertrand also fails to provide her readers with a historical perspective, and she omits the links that establish a relationship between the “je” of Dassoucy with the “je” of Théophile in La première Journée. The reviewer also finds fault with the bibliography, which does neither satisfy nor demonstrate a completed scientific investigation.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 156 (2008): 656. Welcome first complete edition of D.’s works except for the previously published ones in the Pléiade by J. Prévost. B.’s long introduction includes a multi-dimensional examination of D.’s life and work followed by her own important readings of D.’s works and furnishes a precise and suggestive panorama. Critical apparatus is rich, with annexes of biobibliographical nature, a glossary, bibliography and index of proper names.
Review: G. Catusse in DSS 243 (2009), 378—380: A well reviewed critical edition of four, seemingly autobiographical works by Dassoucy, including Les Aventures, Les Aventures d’Italie (1677), Les Pensées dans le Saint-Office de Rome (1676), and La Prison (1674).
GILBY, EMMA. “‘Émotions’ and the Ethics of Response in Seventeenth-Century French Dramatic Theory.” MP 107.1 (Aug. 2009), 52—71.
The author examines d’Aubignac’s writings with those of Pierre Corneille’s to show that to show that Corneille, unlike d’Aubignac, is able to equate humanly accessible ‘vérités’ and ‘grandes et fortes émotions.’”
MAHER, DANIEL. “Corrompre la perfection—de la Carte de Tendre aux Royaumes d’Amour.” EMF 12 (2008): 58—77.
Maher studies the cartography of love, starting with Madame de Scudéry’s La Carte de Tendre as a model of perfection in the world of sentiment. He then discusses contestations, corruptions and rejections of that topography in the works of Tristan L’Hermite, d’Aubignac and Paul Tallemant.
BUCZKOWSKI, PAUL. “The First Precise English Translation of Madame d’Aulnoy’s Fairy Tales Marvels & Tales 23.1 (2009), 59—78.
Describes James Robinson Planché’s 1855 translation of Madame d’Aulnoy’s fairy tales. While her tales had previously been adapted, including in his own musical plays earlier in the 19th century, this is the first documented English translation without alteration or variation.
FARRELL, MARCY. “The Heroine’s Violent Compromise: Two Fairy Tales by Madame d’Aulnoy.” FLS 35.1 (2008): 27—38.
While violence is usually present in fairy tales, the author examines more surprising moments of violence, where brutal acts are carried out by the female protagonists. The author then sheds light on Aulnoy’s deliberate modification of popular tale types and motifs.
DANDREY, PATRICK. “L’imaginaire du voyage interstellaire: Cyrano/Dyrcona poète de la divagation aérienne.” SCFS, 30.2 (2008), 125—139.
“À partir du constat que L’Autre monde, roman en diptyque de Cyrano de Bergerac (1657 et 1662), procède justement d’une altérité fondamentale qui lui confère un statut d’anamorphose par rapport au réel, on s’interroge sur l’optique propre à restituer à cette anamorphose son unité et son sens. On suggère de la chercher dans une modulation de cet imaginaire de la matière que Bachelard proposait de substituer à l’approche poétique par les formes seules; et on met à l’essai une interprétation des États et empires de la Lune et du Soleil comme modulation infinie de l’imaginaire aérien.”
DE PURE, MICHEL. Epigone: Histoire du siècle futur (1659). Eds. Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard and Daniel Maher. Les Collections de la République des Lettres, “Sources.” Québec: Les Presses de l’Université de Laval, 2005.
Review: S. O’Hara in FR 82 (2008), 154—55: A laudable edition of this early, unfinished science fiction novel. Epigone parodies the roman héroïque and, following the author’s interest in manners as expressed in his earlier La Prétieuse, addresses related topics here. The adventures of Prince Epigone contains allusions to Louis XIV and are “by turns imaginative, funny and thought-provoking” (155). The reviewer praises the editors’ introduction and critical apparatus, which facilitate access to the text.
ANGELINI, ELISA. Le idee e le cose. La teoria della percezione di Descartes. Pise : Edizioni ETS, 2007.
Review : G. Paganini in RPFE no4/2008, 486—488: “Dans toute sa philosophie, Descartes s’en est tenu à une position de réalisme perceptif, qui lui a permis à la fois d’échapper à la tentation idéaliste et de répondre avec succès au défi sceptique: ainsi peut-on résumer la thèse centrale de ce livre bien écrit et argumenté. ‘A terme des Méditations, écrit l’auteure, Descartes s’emploie, avec la preuve de l’existence des corps, à dissiper une fois pour toutes les réserves sceptiques sur la réalité du monde extérieur et à soutenir, contre la possibilité du phénoménisme perceptif, que les idées sont la voie d’accès aux choses.’”
BOUCHILLOUX, HÉLÈNE. “Montaigne, Descartes: vérité et toute-puissance de Dieu.” RPFE no2/2009, 147—168.
L’essai de Bouchilloux porte sur le rapprochement qu’on peut faire entre la lettre de Descartes à Mersenne du 15 avril 1630 “qui introduit la doctrine de la création des vérités éternelles et un passage de l’Apologie de Raymond Sebond dans lequel Montaigne ironise sur ceux qui prétendent soumettre Dieu aux catégories de la raison humaine.” Bouchilloux soulève deux problèmes, “celui des sources de la doctrine cartésienne de la création des vérités éternelles. . .[et] celui des enjeux du texte de Descartes par rapport aux enjeux du texte de Montaigne.”
CARRIERO, JOHN. Between two worlds: a reading of Descartes’s Meditations. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Review: M. Bertman in CHOICE 46 (2009), 1710—11: Compares the Meditations to works by Thomas Aquinas. Carriero declines to discuss current scholarship on Descartes and goes about his task in problematic ways. “[H]as a poor sense of Descartes’ strategy in responding to increasing skepticism of metaphysics” (1710) and “does not much attend to Descartes’ contemporaries’ criticism of [the] Meditations” (1711). Not recommended by the reviewer.
SHORTO, RUSSELL. Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict between Faith and Reason. New York: Doubleday, 2008.
Review: G. Rosen in NYTSBR (Oct. 31, 2008): While tracing “the centuries-long to-and-fro over Descartes’s remains,” Shorto cleverly exposes his thesis, that “the pivot upon which the old world yielded to the new was the genius of Descartes, the philosopher who gave us the doubting, analytical, newly independent modern self.”
STONE, HARRIET. Tables of Knowledge: Descartes in Vermeer’s Studio. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2006.
Review: L. Vergara in Ren Q 61.2 (2008): 601—602. Recognizing “the visual mind,” S. assesses the “kinds of thoughts the mind proves capable of producing” and specifically the kinds of thinking that D. and Dutch artists structured (Stone 16). Focusing on the Discours de la Méthode, S.’s interdisciplinary work makes connections with Vermeer and other Dutch still-life painters. Discussing inset pictures, her comparisons are particularly thoughtful, for example: “The framed paintings within the paintings suggest the act of conceiving and fleshing out paradigms that is also key to Descartes’s work” (Stone 7). Color plates, index, bibliography.
VAQUERO, STEPHAN. “L’unité de la philosophie chez Descartes: Métaphysique et topologie morale.” RPFE no4/2009, 471—484.
L’auteur considère la figure de l’arbre de la philosophie pour montrer que « si l’ontologie est en effet absente de la métaphysique cartésienne, c’est parce que Descartes y substitue une topologie morale, qui rend possible le non-lieu métaphysique du premier principe. »
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS, ed. Les cinq auteurs. La Comédie des Tuileries et l’Aveugle de Smyrne. Paris: Champion, 2008.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 156 (2008): 655—656. Welcome modern edition of these two theatrical texts is adorned by L.’s precision in his treatment of the various problems associated with the works revolving around Richelieu and Jean Chapelain. The collective work is examined as well as, in a separate section, that of Pierre Corneille. The two texts are based on the A. Courbé edition found in the Bibliothèque Mazarine (reviewed along with other editions such as the ms. Le Masle. Contains a glossary, index and bibliography.)
BENITEZ, MIGUEL. L’œuvre libertine de Bonaventure de Fourcroy. Paris: Champion, 2005. Libre pensée et littérature clandestine, 27.
Review: J. Grimm in RF 120.2 (2008): 213—215. G.’s review is a particularly full one. Although this volume will not confer on F. canonical status, literary or philosophical, it does fill an important lacuna as it illuminates his work (”keineswegs unwichtigen Schritt!”) in the context of the period of change and in contrast to the paramount orthodox theology and politics (215). This author is differentiated from his homonym as B. introduces the volume which includes a biographical sketch, presentation of several texts of F. and discussion of their style and ideas. The most important work of F. is included, his Doutes sur la relligion proposés à Mss les docteurs de Sorbonne, but three others are also found here with “notices.” B. additionally sketches “Un tableau du libertinage à la fin du Grand Siècle” (379—450), and there is a bibliography and an index of names.
MOYES, CRAIG. “Juste(s) titre(s) : l’économie liminaire du Roman bourgeois.” EF 45.2 (2009), 25—45.
Rather than consider Furetière’s novel as a disorganized mess as many other critics and scholars have done, Moyes proposes a new “grille de lecture” in which Furetière’s novel would form part of an effort to find an aesthetic expression befitting the rising bourgeoisie.
ROY-GARIBAL, MARINE. Le Parnasse et le Palais. L’œuvre de Furetière et la genèse du premier dictionnaire encyclopédique en langue française (1649—1690). Paris: Champion, 2006.
Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 154 (2008): 181—182. Fills an important lacune in F. scholarship: a coherent vision of F.’s literary and lexicographical project. Comprehensive (over 800 pages) and well-documented, R.-G.’s study demonstrates the importance of the juridical in F.’s project. Judged original and rigorous, R.-G.’s examination is organized in three parts: “L’archéologie du ‘Dictionnaire universel’” (preceding works), “Le procès lexicographique” (including attention to the dictionary of the Academy) and “Poétique de la curiosité” (aesthetics, taste for narration, etc.). Fine bibliography includes both fundamental and recent studies (especially C. Biet’s work on the relationship of juridical institutions and literature).
LOLORDO, ANTONIA. Pierre Gassendi and the Birth of Early Modern Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007.
Review: M. J. Osler in Ren Q 61.1 (2008): 244—245. The reviewer is puzzled, asking “is [this] a book about the history of philosophy or a book about philosophical analysis?” (245). L. includes chapters on G.’s life, period and opponents, his various theories such as “of perception and knowledge, his ideas about space and time, his theories of matter and motion, his explanations of living things and his views on faith, reason and the immaterial soul” (244). In addition to clear explications of G.’s views, L. analyzes them but, according to O., “vastly underestimates the role theology played” in his thinking (245). O. finds that L.’s study would have benefited from a unifying thesis and from placing G.’s views in the context of other 17th C philosophers.
DEVICENZO, GIOVANNA, ed. Geoffroy Gay. La Simonie. Tragi-comédie. Fasano: Schena, 2007.
Revies: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 156 (2008): 655. This edition of G.’s tragicomedy with a presentation by GIOVANNI DOTOLI, fills an important lacune in early 17th C studies. D.’s introduction is rich, presenting not only author and work but also underlining a form of theatrical writings somewhat between the Jesuit theatre and the Cid. Rich critical apparatus including notes and bibliography.
VAN RULER, HAN, ANTHONY UHLMANN and MARTIN WILSON, eds. Trans. MARTIN WILSON. Arnold Geulincx. Ethics. With Samuel Beckett’s Notes. Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 146. Brill’s Texts and Sources in Intellectual History 1. Leiden, Brill, 2006.
Review: D. Selcer in Ren Q 61.1 (2008): 242—244. Welcome translation of G.’s major text (1675) of the post-Cartesian era which includes 6 treatises and extensive authorial annotations. Along with Beckett’s notes the volume contains a good introduction by Van R. S. predicts “a rising interest” in G. thanks to this translation and underscores G.’s innovation—“an ethics emphasizing virtue as love of reason and giving primacy to humility conceived as a negative form of ‘disregard of oneself’” (243).
TRONC, DOMINIQUE, ed. Madame Guyon: Correspondance. Tome I: Directions spirituelles. Tome II: Années de combat. Tome III: Chemins mystiques. Paris: Champion, 2003—2005. Bibliothèque des correspondances 3, 8; Bibliothèque des correspondances, mémoires et journaux, 11.
Review: V. Kapp in RF 120.1 (2008): 79—84. This welcome edition of Mme G.’s correspondence by the author of the 2001 La Vie par elle-même is organized around three themes which correspond to the titles of the volumes (see above). Spelling is modernized and commentary is precise: some 900 dated and 600 undated letters are included. Each volume is described in K.’s careful review. Both autobiography and correspondence are a very valuable document for their literary, cultural and historical perspectives. Scholars will appreciate this comprehensive view of the mentality of G.’s time; the perspective for the history of religious life and thought are not only highly useful for France but indeed for Europe itself.
SHELFORD, APRIL G. Transforming the Republic of Letters: Pierre-Daniel Huet and European Intellectual Life 1650—1720. Rochester, NY: U of Rochester P, 2007.
Review: C. Fantazzi in Ren Q 61.2 (2008): 570—571. Highly appreciative review with particular praise for its “full documentation . . . mainly from the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Laurenziana, since few of Huet’s works are available in modern editions” (571). H.’s “long and versatile career” is the focus of S.’s examination which includes H.’s travels, association with poets of the Academia Briosa and the Hôtel de Rambouillet, his own literary efforts, his interactions with women, his founding of a scientific academy in Caen and his 1679 apology, the Demonstratio evangelica. F. takes issue with S.’s treatment of H.’s poetry but praises her “clarity and depth of learning” as she analyzes the apology.
Review: G.M. Adkins in SCN 66 (2008), 9—14: “In all, Shelford’s book is a well-researched, thoughtful and critical study of Huet and the transformation of the older Republic of Letters into the more widely studied one of the eighteenth century. She demolishes the mantras of modernity that have burdened scholarship of the period and provides us with a more subtle understanding of the cultural changes in the period that does not read contemporary ideals backward, proleptically, into the past. For all her focus on the place of the individual in cultural historical change, however, Shelford is not able to account well for human agency.”
TOURRETTE, ERIC. “L’enfant dans Les Caractères de La Bruyère.” DSS 244 (2009), 511—521.
The author provides a detailed analysis and contextual explanation of La Bruyère’s cohesive though apparently neglected views on children as contained within the larger category, “de l’homme.”
WATERSON, KAROLYN. “Contre-modèles de perfection dans Les Caractères de La Bruyère.” EMF 12 (2008): 127—155.
The question of self-perfection is addressed here, through the work of La Bruyère who provides his readers with anti-models of self-perfection. These counter-models are not only embedded in their times but present a larger universal image of the “ideal” individual, that allows mankind “[de] se rendre meilleur.”
PLANTIE, JACQUELINE. “Les Théorèmes de La Ceppède ont-ils été lus au XVIIe siècle?” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 49-62.
Examines the reception of La Ceppède’s Théorèmes in the Seventeenth Century. This is a slightly modified reprint of the author’s article which appeared in La Poésie religieuse et ses lecteurs aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles, textes réunis par A. Cullière et A. Mantero (Dijon: Presses Universitaires de Dijon, 2005).
GREGG, MELANIE, ed. La Princesse de Clèves. Newark, DE: Molière & Co., 2006.
Review: C. Brossillon in FR 82 (2009), 684—85: La Fayette’s classic novel re-edited for the foreign language learner. An introduction discusses La Fayette’s biography, her sources, her précieux language and other helpful information. Gregg modernizes the novel’s spelling and grammar and annotates difficult vocabulary and historical references. The volume also contains a French-English glossary. The reviewer admires this edition’s usefulness, although she regrets the absence of reading comprehension questions, and the use of English in the introduction and vocabulary glosses.
MATHIEU, FRANCIS. “Madame de Lafayette et la condition humaine: Lecture pascalienne de La Princesse de Clèves.” CdDS 12.1 (2008): 61—85.
The author closely examines how the lexical terms of Pascal’s Pensées infiltrate Lafayette’s novel. The main argument is that Lafayette inserted Pascalian “divertissement” in her novel through the character of Nemours and diverse activities at court to reveal the human condition. Mathieu goes back to Pascal’s edition of Port Royal, the edition that Lafayette was most likely to read. The final religious orientation with which the novel closes shows the title character’s reconciliation with her self and her quest for “repos,” and her rejection of the perverted world of “divertissement.”
WORVILL, ROMIRA. “Emilia Galotti and La Princesse de Clèves.” Neophil 92 (2008): 667—679.
W. argues convincingly that the La Princesse de Clèves, rather than Richardson’s Clarissa, as others have claimed, contributed significantly to Lessing’s non-heroic tragedy which drew its primary inspiration from Livy’s Ab urbe condita III. Not only does W. analyze striking parallels (quality of character, court life, plot elements, etc.) between the 17th C French novel and Emilia Galotti, but also indicates Lessing’s knowledge of La Princesse de Clèves, its reception with the public and existence at Wolfenbüttel where Lessing was a librarian.
DANDREY, PATRICK. “Les féeries d’Hortésie: éthique, esthétique et poétique du jardin dans l’œuvre de La Fontaine.” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 115—137.
Examines the centrality of the garden in La Fontaine: “le jardin, considéré dans la création de La Fontaine comme une réalité biographique, historique et sociale, comme un cadre et un motif d’inspiration, un modèle esthétique, un sujet poétique et un emblème philosophique et moral.” Article first appeared in La Fontaine 1695—1995. Actes du colloque du tricentenaire, Le Fablier, no 8 (1996).
SHAPIRO, NORMAN R. (trans.). The Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine. Chicago : University of Illinois Press, 2007.
Review : K. Waterson in DFS 86 (2009), 154—157 : The critic calls Shapiro’s translation of the Fables “amazing.” “Read aloud, Shapiro’s best translations tumble exuberantly and trippingly off an Anglophone tongue. . .An equivalently omnipresent, falsely naïve, authorial voice animates his translations, constantly offering tongue-in-cheek winks, nods and nudges in carefully calculated digressions. [. . .] The Complete Fables begins with the translator’s preface and an insightful introduction by John Hollander. Translations of all twelve books of La Fontaine’s fables follow. . .Completing this final volume are: two appendices containing fables La Fontaine published but excluded from his books of fables; helpful notes on the translations and the illustrations; a bibliography of book-length studies on La Fontaine in English; an index. David Schorr’s illustrations make signal contributions.”
LEFORESTER, LIONEL, ed et postface. François de La Mothe le Vayer. De la liberté et de la servitude. Paris: Gallimard, Le Promeneur, 2007.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 154 (2008): 179. Welcome modern re-edition of Le V.’s 1643 volume (the text is modernized) with a brief postface which sketches out the author’s life and the significance of this work.
POMMIER, RENÉ. “La Rochefoucauld, Maxime 294.” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 109—113.
A short analysis of La Rochefoucauld’s maxime 294: « Nous aimons toujours ceux qui nous admirent; et nous n’aimons pas toujours ceux que nous admirons. » Article first appeared in René Pommier, Etudes sur les Maximes de La Rochefoucauld (Paris: Editions Eurédit, 2000).
VAUVENARGUES, LUC DE. “Critique de quelques maximes du Duc de la Rochefoucauld.” L’Infini 106 (2009), 115—22.
Here, L’Infini reproduces a short commentary by the 18th-century Marquis de Vauvenargues on La Rochefoucauld. Vauvenargues identifies stylistic defects and what he presents as incorrect ideas in specific maxims.
LA ROCHE-GUILHEN, ANNE DE. Histoire des favorites contenant ce qui s’est passé de plus remarquable sous plusieurs règnes. Ed. Els Höhner. Saint-Étienne: Publications de l’Université de Saint-Étienne, 2005.
Review: J. Perlmutter in FR 82 (2008), 155—56: A modern edition of ten nouvelles historiques originally published in 1697 by the Protestant writer Anne de la Roche-Guilhen. “Remarkable for its scathing depictions of the church, men’s weaknesses and women’s ambitions, this cosmopolitan collection merits further study” (156). The stories address both ancient and modern historical contexts and foreground how women’s private actions shape the choices of public men.
ZECHER, CARLA. “Marc Lescarbot Reads Jacques Cartier: Colonial History in the Service of Propaganda.” E Cr 48.1 (2008): 107—119.
Clearly demonstrates the multi-faceted quality of L.’s 888-page book Histoire de la Nouvelle France (1609). L., engaged as the chronicler of Poutrincourt’s 1606 expedition to Acadia, interprets his task much more broadly and includes “historical narratives of the sixteenth-century French voyages to Florida and Brazil” along with “an extensive ethnography of the Indians of North and South America” (107). He provides an appendix of his own poetry which some have called “the first text of Canadian literature” (108). Z.’s analysis of L.’s five dedicatory epistles convincingly establishes L.’s narrative as “a Valois project” as he stages French colonial history, critically re-examining written sources, manipulating them and bringing to light a manuscript which heroizes Cartier. Z. also points out that L. does note hesitate to use an unsubstantiated oral source (112, 117).
SCHÖNERT, KRISTINE. Weltskepsis und Bildkrise: Eustache Le Sueurs Vie de saint Bruno im Licht des französischen Jansenismus. Studien sur Christlichen Kunst 7. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2007.
Review: L. Pericolo in Ren Q 61.2 (2008): 563—565. S. considers Le S.’s twenty-two paintings of the life of Saint Bruno as “a sort of quintessential incarnation of Jansenist aesthetics” (563). Although the reviewer appreciates S.’s “commendable research” (565) in her quest for literary and visual sources of the cycle, he questions various conclusions, declaring that “the exemplarity or canonicity of these representations are not specific to Port-Royal, but underlie strategies of reading and reception that deserve to be studied within the purview of Carthusian devotional practices” (564). P. warns against disregarding concrete historical channels” (564) and “using images as pretexts to, or foils for, unmotivated hermeneutics” (565).
HASQUIN, HERVÉ. Louis XIV face à l’Europe du Nord. L’absolutisme vaincu par les libertés. Bruxelles: Editions Racines, 2005.
Review: K. Malettke in HZ 286.2 (2008): 491—493. Instructive and stimulating manual of European history in the era of the Sun King includes economic, social and religious developments as well as artistic and cultural ones. Organized into the following sections: “L’Espagne sur le déclin,” “Comment Louis XIV a coalisé l’Europe du Nord contre la France, 1661—1697,” and “L’Angleterre arbitre, 1698—1715.” The study does not hesitate to present the negative side of Louis XIV and absolutism, for example, the repressive practice against the Huguenots which is called “le comble de la perversion” (n.p.). Useful maps, illustrations, tables, bibliography and index of names.
WILKINSON, RICHARD. Louis XIV. London: Routledge, 2007.
Review: J. Black in JES 38 (2008): 75. An “effective and accessible biography,” valuable to students. Description and analysis of “the range of Louis’s activities, not only foreign policy but also cultural and ecclesiastical policy.” Black praises author’s informed discussion of absolutism and of the king’s “skillful management of patronage.” Comments that there is a lack of “adequate comparison with other monarchs.” Such comparison would have been helpful in discussion of both domestic history and international relations.
HAMMERTON, KATHARINE. “Malebranche, Taste, and Sensibility: The Origins of Sensitive Taste and a Reconsideration of Cartesianism’s Feminist Potential.” JHI 69 (2008), 533—558.
“Without seeking to diminish its strong appeal to seventeenth-century women, I will suggest that Cartesianism’s less than impermeable boundaries between interacting mind and body, conjoined with the reality of some degree of ongoing sexualization of the body present in the thought of most writers on women, including Cartesians, imply that Cartesianism did not necessarily promise rational liberation to women, or necessarily negate a gendered physiological essentialism. In some hands, it could in fact result in conclusions very close to those of the later eighteenth century’s more straightforward materialist essentialism.”
PELLEGRIN, MARIE-FRÉDÉRIQUE. Le système de la loi de Nicolas Malebranche. Paris: Vrin, 2006.
Review: D. Kolesnik in RPFE no4/2009, 527—528 : “L’approche de Marie-Frédérique Pellegrin dans cet ouvrage est originale et pertinente à un double titre: 1) elle éclaire de façon systématique l’œuvre de l’Oratorien en en soulignant l’extrême cohérence; et 2) elle en exhibe les enjeux plus généraux par une confrontation utile et précise avec les réflexions que ces développements inspirent aux lecteurs de son époque. On comprend, du même coup, à la fois l’importance nodale de la légalité dans l’édifice malebranchiste et le rôle décisif de cette dernière dans l’édification du légalisme rationaliste caractéristique de sa postérité immédiate.”
BOLD, STEPHEN. “Textual Harmonies in Le Bourgeois gentillhomme.” RomN 48 (2007): 23—34.
An analysis which finds the play’s coherence “subtly inscribed into its aesthetic thematics.” Bold studies “an interplay of systems of figuration” which “seems to culminate . . . in euphoric and symphonic harmony.” Includes an especially fine analysis of the tailor as the representative of rhetoric.
BONTEA, ADRIANA. Les origines de la comédie classique en France. Oxford and New York: Peter Lang, 2007.
Review: M. Hawcroft in TLS 5508 (Oct 24, 2008): 26. Despite title, a book on Molière. Author’s “ambitious aim appears to be to explore all contexts that made his [Molière’s] comedy what it uniquely is.” These include literary and intellectual contexts as well as performance conditions. This information is sometimes overwhelming. Reviewer takes issue with Bontea’s tendency to generalize and her use of the words “classique” and “baroque,” which she treats as transparent terms. Nonetheless, any reader “will finish Bontea’s book with an enriched sense of the many contexts in which to appreciate Molière’s skill as a comic actor and dramatist.”
BRADBY, DAVID and ANDREW CALDER, eds. The Cambridge Campion to Molière. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008.
Review: P. Scott in CompD 41 (2008): 533—34. A “compact and wide-ranging volume that covers a gamut of performative, generic and interpretive issue.” Collection appeals “both to those freshly approaching the dramatist as well as to theater scholars.” Represents “a judicious balance of offerings by younger as well as more established scholars.” Plays treated could have included some of Molière’s less popular works.
Review: V. Scott in TJ 60 (2008), 320—21. A “reasonably useful collection for non-specialists.” Includes biographical material, analyses of plays and articles on performances. Reviewer singles out Larry Norman’s “Molière as Satirist” and Richard Parish’s “How (and Why) Not to Take Molière Too Seriously” as best articles in the volume. Observes that the collection is “perhaps more British” and “perhaps more literary” than it needs to be.
CALL, MICHAEL. “A Comedic Practicum. Molière and Terence Revisited.” SCFS, 31.2 (2009), 123—136.
“By examining Terence’s prologues and Molière’s published prefaces, this study argues that Molière did indeed read and imitate Terence, but that Molière’s understanding of Terence’s work avoided the narrow tangential reading imposed upon the Roman playwright by Molière’s contemporaries, using Terence instead as a guide to negotiating classical comedy’s paradoxical imperative: to make extensive use of what has already been written in order to celebrate the primacy of present over past.”
CANOVA-GREEN, MARIE-CLAUDE. “Ces gens-là se trémoussent bien.” Ebats et débats dans la comédie-ballet de Molière. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2007. Biblio 17—171.
Review: M. Pavesio in S Fr 156 (2008): 658. Some twelve comédies-ballets are the focus of this study and are analyzed in the context of the festivals of Louis XIV’s Court for which they were created. C.-G.’s rich examination shows that far from being pure diversion, these pièces with music and dance are rich in ideological and political references and reflect the cultural and political life of the France of Louis XIV. Rich iconographical apparatus as well as a chronology of the pièces and an accurate and exhaustive bibliography.
GAINES, JAMES F. “Racine à l`école de Molière: Britannicus.” SCFS, 31.2 (2009), 175—185.
Examines how the repeated use in Britannicus of the stylized lovers’ quarrel scene (le dépit amoureux), common in Molière, throws further light on the Racine-Molière relationship, and indicates how “Racine strove to emulate and in some ways outdo Molière by adapting elements of the great comic author’s œuvre into his own works.”
GOLDER, JOHN. “Molière and the Circumstances of Late Seventeenth-Century Rehearsal Practice.” ThR 33 (2008), 250—62.
Uses La Grange’s Registre and extant bills for such supplies as heat and light to reconstruct “complex logistical operation that was the preparation of a comédie-ballet,” namely Le Malade imaginaire.
HAWCROFT, MICHAEL. Molière: Reasoning with fools. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007.
Review: M. Zagha in TLS 5477 (March 21, 2008): 22. This book “throws much needed and substantial light on a much misunderstood figure in Molière’s theatre, recasting in dynamic dramaturgical terms as an ‘image of friendship in action.’” Author examines relevant plays in chronological order from L’École des maris to Le Malade imaginaire. For Hawcroft, raisonneur’s rhetoric not only attempts to save the protagonist from folly but also sharpens the audience’s appreciation of the protagonist’s ridiculousness. Hawcroft sees raisonneur as “a dramatic agent whose strategically placed interventions propel the plot towards its necessary conclusion.”
Review: Jean Leclerc in RHLF 109.2 (2009): 457—458. The author focuses on five works— L’Ecole des maris, L’Ecole des femmes, Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope, and Le Malade imaginaire—in order to address the issue of those characters who “reason” in opposition of the comic heroes, the raisonneurs. The author primarily addresses earlier critical studies and argues that these figures are not mere mouthpieces of common sense but thoughtful, witty friends of the ridicules. Reviewer criticizes that “l’auteur se plaît à des énumérations in extenso d’un siècle de critique, alors que des choix auraient pu limiter la part de débat dans l’ouvrage. M. Harcroft se laisse enfin tenter par l’analyse psychologique des personnages, ce qui amenuise en quelque sorte son approche dramatique et n’enlève pas complètement au personnage du raisonneur l’ambiguïté de son statut” (458).
MAZOUER, CHARLES. “La joie des dénouements chez Molière.” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 85—97.
Proposes a tri-partite analysis of Molière’s dénouements aiming to “rappeler d’abord comment Molière, fidèle à la loi du dénouement comique, mène un certain nombre de ses personnages au bonheur et ses spectateurs à la satisfaction détendue et heureuse; [. . .] insister ensuite sur l’amertume qui marque le climat de nombre de dénouements; enfin, en un ultime renversement, [. . .] montrer selon quel dessein, en empruntant quelles voies et à quel prix Molière a decide de faire triompher la joie dans ses dénouements.” Article first appeared in Molière et la fête, Actes du colloque international de Pézenas (7—8 juin 2001) publiés par la Ville de Pézenas, sous la direction de Jean Emelina, 2003, 201—217.
MAZOUER, CHARLES. Molière et ses comédies-ballets. Nouvelle édition revue et corrigée. Paris: Champion, 2006. Lumière classique, 75.
Review: J. Grimm in RF 120.2 (2008): 256—258. Highly laudatory review of M.’s new wide-ranging book and of the re-edited volume on Molière. The 2006 re-edition of M.’s monograph on Molière’s comédies-ballets is welcome as it continues to verify the hypothesis: “L’union des trois arts fait sens: l’intervention de la musique et de la danse n’est pas simplement ornamentale: elle complète, enrichit, nuance, contredit, éventuellement, et de toutes les façons transforme la signification de la comédie récitée, trop souvent privée de ces deux arts dans nos théâtres” (319). M. insists that to interpret correctly and appreciate Molière “il faut lire et analyser conjointement les partitions de Lully ou de Charpentier et le texte de Molière, sans tout à fait oublier les danseurs de Beauchamp qui, avec les acteurs, évoluaient dans les décors d’un Vigarani” (322). Updated bibliography also includes a “Discographie” and it is noteworthy that 5 of 7 here are from 1997, “a convincing demonstration of the vitality of this important and fascinating part of Molière’s theatre” (trans. of G. 258).
MCKENNA, ANTONY. Molière dramaturge libertin. Avec la collaboration de Fabienne Vial-Bonacci. Paris: Champion, 2005. Champion Classiques; Essais, 3.
Review: J. Grimm in RF 120.1 (2008): 84—90. Judged a rich and provocative contribution to the study of the libertinage of the Grand Siècle. M. claims as regards Molière: “Ses critiques dévots . . . n’avaient pas pris la pleine mesure de son audace et de son impiété” (118). Organized into chapters from M.’s “premières comédies,” to his “großen Komödien,” McK.’s study also includes an important chapter on “L’honnête homme dans le théâtre de Molière,” an appendix on La Mothe Le Vayer, a bibliography and separately a bibliographical appendix on “L’Epicure et l’épicurisme à la Renaissance et à l’âge classique.” Index of names. Noteworthy for its new and stimulating perspectives.
MCBRIDE, ROBERT. Molière et son premier Tartuffe: Genèse et évolution d’une pièce à scandale. Durham: U of Durham, 2005.
Review: M. Pavesio in S Fr 154 (2008): 180—181. Close and detailed reconstruction of the three versions of M.’s Tartuffe. McB. examines historical, religious and political circumstances behind the changes and provides a fascinating perspective of Louis XIV’s Court. Includes an essential bibliography and illustrations of participants of the cabal of the dévots.
ROBIN, JEAN LUC. “Innocence ou dissidence des Amants magnifiques de Molière?” SCFS, 31.2 (2009), 151—161.
Argues that Les Amants magnifiques, usually read as a “spectacle encomiastique total” can in fact be read as highly subversive given its depiction of astrology. “Pièce redoubtable, car disposant au doute, Les Amants magnifiques sape subrepticement, à travers la démolition de l’astrologie, le dogme de la souveraineté absolutiste en lui déniant in fine toute transcendance.”
KRAMER, MICHAEL, ed. Adrien de Monluc. Œuvres. Œuvres versifiées. Les Pensées du Solitaire. Les Jeux de l’Inconnu. Fables des amours du jour et de la nuit. Étude historique-biographique by Véronique Garrigues. Paris: Champion, 2007.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 155 (2008): 449. Impressive examination of both M.’s personality and production. G., M.’s first scholarly biographer (2006), here provides an accurate historical-biographical study, examining personal and political aspects. K.’s introduction, “Solitaire et inconnu,” focuses on M. as a “dévot libertin” and offers several avenues for future research (K. is the editor of the 2003 edition of Comédie de proverbes, sometimes attributed to M.). Includes “notices” for each work of M. along with notes.
WELLS, CHARLOTTE C. “Loathsome Neighbors and Noble Savages: The monde inversé of Antoine de Montchrétien.” E Cr 48.1 (2008): 96—106.
Close examination of M.’s Traicté de l’oeconomie politique (1615) finds that M. rejects stereotypes, “reversing expectations by portraying the people of America neither as monsters nor as innocents but as people similar to the French and their natural friends and allies” (96). W. discovers that M. creates an “idyllic vision of France’s potential relations with the New World peoples, and one that reversed the reports of much that had already transpired” (103), for example Lescarbot’s representations of Floridian devins.
GUION, BEATRICE. Pierre Nicole moraliste. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2002.
Review: C.O. Stiker-Métral in DSS 243 (2009), 375—376: A long overdue study of Nicole as moralist, “[l]e souci premier de Béatrice Guion est de situer précisément Nicole dans le concert des augustinismes de son temps. L’auteur fait voir en particulier que ce moraliste, contrairement à une interprétation répandue, n’édulcore pas l’augustinisme: sa sévérité est intacte. En revanche, il se singularise par son attention à l’égard de la morale pratique: peu théoricien, Nicole propose ce que l’auteur nomme « une morale de l’effort conscient » , toujours menacée par les ruses de l’amour-propre, mais que le moraliste entend ne pas permettre pour autant au chrétien de négliger.” Of equal importance is the author’s analysis of “la prétendue annonce par certains Essais de morale d’une morale de l’intérêt, formulée au siècle suivant. Béatrice Guion fait très clairement la part des choses: s’il est indéniable qu’une lecture sélective de Nicole se trouve bien aux fondements de l’utilitarisme, l’intention du moraliste n’est incontestablement pas de réhabiliter d’une quelconque manière l’amour-propre.”
BOURGEOIS, MURIEL, ed. Pascal a-t-il écrit les Pensées? Littératures 55. Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 2007.
Review: S. Natan in FR 82 (2009), 1052—53: A collection of 11 articles which gravitate around Pascal and the Pensées, though not always addressing the question raised in the volume’s title. The reviewer particularly praises the article by Marie Pérouse, which helps situate the two “clans” which held a stake in the Pensées’ Port Royal edition. He also praises Michel Le Guern’s piece, which offers a stylistic analysis of the Pensées emphasizing how Pascal’s pseudo-identities (Saloman de Tultie and other names under which he published) creep into his writing. The reviewer would have liked to have seen more attention to the impact of the Pensées’ various editions.
MATHIEU, FRANCIS. “Madame de Lafayette et la condition humaine: Lecture pascalienne de La Princesse de Clèves.” CdDS 12.1 (2008): 61—85.
The author closely examines how the lexical terms of Pascal’s Pensées infiltrate Lafayette’s novel. The main argument is that Lafayette inserted Pascalian “divertissement” in her novel through the character of Nemours and diverse activities at court to reveal the human condition. Mathieu goes back to the Pascal’s edition of Port Royal, the edition that Lafayette was most likely to read. The final religious orientation with which the novel closes shows the title character’s reconciliation with her self and her quest for “repos,” and her rejection of the perverted world of “divertissement.”
PERATONER, ALBERTO. Blaise Pascal. Ragione, Rivelazione e Fondazione dell’Etica, Il Percorso dell’“Apologie.” Venise: Cafoscarina. 2002.
Review: T. M. Harrington in RPFE no4/2009, 528—529 : “Tous ceux qui aiment les Pensées trouveront dans ce Blaise Pascal un irremplaçable compagnon et un instrument de travail sans équivalent dans les autres langues.” Le critique donne aussi une description des différentes parties des deux tomes. Le premier tome présente, entre autres, une histoire des éditions et de la critique des Pensées. Le second tome se compose d’appendices “qui apportent un précieux complément aux exposés du premier. . .Enfin, une immense bibliographie critique couronne ce second tome, qui frappe surtout par son caractère apparemment exhaustif.”
BROSSEAU, MONIQUE et GELINAS, GERARD. “Du nouveau dans le dossier Perrault.” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 267—276.
Examines the suggestion in the correspondence between Cabart de Villermont and Michel Bégon that the chancellor Louis Boucherat granted permission to publish the Contes de ma mère l’oye to Mademoiselle having firstly refused it to the duchesse de Nemours.
DUGGAN, ANN, Trans. “The Jealous Princess,” by Jean-Pierre Camus. M&T 22 (2008), 312—317.
Abstract: “This translation of La princesse jalouse (1630), by Jean-Pierre Camus, contributes to our knowledge of sources for Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty. Although the main source for Perrault’s tale clearly is Giambattista Basile’s Sun, Moon, and Talia, certain elements of his version suggest Perrault also borrowed specific elements from Camus’s tragic story.”
FAY, CAROLYN. “Sleeping Beauty Must Die: The Plots of Perrault’s ‘La belle au bois dormant.’” Marvels & Tales 22.2 (2008), 259—76.
Looks at narrative strategies that Perrault employs to develop the story of the sleeping princess alongside that of the ogress and suggests that one may serve as a substitute for the other, thereby suggesting a subversive level of female agency.
HENNARD DUTHEIL DE LA ROCHÈRE, MARTINE and UTE HEIDMANN. “‘New Wine in Old Bottles:’ Angela Carter’s Translation of Charles Perrault’s ‘La Barbe bleue.’” Marvels & Tales 23.1 (2009), 40—58.
Show the ways in which Carter not only translates, but also rewrites and adapts Perrault’s tale, in part to show that fairy tales contain their own sort of useful knowledge, different from “conventional morality.”
MEDING, TWYLA. “Lessons Too Old and Frocks Too Fine: Anachronistic Perfection and the Eclipse of Pastoral in Perrault’s Griselidis.” EMF 12 (2008): 78—110.
Studies the representation of the “perfect wife” through Griselidis and focuses on patience, obedience to the husband in order to show the heroine’s “inimitable” perfection. Meding then turns to the Italian sources for Perrault’s work (Boccacio, Petrarch) to study the important underlying question of nostalgic reverence and the place of pastoral.
ALBANESE, RALPH. “Critique universitaire et discours scolaire sous la Troisième République: le cas Racine.” RHLF 109.3 (2009): 645—660.
Albanese offers an interesting insight into the value Racine adopted in the Third Republic, as perceived in scholastic manuals and, at the higher level, at the universities. His perspective is socio-critical, as he reveals the underlying aristocratic and monarchical inspirations of one group, as well as the laic republican ideals of the other. The author concludes with a brief study on the difficulties and challenges of studying Racine in school in twenty-first century Europe.
BONINO, G. DAVICO, ed. and trans. Jean Racine. Gli attaccabrighe. Macerata: Liberilibri, 2006.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 155 (2008): 450. Elegant translation of Les Plaideurs into Italian, complemented by notes and “un agile prefazione” which focuses on R.’s commedia and the author’s life and career. Welcome edition for Italian readers.
CAMPBELL, JOHN. “The Politics of Esther.” SCFS, 31.1 (2009), 25—35.
Argues that the reading of Racine’s Esther as “a religious poem extolling piety and innocence” is “complicated by the political dimension of the work. This dimension is reflected in the context in which Esther was first performed, as well as in allusions to the prevailing socio-political situation and to the drama that is played out within the work.” Concludes by suggesting that the play “does not offer any easy reading as a victory of right over might and good over evil.”
DELMAS, CHRISTIAN. “Politique et mystique monarchique chez Racine.” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 99—107.
Analyses how in Britannicus and Bérénice, “la politique finit en mystique, mystique monarchique s’entend.”
DONELAN, DECLAN, dir. Andromaque. Oxford Playhouse and touring. Performance review: J. Billings in TLS 5530 (Mar 27 2009): 17.
A staging first seen at the Théatre des Bouffes du Nord. Text in French with English surtitles, but audience would do well to concentrate on actions on stage. Attention “relentlessly focused” on characters’ internal conflicts. The director’s “masterstroke” is to bring the silent Astyanax on stage.
FORESTIER, GEORGES. Jean Racine. Paris: Gallimard, 2006. Biographies NRF.
Review: H. Stenzel in RF 120.2 (2008): 236—239. Judged impressive with over 800 pages of text and over 100 pages of notes and annexes, F.’s biography is “une somme de l’état actuel des connaissances et des recherches sur Racine” (236). Organized into four “volets”: “l’éducation de l’orphelin à Port-Royal; les débuts dans le champ littéraire . . . ; la période des grandes tragédies conçue comme ‘la quête de la royauté littéraire’; enfin une phase finale, celle de l’historiographe du roi et de la réconciliation avec Port-Royal, qui mènerait ‘de la gloire du roi à la gloire de Dieu’” (236). Including certain new interpretations of R.’s “trahisons” (for example of Molière’s troupe), F.’s biography envisions a R. characterized by “la cohérence autonome et le succès de son projet littéraire” (236) rather than by social ascension (Picard 1956) or a chameleon-like R. (Viala 1990). Although the reviewer does not hesitate to admire the richness of F.’s biography, he is less than convinced by the “parti-pris” of a “Racine cohérent et ‘classique’” (239).
GAINES, JAMES F. “Racine à l`école de Molière: Britannicus.” SCFS, 31.2 (2009), 175—185.
Examines how the repeated use in Britannicus of the stylized lovers’ quarrel scene (le dépit amoureux), common in Molière, throws further light on the Racine-Molière relationship, and indicates how “Racine strove to emulate and in some ways outdo Molière by adapting elements of the great comic author’s œuvre into his own works.”
HYTNER, NICHOLAS, dir. Phèdre. Version by Ted Hughes. Lyttelton Theatre, London. Performance review: M. Slayter in TLS 5542 (June 19 2009): 17.
The characters in this version are much freer in word and deed than in the original. Play becomes a melodrama and sometimes makes the British audience laugh. If taken on its own terms, however, the performance is a “thrilling success.” Helen Mirren, as Phèdre, makes play come alive “whenever she is present.”
LECOMPTE, JERÔME. “Raison et vraisemblance à l’âge classique. Statut de la rhétorique chez René Rapin et Jean Racine.” IL 60.1 (2008): 58—64.
This essay summarizes Lecompte’s dissertation, written under the direction of Gilles Declercq and successfully defended in 2007. His dissertation reevaluates the concept of “vraisemblance” at the classical age. He informs us about its tripartite structure, which starts out with a historical and epistemological clarification of the criterion of “vraisemblance,” then turns to the probabilistic gnoseology of the Jesuit René Rapin, before concluding with a rhetorical approach to Racine’s tragedies.
MARIOTTI, FLAVIA, ed. and trans. Jean Racine, Ifegenia. Venezia: Marsilio, 2007.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 155 (2008): 451. Praiseworthy translation keeps R.’s meter but not rime or syllabification. Includes a “bella introduzione,” numerous and rich notes and a chronology. High quality and useful edition for Italian readers.
MATHIEU, FRANCIS. “Panégyrique, sacré et exemplarité dans Bérénice de Racine.” FR 82 (2009), 788—99.
The article examines Bérénice as a part of Louis XIV’s royal propaganda project. Mathieu presents Titus’ victory over his passion and his sacrifice of a private self as glorifying praise to Louis.
RACEVSKIS, ROLAND. Tragic Passages: Jean Racine’s Art of the Threshold. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 2007.
Review: B. Landry in FR 82 (2009), 1315: Draws on the work of Heidegger, Richard Goodkin and Roland Barthes to suggest that Racine’s work is centered on states of becoming rather than being. For Racevskis, “Racine articulates a unique vision of identity in suspension and subjects are trapped in the indefinite moment of their own becoming. . .Racine’s secular tragedies most effectively represent the human predicament of being caught in between states of being” (15). The book contains nine chapters, each devoted to particular play. “Elegantly written. . .clearly laid out” and “a must-read” (1315).
SOARE, ANTOINE. “La rencontre de Phèdre et d’Hippolyte de Sénèque à Racine.” EF 44.2 (2008), 119—35.
Addresses the “défi technique sans pareil” presented by the scene in which Phèdre confesses her guilt-ridden love for Hippolyte and the different ways in which playwrights have handled it through the years.
VIOLATO, GABRIELLA and FRANCESCO FIORENTINO, eds. Racine “Cahiers de Littérature Française” IV, oct. 2006. Bergamo/Paris: Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Université Paris Sorbonne (n.d.).
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 154 (2008): 181. Focusing on R.’s works, international scholars examine Andromaque, Bérénice, les Amants magnifiques, Britannicus, Iphigénie, Phèdre, as well as theatrical life at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th C (here, by Georges Forestier), R.’s lyricism, language and institutions.
VIOLATO, GABRIELLA and FRANCESCO FIORENTINO, eds. Racine “Cahiers de Littérature Française” IV, oct. 2006. Bergamo/Paris: Bergamo U Press and Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006.
Review: L. Luison in S Fr 156 (2008): 657—658. Celebrating the Tercentenary of R.’s death, the volume is wide-ranging with rich examinations of R.’s lyricism, the use of memory, fear and remorse in tragedy, sources, the lexical corpus, among other subjects. A number of individual plays receive special critical attention as well.
WOOD, ALLEN. “Racine’s Esther and the Biblical/Modern Jew.” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 209—218.
Analysis of the ways in which Racine modified biblical texts in Esther, focussing on how “the marginalized Jew, the repressed Other, returns in certain concepts, techniques and language.”
LECOMPTE, JERÔME. “Raison et vraisemblance à l’âge classique. Statut de la rhétorique chez René Rapin et Jean Racine.” IL 60.1 (2008): 58—64.
This essay summarizes Lecompte’s dissertation, written under the direction of Gilles Declercq and successfully defended in 2007. His dissertation reevaluates the concept of “vraisemblance” at the classical age. He informs us about its tripartite structure, which starts out with a historical and epistemological clarification of the criterion of “vraisemblance,” then turns to the probabilistic gnoseology of the Jesuit René Rapin, before concluding with a rhetorical approach to Racine’s tragedies.
GARAPON, JEAN. “Amateurisme littéraire et vérité sur soi : de Marguerite de Valois au Cardinal de Retz.” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 169—179.
Focussing on Marguerite de Valois and Retz, revisits the fundamental paradox at the heart of aristocratic memoirs of the Seventeenth Century (“écriture . . . indifférente à la littérature et en définitive très littéraire”). Sets out to demonstrate how “il y a . . . un lien entre l’amateurisme du projet du mémorialiste, son refus d’une littérature contraignante et rigide, et l’utilisation souple de la palette des genres au profit d’un autoportrait progressif qui, au travers de vérités successives, choisies, ou simplement observées, approche peu à peu pour nous le plus profond d’un être.” Article first appeared in RHLF, No 2 (2003), 275—285.
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS, ed. Les cinq auteurs. La Comédie des Tuileries et l’Aveugle de Smyrne. Paris: Champion, 2008.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 156 (2008): 655—656. Welcome modern edition of these two theatrical texts is adorned by L.’s precision in his treatment of the various problems associated with the works revolving around Richelieu and Jean Chapelain. The collective work is examined as well as, in a separate section, that of Pierre Corneille. The two texts are based on the A. Courbé edition found in the Bibliothèque Mazarine (reviewed along with other editions such as the ms. Le Masle. Contains a glossary, index and bibliography.)
PASQUIER, PIERRE,dir. Le théâtre de Rotrou. “Littératures classiques” 63, automne 2007.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 155 (2008) 449—450. This issue of LC includes twenty-one articles underscoring new approaches with respect to Jacques Morel’s seminal work as well as studies by Jacqueline Van Baelen, Jacques Scherer and Jean-Claude Villemin. The reviewer reminds us of Francesco Orlando’s Rotrou: dalla tragicommedia alla tragedia. Organized in sections as follows: “Un homme de son temps,” “En adaptant la ‘commedia’,” “Une pratique singulière des genres,” “Une écriture,” “Une dramaturgie pour la scène,” “Le théâtre d’une épistémologie” and “Réceptions d’un théâtre.” Judged rich, varied and interesting, a testimony to the stimulation of scholarship by the modern re-edition of R.’s works.
SCHORDERET, ALAIN. “Saint-Amant, poète de l’hermétisme grotesque et du jeu.” EF 44.1 (2008), 121—45.
Examines what the author calls “l’hermétisme grotesque” of Saint-Amant’s poetry, along with its playful and “earthy” qualities. Places Saint-Amant in the tradition of Rutebeuf and Rabelais and indicates that Saint-Amant even inspired one of the “Spleen” by Baudelaire.
GUELLOUZ, SUZANNE, ed. Saint-Evremond au miroir du temps. Actes du colloque du tricentenaire de sa mort. Caen: Saint Lô (9—11 octobre 2003). Biblio 17—157. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2005.
Review: M. Pavesio in S Fr 154 (2008): 181. These Acts of a colloque held at the U of Caen and the departmental archives of Saint-Lô, are organized into four sections treating S-E. as a man of the theatre (including theoretical texts), literary criticism, S-E. as moralist and philosopher and his immediate and eventual posterity.
VICHARD DE SAINT-REAL, CESAR. Dom Carlos Nouvelle historique (1672—1691). Ed. critique par Giorgio Sale. Milan: Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Diritto, 2002.
Review: Nathalie Grande in RHLF 109.1 (2009): 214 [repeated in RHLF 109.2 (2009): 458—459]. This very short review commends this new edition. While the establishment of a full text still poses unresolved questions, this edition is to be commended on its coherence, modernization of the vocabulary and the accompanying historical notes. It also comes with a rich bibliography.
RONZEAUD, PIERRE. “Le peuple au miroir des Mémoires de Saint-Simon.” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 39—47.
Analysis of the representation of le peuple in Saint-Simon, as corruptive influence, as threat, or, conversely, as victim. (This article is a synthesis of the pages devoted to Saint-Simon in Ronzeaud’s unpublished thèse d’état, Tours, 1985).
STEFANOVSKA, MALINA. “Exemplary or Singular? The Anecdote in Historical Narrative.” SUBSTANCE 38 (2009), 15—30.
The article addresses 17th- and 18th-century uses of the anecdote, the sources of historians’ ambivalence toward it and the ways in which anecdotes lead writers like Saint-Simon to narrow their scope toward a focus on the singular. Contains detailed consideration of Saint-Simon and Voltaire’s Le Siècle de Louis XIV. Variously compares the anecdote to a collectable, a Proustian moment of the real and Barthes’ notion of the punctum, nicely synthesizing literary-formal analysis with historical reflections about the genre.
DUCHARME, ISABELLE. “Regards sombres vers l’intériorité dans la Clélie.” EF 44.2 (2008), 139—58.
Considers the role of the characters’ inner lives in a society that has largely been studied in terms of its emphasis on paraître. Shows how Scudéry’s focus on this interiority renders her characters more fully human.
MAHER, DANIEL. “Corrompre la perfection—de la Carte de Tendre aux Royaumes d’Amour.” EMF 12 (2008): 58—77.
Maher studies the cartography of love, starting with Madame de Scudéry’s La Carte de Tendre as a model of perfection in the world of sentiment. He then discusses contestations, corruptions and rejections of that topography in the works of Tristan L’Hermite, d’Aubignac and Paul Tallemant.
SCUDÉRY, MADAME DE. Clélie. Histoire romaine. 4 parts. Ed. Chantal Morlet-Chantalat. Paris: Champion, 2001—2004.
Review: Nathalie Grande in RHLF 109.1 (2009): 215—218. Grande discusses each part individually. The first part opens with two introductions, the first one situating Clélie historically and esthetically, the second one approaching the novel thematically to study the love theme. The second volume is preceded by an introduction that offers a rich reflection on the female condition, to which Scudéry contributed significantly. The third volume discusses the social and literary journal of the writer, while the fourth part focuses on the impact of the novel (Pellisson, Fouquet, the question of favor, etc.) Overall, the reviewer praises this edition, as it places the novel in its multiple contexts.
SCUDÉRY, MADAME DE. Clélie. Histoire romaine. Ed. Delphine Denis. Paris: Gallimard, 2006.
Review: Nathalie Grande in RHLF 109.1 (2009): 457. Short review that underscores the value of this edition for the general public. “Privilégiant des extraits du récit-cadre, que des résumés viennent relier entre eux, l’édition permet de suivre les amours contrariées d’Aronce et de Clélie, réussissant ainsi le tour de force de donner un idée globale de ce long roman en ne retenant qu’une dixième des 7300 pages de Clélie.” Two stories have been fully inserted: L’Histoire d’Artaxandre and L’Histoire de Plotine, as radical alternatives to the ethos of the perfect heroic couple. This text has also been rendered more accessible, due to its modernized spelling and introduction, as well as typographical explanations.
LANDRY, BERTRAND. “Services, sociabilité et maternité: les amies de Madame de Sévigné.” CdDS 12.2 (2009): 43—59.
This article sheds new light on the multiple facets of the friendship between Sévigné and her female friends who aid her in protecting and supporting Mme de Grigan, Sévigné’s daughter, through their connections to the crown. Among them, we find Madame de Lafayette, Madame de Vins, Madame de Bellièvre or Madame de la Troche. Through the friendship with these women, Sévigné is also able to project herself in the life of her daughter. Another point shown is how these women flatter Sévigné’s maternal instinct and aid her in constructing her self as an archetypal mother figure.
NIES, FRITZ. “Génétique et réception: l’exemple des Lettres de Madame de Sévigné.” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 77—84.
Following a brief commentary on the genesis of Sévigné’s correspondence, examines the fashion in which their reception is influenced by editors from Bussy-Rabutin to Roger Duchène. Article first appeared in Cahiers d’Histoire des Littératures romanes, 28 (2004), 25—31.
VIALA, ALAIN. “Un jeu d’images: amateur, mondaine, écrivain?” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 157—168.
An analysis of the diverse images of Madame de Sévigné as auteur mondain, écrivain and amateur and the interplay between these images. Article first appeared in Europe, « Madame de Sévigné » , No 801—802 (1996), 57—68.
DEBAISIEUX, MARTINE, ed. preface parM. JEANNERET. Charles Sorel. Description de l’île de portraiture. Genève: Droz, 2006.
Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 154 (2008): 179—180. 17th Century scholars will welcome this modernized reproduction of the original text which joins D. Dalla Valle’s 2005 edition of Les Nouvelles Choisies while two other editions of texts of S. are in preparation. Rich introduction and impressive dossier on the retreat chez S. and in other literature of the period. J.’s preface provides contextualization and reflection on the representation of the body in the 17th C.
Review: M. Rosellini in DSS 242 (2009), 180—182: “Martine Debaisieux, qui a été une pionnière dans la récente redécouverte de l’œuvre de Charles Sorel, en révèle une facette méconnue en éditant la Description de l’île de portraiture. Par son riche appareil de notes, l’analyse fouillée que constituent l’introduction, la préface judicieusement confiée à Michel Jeanneret et l’anthologie de portraits littéraires publiés en annexe, l’édition de cette fiction allégorique apporte des éclaircissements inédits sur l’implication de Sorel dans la vie culturelle de son temps et sur l’évolution de sa carrière littéraire.”
SERROY, JEAN. “La vie de collège au commencement du XVIIe siècle d’après le Francion de Sorel.” PFSCL XXXVI, 70 (2009), 63—76.
An analysis of the portrait which Sorel’s novel provides of school life at the beginning of the century, following Henri IV’s reform in 1600. Balances the status of this portrait as historical document within its context as literary creation. Article first appeared in the periodical Marseille, 88 (1972).
VAN DER SCHUREN, ÉRIC et EMMANUEL BURY. Charles Sorel polygraphe. Québec : Les Presses de l’université Laval, 2006.
Review : D. Chouinard in UTQ 78.1 (Winter 2009), 562—567 : “Avec le concours d’une pléiade de dix-septiémistes de premier plan et d’éminents spécialistes de cet écrivain au destin ingrat, Charles Sorel polygraphe vient donc heureusement contrebalancer La disparition de Charles Sorel, paru chez Grasset la même année (2006). En second lieu, grâce à ses vingt-huit collaborateurs, cet ouvrage rectifie la perception du milieu universitaire et du public, qui ont souvent tendance à réduire la production sorélienne à sa dimension romanesque. . .Enfin, en dernier lieu, cette collection d’articles dépasse le cadre habituel du genre ‘acte de colloques’ et devient en quelque sorte un tout cohérent et concerté, qui déplace l’objet de l’analyse vers la totalité de l’œuvre en tentant de redonner toute sa complexité à l’appellation de polygraphe. . .”
MAHER, DANIEL. “Corrompre la perfection—de la Carte de Tendre aux Royaumes d’Amour.” EMF 12 (2008): 58—77.
Maher studies the cartography of love, starting with Madame de Scudéry’s La Carte de Tendre as a model of perfection in the world of sentiment. He then discusses contestations, corruptions and rejections of that topography in the works of Tristan L’Hermite, d’Aubignac and Paul Tallemant.
WOLFE, PHILLIP. “Diable et diableries chez Tallemant des Réaux.” CdDS 12.2 (2009): 61—69.
Article centers on the question on witchcraft in the light of Alfred Soman’s Sorcellerie et Justice Criminelle through Tallemant des Réaux’s Historiettes. Starting out with the life of Tallemant des Réaux, the author of this article then focuses on three famous witchcraft trials: those of the Maréchal d’Ancre, Urbain Grandier and Marthe Brossier. Tallemant clearly condemns these trials, even if he does never question the existence of the supernatural directly.
MUNARI, SIMONA, ed. Gillet de La Tessonerie. Sigismond Duc de Varsau, Tragi-comédie dediée à la Reyne à Paris chez Toussainct Quinet à Palais dans la petite Salle sous la montée de la Cour des Aydes. 1646, avec Privilège su Roy. Roma: Aracne, 2006.
Review: M. Pavesio in S Fr 154 (2008): 179. Welcome edition includes an introduction locating the play in the period of the Fronde and a rich appendix containing other related texts of the time (for example, the épître of the 1651 tragedy). Bibliography.
GÉNETIOT, GÉRARD. “Théophile de Viau, Œuvres poétiques.” IL 60.3 (2008): 23—26.
Selective bibliography on the writer’s Œuvres poétiques: he lists editions, anthologies, literary histories, collective works, works dealing with libertinism, articles and criticism discussing individual poems.
LEPLATRE, OLIVIER. “Viau ou le poète ressuscité.” IL 60.4 (2008): 3—11.
Viau’s “Maison de Sylvie” resembles a “poetic testament” of his fear of dying. Written during his incarceration, the odes broach the topics of death and life. The author looks at the dream motif, metaphorical language and symbolism, among others, to show how death preoccupies the poet but how he also embraces life as a form of defiance through his writing.
SABA, GUIDO. Bibliographie des écrivains français. Théophile de Viau. Memini, 2007.
Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 155 (2008): 449. Highly useful, this comprehensive tool is rich (F. Lachèvre’s 1909 bibliography is revised and “completata minuziosament”). Includes sections on biography, works, personages, genres, among others (libertinage and musical poetry, for example). S. hopes that there will be a renewal of biographical studies, especially as relating to T.’s formation and relationship to the theatrical world.
THOU, JACQUES-AUGUSTE. La Vie de Jacques-Auguste de Thou, I, Aug. Thuani Vita. Ed. Anne Teissier-Ensminger. Paris: Champion, 2007.
Review: Nadine Kupertsy-Tsur in RHLF 109.1 (2009): 218—220. First new bilingual edition after 200 years. In her effort, Teissier-Ensminger reveals triple erudition, as a historian, jurist and Latinist. Reviewer commends the excellent Latin translations and clear and abundant notes, as well as the long introduction that precedes the text. The Vita lists Nicolas Rigault, Thou’s friend, as the author. The author asks whether this was due to “bienséance” or the influence of judiciary practice. The text is written in the third person. Thou was accused of Protestantism for it, as his descriptive, objective style was interpreted as a “penchant pour le protestantisme; on lui reprocha également sa prise de position lors de la promulgation de l’édit de Nantes, en considérant sa volonté de défendre les droits des protestants pour pacifier la France comme une trahison” (219). While Thou was, nevertheless, a Catholic, he condemned all forms of violence and resisted indoctrination.
MAHER, DANIEL. “Corrompre la perfection—de la Carte de Tendre aux Royaumes d’Amour.” EMF 12 (2008): 58—77.
Maher studies the cartography of love, starting with Madame de Scudéry’s La Carte de Tendre as a model of perfection in the world of sentiment. He then discusses contestations, corruptions and rejections of that topography in the works of Tristan L’Hermite, d’Aubignac and Paul Tallemant.
Cahiers Tristan l’Hermite, XXVI (2004).
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 155 (2008): 450. This issue, entitled “Nouvelles perspectives tristaniennes” offers thematic analyses of genres of several works. Also included is a study of T.’s brother Jean-Baptiste. Tribute to Amédée Carriat, originator of the Cahiers and “autentice creatore del gusto letterario per Tristan.”
Cahiers Tristan l’Hermite, XXVII (2005).
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 155 (2008): 450. Publication of the Acts of a 2005 journée d’étude on T.’s Page disgracié, the volume brings together perspectives relating to “galanterie,” T.’s presence in Cyrano and poetic dimensions of romance, among other subjects.
Cahiers Tristan l’Hermite, XXVIII (2006).
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 155 (2008): 450. Dedicated to Jacques Morel, this issue focuses on T.’s poetry and lyricism as well as his theatre. Includes a presentation of two odes of T. and Adam Billaut dedicated to Gaston d’Orléans.
Cahiers Tristan l’Hermite, XXIX (2007).
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 156 (2008): 656. Véronique Adam presents the issue entitled “Les paratextes dans l’œuvre de Tristan l’Hermite” and provides an article “La note: un paratexte protéiforme.” The Acts of a journée d’étude held in Sorbonne (2007), the volume provides precision on the various types of paratexts, notes, commentary, citation of authors, etc. Titles of chapters in “Le Page disgracié” and arguments of plays are analyzed as are frontispieces and illustrations. Annex with passages of the Maison d’Astrée and a series of reviews. The number is dedicated to Yves Faury.
DENIS, DELPHINE,dir. La gloire de l’Astrée. in Cahiers de l’Association Internationale des Etudes Françaises 60 (2008).
Review: D. Dalle Valle in S Fr 156 (2008): 655. Collection of seven essays resulting from a journée d’études in 2007 directed by D. who has also furnished a presentation and a conclusion. The studies treat the novel’s fortunes, across genres and in criticism, from the Grand Siècle to our day and geographically (in France, England, Germany, Italy and North America). Bibliography.
GHEERAERT, TONY. Saturne aux deux visages. Introduction à l’Astrée d’ Honoré d’Urfé. Rouen: Publications des Universités de Rouen et du Havre, 2006.
Review: Nathalie Grande in RHLF 109.2 (2009): 452—453. This short review acclaims this synthesis of d’Urfé’s novel as well as the fact that Gheeraert takes into consideration esthetical questions and contextualizes the text historically and politically. A selective bibliography completes this edition.
Review: J.-B. Rolland in DSS 242 (2009), 183—185: “En proposant au public une introduction à L’Astrée, Tony Gheeraert entend contribuer au retour d’une bergère dont l’étoile, scintillante au XVIIe siècle, a depuis bien pâli. La relecture de l’ouvrage est à ses yeux d’autant plus légitime qu’il s’agit d’une contribution majeure à la modernité: roman d’amour, cette pastorale est aussi une « déconstruction de tout le système de la signification tel qu’il était conçu à la Renaissance » . Elle se veut donc fondamentalement une interrogation sur l’écriture et le langage.”
GREINER, FRANK. Les Amours romanesques de la fin des guerres de religion au temps de L’Astrée (1585—1628). Fictions narratives et représentations culturelles. Paris: Champion, 2008.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 156 (2008): 654—655. Judged rich and interesting, this study is based on a very ample corpus of some 200 narrative works of the time, “livres d’amour.” Organized into sections on “Histoire et fiction,” “La fiction amoureuse,” “Amours morales et immorales,” “Amours aventureuses,” and “Amours courtoises.” Annex, bibliography and index of titles.
AYRES-BENNETT, WENDY. “Presenting Grammar to a Non-Specialist Audience: Vaugelas’s Use of Metaphors in his Remarques sur la langue françoise (1647).” SCFS, 31.1 (2009), 36—45.
Examines a number of functions which metaphors, taken from a wide range of domains, can be seen to play in Vaugelas’s text, focusing particularly on “the extent to which they are part of a deliberate strategy to present the key ideas and arguments of the work to a non-specialist readership in an accessible way.”
CAUTE, ADELINE. “La Notion de désordre(s) dans Les Désordres de l’Amour.” SCFS, 31.1 (2009), 83—92.
Examines the different meanings associated with the idea of ‘désordre’ in Villedieu’s novel, to demonstrate how the author “en balançant entre moralisme et libertinage, propose une définition nouvelle de la liberté comme expérience vécue du désordre, par opposition à l’ordre universel donné comme idéal éthique et social par Louis XIV et ses contemporains.”
CAMERON, ANNE. “La poésie en Voyage: Vincent Voiture’s Lyric Verse in Seventeenth-Century English Translation.” SCFS, 30.2 (2008), 140—153.
Article studies the five seventeenth-century English translations of Voiture’s poems in order to examine “how French verse ‘travelled’ to contemporary England in translation. The [article] highlights problems of cultural specificity relating to the translation of salon verse and then examines how some of the cultural and stylistic aspects of Voiture’s verse were altered and undone to conform to English poetic taste and cultural expectation. Particular attention [is] paid to how salon grivoiserie degenerates into Restoration obscenity.”
ROLLIN, SOPHIE. “Pouvoir des fleurs et pouvoir des fables dans les lettres de Voiture: la galanterie comme modèle de représentation du pouvoir.” SCFS, 31.1 (2009), 71—82.
Examines the association between galanterie and the representation of aristocratic power in Voiture’s letters.
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