FRENCH 17

ADAMCAK, AUDREY. Alex Raiffe, trans. “Engraving Sculpture: Depictions of Versailles Statuary in the Cabinet du Roi.” Princeton U Library Chronicle LXXVI, 1-2 (2014-2015) 176-210.

Explores sculptures represented in the Cabinet du Roi, a collection of engravings glorifying key pieces in the royal art collection. Examines the engravings both in terms of their masterful technique and as a record of the statuary once held at Versailles.

AUGERON, MICKAEL and OLIVIER CAUDRON, eds. La Rochelle, l’Aunis et la Saintonge face à l’esclavage. Paris: Les Indes savants, 2012.

Review: R. Little in MLR 109.1 (2014) 252-253. Volume in four sections (“’L’infâme trafic” (Voltaire) routes, réseaux et acteurs’, ‘D’une rive à l’autre: la société esclavagiste et la métropole’, ‘La longue route vers les abolitions’, and ‘Les héritages contemporains: mémoires et commémorations pour ne pas oublier’”) includes some forty scholarly contributions on the triangular trade.

BOCH, JULIE. Apostat ou philosophe? La figure de l’empereur Julien dans la pensée française de Montaigne à Voltaire. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2013.

Review : C. Mervaud in FS 68.3 (2014) 391. An extensive volume that studies the depiction of Julian the Apostate (331-363) and the ways the emperor-philosopher serves as a “barometer” of French thought. Identifies two periods: 1580-1650, during which Julian is used in arguments concerning le libertinage and the Wars of Religion, and 1650-1710, when he figures in debates over Christian apologetics, and to a lesser extent, politics. Throughout both periods, the concern is less with historical accuracy and more with appropriating the emperor for moral, religious, and political ends.

BOLDUC, BENOÎT. “Fêtes on Paper: Graphic Representations of Louis XIV’s Festivals at Versailles.” Princeton U Library Chronicle LXXVI, 1-2 (2014-2015) 211-41.

Explores three royal festivals in light of Perrault’s (1664) and Félibien’s (1668, 1674) published accounts thereof, especially the plates, as manifestations of monarchical power in which art and nature are brought together in seemingly miraculous ways.

BOTS, HANS and EUGÉNIE BOTS-ESTOURGIE, eds. Madame de Maintenon. Lettres, vol. III (1698-1706). Paris: Champion, 2011.

Review : A. Amatuzzi in S Fr 167 (2012) 316. Welcome third volume (of seven planned) of M.’s correspondence includes over 800 letters. Principal themes are indicated in the introduction and include the following, among others: education, quietism, Jansenism, wars and politics. Modernization of orthography and useful annotations.

CASTOR, MARKUS A. “‘L’ange multimédia’. Saint Michel, Raphaël et Charles le Brun: un message politico-artistique entre texte, image et institutions.” PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 165-90.

Non-linear, multi-directional approach to representations of Saint Michel, especially as they relate to the King and signs/symbols of royal power. Focuses on Le Brun’s 1667 lecture on Raphaël’s Saint Michel terrassant le dragon. Includes illustrations.

COJANNOT-LE BLANC, MARIANNE. “Mens agitat molem. André Félibien et la surintendance des Bâtiments du roi en 1666.” PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 191-210.

Examines the engraved banner that heads Félibien’s Entretiens sur les vies et les ouvrages des plus excellens peintres anciens (1666) and the paradox of the banner’s emphasis on architecture in a work devoted to painting. Also analyzes layers of meaning in the motto “Mens agitat molem.”

CONESA, GABRIEL. Le Pauvre homme! Molière et l’affaire du Tartuffe. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2012.

Review: J.F. Gaines in PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 213-15. An account of the Tartuffe affair that focuses on 1664-1669, with more attention to the early part of the period. Develops, modifies, and in some cases completely revises representation of figures within the theater, the sociopolitical margins, or even the historical mainstream. Reviewer seems unable to decide whether work is historical fiction or “creative non-fiction,” but praises text for its readability and extensive research.

DICHKHAUT, KIRSTEN. “La Magie du Soleil et le Portrait du Roi: Sur la signification culturelle des effets spéculaires pour Vaux-le-Vicomte et Le Songe de Vaux de Jean de La Fontaine.” PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 65-81.

Explores the ethical and aesthetic power of the arts as they compete for the rights to the King’s portrait in La Fontaine’s “Le Songe de Vaux, Avertissement.”

DICKHAUT, KIRSTEN and JÖRN STEIGERWALD. “Entre soleil et Lumières: les stratégies de la représentation et les arts du pouvoir” CdDS XLI.80 (2014) 7-18.

Volume introduction that presents themes of light and sun, their representation in the arts, and their role as natural phenomena, metaphors, and symbols of power.

DORNIER, CAROLE and CLAUDINE POULOUIN, eds. Les Projets de l’abbé Castel de Saint-Pierre (1658-1743). Pour le plus grand bonheur du plus grand nombre. Caen: Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2011.

Review: A. Amatuzzi in S Fr 167 (2012) 315-316. A. notes that all of the works of St.-P. are available on line at the site of the Centre Régional des Lettres de Basse-Normandie. The volume reviewed here includes a rich interdisciplinary bibliography and a chronological list of St.-P.’s writings. Chapters are organized into sections as follows: “Rêves d’Europe” (reflexions on St.-P.’s visions for Europe) “Refonder ou aménager l’absolutisme”, “Education et formation morale,” and “Castel de St.- P., utopiste ou polémiste?”.

DOTOLI, GIOVANNI. La Beauté ou le salut du monde. Paris: Hermann Éditeurs, 2011.

Review: P. Adinolfi in S Fr (2012) 624. Beauty is here examined in all its aspects including ideas of happiness, architectural space, science, economics, etc. Beauty is seen as having a possible decisive role in the reconstruction of the world, individually and collectively. This wide-ranging volume begins with Plato’s Banquet and continues its parcours through the 20th c. Among 17th c. authors represented is Molière. Ample bibliography and index of names.

DURANT, STÉPHANE et al. Des États dans l’État: les états de Languedoc de la Fronde à la Révolution. Genève: Droz, 2014.

Review: M. Greengrass in FS 69.2 (2015) 244. This weighty tome, divided into 33 chapters and including tables, maps, and index, is a valuable contribution to the history of institutions. Reviewer: “The individuals, the politics, the dynamics, and the institutional culture of the Estates are all illuminated thoroughly in these pages…The volume is a triumphal tribute to the virtues of institutional history, properly understood, and to the collaborative role of this institution within the absolute monarchy.”

FERREYROLLES, GÉRARD. “Mourir avec Pascal.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 127-138.

Focusing on P.’s Lettre sur la mort written at his father’s death, on his Pensées, and on his Prière pour demander à Dieu le bon usage des maladies written two or three years before his death, F. discovers three perspectives and an evolution: “une perspective théologique, une perspective apologétique et une perspective spirituelle” (127). In the letter P. reminds us that man as created was not destined to die, but death is the result of original sin, and that the horror we feel for death was legitimate in the innocent state. Finally, according to the Christian vision, death marks “le couronnement de la béatitude de l’âme, et le commencement de la béatitude du corps” (Lettre sur la mort, 859). F. finds that in the Pensées, P.’s perspective necessarily must change as he seeks to persuade his “lecteurs libertins” with vivid, brutal and repugnant images of death “pour déchirer le voile d’oubli dont l’homme enveloppe sa fin” (F. 130). Death for P. does not illustrate our misery, but our vanity (liasse III, F. 130). Masterfully referring to numerous pertinent fragments, F. draws our attention to fragment 190 where the situation is resumed in an abrupt warning: “si vous mourez sans adorer le vrai principe, vous êtes perdu” (131). The spiritual dimension or perspective is developed in P.’s Prière pour demander à Dieu le bon usage des maladies where we have a reflection on death which all must face and a meditation on death which belongs to the Christian (132). Death is no longer a confrontation with the question of God’s existence but the experience of his presence in the person of Jesus-Christ (133). F.’s rich analysis also takes into account other writings of P. such as the Écrit sur la conversion du pécheur and letters to Mlle de Roannez as he underscores the Augustinian anthropology of P. and the Pauline understanding of the struggle between flesh and spirit. F. concludes that P.’s treatment of death has both a remarkable continuity and a progression. The three foci here correspond to three significations: “adoration,” “expiation”, and “libération” (138).

HAWCROFT, MICHAEL. “New Light on Candles on the Seventeenth-Century French Stage.” FS 68.2 (2014) 180-92.

Attempts to disprove commonly held assertions by showing that trimming (snuffing) candles was an effect, not a cause, of plays being divided into 20 or 30-minute acts. Instead, act length was a matter of engaging the audience and of literary and historical precedent.

HARRIS, JOSEPH. Inventing the Spectator: Subjectivity and the Theatrical Experience in Early Modern France. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2014.

Review: J. Clarke in FS 69.2 (2015) 241-42. Covers various theoretical perspectives on the spectator. Organized thematically rather than chronologically, which reviewer finds both “illuminating” and occasionally confusing. Reviewer criticizes author’s style, some of his assertions, and failure to address material conditions in early modern theaters; praises linguistic examination and “dense and subtle analysis.”

HEDIN, THOMAS. “Facts, Sermons, and Riddles: The Curious Guidebook of Sieur Combes.” Princeton U Library Chronicle LXXVI, 1-2 (2014-2015) 84-144.

Aided by numerous illustrations, article follows Monsieur’s chaplain, Laurent Morellet, alias Sieur Combes, on a heavily embellished tour of Versailles and Saint Cloud. Shows text to be a blend of fact, fiction, and moralizing commentary, this last usually directed at La Dauphine, the text’s dedicatee.

HUCHARD, CECILE et MARIE ROIG MIRANDA, eds. Réalités et représentations de la richesse dans l’Europe des XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Nancy: Groupe XVIe et XVIIe siècles en Europe-Université de Nancy II, 2010.

Review: L. Mottu-Weber in BHR 76.1 (2014) 189-193. “A l’aide de sources nombreuses et fort diverses, les auteurs des sept contributions s’y efforcent de déterminer comment les représentations sous-jacentes à l’iconographie et au discours humaniste de cette époque reflètent les réalités nouvelles de son contexte économique profondément marqué par l’afflux des métaux précieux de l’Amérique, l’affirmation des classes bourgeoises et marchandes et le développement des activités manufacturières liées au grand négoce.”

JEANNERET, MICHEL. Versailles, ordre et chaos. Paris: Gallimard, 2012.

Review: M.-C. Canova-Green in MLR 109.3 (2014) 803-805. “Starting with an analysis of the early Versailles gardens with their Ovidian inspiration symptomatic of a fear of a return to primitive ages, he shows to what extent the lavish festivals of the 1660s–1670s, comédies-ballets, ballets, and operas included, both duplicated and clarified the message at the heart of the park’s design with its monsters and graceful mythological figures. He then goes on to consider the better-known authors of the period, La Fontaine, La Bruyère, La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, Molière, Racine, as well as treatises of physiognomy and clandestine texts such as Theophrastus Redivivus, with a view to revealing how they all exposed the same unsettling kinship between man and animal.”

JEANNERET, MICHEL, éd. Les Fêtes de Versailles. By André Félibien. Paris: Gallimard, 2012.

Review: E. Welch in FS 67.3 (2013): 402-03. In an original approach to both subjects, Melzer juxtaposes the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns with the French colonization of the Americas. She identifies discourses that echo each other and intersect and connects them to issues of cultural identity and memory. According to the reviewer, the work lacks detail and close analysis in places, but is nonetheless a “groundbreaking study.”

JULIEN, BENOIT. Un Commerce pour gens ordinaires? La Rochelle et la traite négrière au XVIIIe siècle. (Exhibition catalogue). La Rochelle: Archives Départementales de la Charente-Maritime, 2010.

Review: R. Little in MLR 109.1 (2014) 252-253. Illustrated catalogue of one of several exhibitions created by La Rochelle in 2010 as an educational response to the “loi Taubira” (May 2001) to acknowledge slavery as a crime against humanity and to bear witness to the historical role of this port city in the triangular trade.

KIRCHNER, THOMAS. “L’espace du paysage comme moyen d’expression politique dans la peinture française du XVIIe siècle.” PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 37-63.

History of landscape with political connotations in France. At first slow to catch on, it is eventually exemplified in the work of Jacques Fouquières and Adam François van der Meulen. Includes sixteen illustrations.

LEOPIZZI, MARCELLA. “Vanini en France: perspectives de recherche.” S Fr 168 (2012) 505-512.

Retraces V.’s French milieu with attention to his patrons and protectors, libertine literary circles, the discovery of America, and the wide diffusion of Greek and Latin works. L. notes both important findings on V.’s life and the lack of documentation--she mentions as of yet non-inventoried sacks (some 80,000) of the Archives Départementales de la Haute-Garonne de Toulouse which relate to judicial activity of the period. Other suggestions for future research are outlined, such as manuscript notes of the “fonds Baudouin” of the same archives which L. considers “une mine d’information” (508). The remainder of L.’s article offers tantalizing precisions relating to these documents, and an insistence on the influence of V. on the libertine current as well as the continuing presence of Italian culture in French culture of V.’s era “où se croisent des cultures diverses et des dialogues multiples” (512).

LEVACK, BRIAN P. The Devil Within: Possession and exorcism in the Christian West. New Haven: Yale UP, 2013.

Review: P. Marshall in TLS (July 26, 5756) 7-8. “The impression readers are likely to take away from this authoritative, though not quite definitive, study is that sometimes astute and sympathetic description is the best we can hope for.” Levack does not try to explain away accounts of possession and exorcism, but stresses that they were “encoded in particular religious cultures.” Sustained metaphor casts demoniacs and exorcists as “performers.” “Scripts” are supplied by their society. One of the major themes of the book is the effect of different material and confessional settings on the performances of possession.

LYONS, JOHN D. The Phantom of Chance : From Fortune to Randomness in Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012.

Review: K. Wine in MP 111.4 (May 2014) E411-E414. “This searching and provocative study offers a compelling account of the cultural and intellectual currents that encouraged the increasing prominence of a “de-dramatized” hasard over the course of the seventeenth century. Whereas […] much writing about chance in the early modern period has focused on probability or on games of chance, Lyon’s wider emphasis offers an illuminating perspective on the grand siècle as a whole, demonstrating that the period’s preoccupation with regularity lead to new methods of dealing with the disordered, the random, and the formless. The book’s richest rewards, however, lie in its readings. Lyons states early on that much of the distinctiveness of individual writers lies in the ways they use their perception of chance’s ubiquity, a claim that the individual chapters fully bear out. At the same time, the individual analyses bring to light unexpected affinities, as in the cases of Pascal and the Jesuits or Joad and Athalie.”

MAGNIEN-SIMONIN, CATHERINE. “La Mort des grands dans les écrits historiques d’Étienne Pasquier.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 113-125.

Concentrating her analysis on P.’s Les Recherches de la France and on numerous letters where P. reveals a fascination with the death of “personnages illustres” such as the Guises, Coligny and Montaigne, among others, M.-S. examines how P. used the materials. She discovers P.’s originality in painting not only a “miroir du prince” but examples to avoid. P.’s récits distinguish between “la belle mort” and “la bonne mort,” and M.-S. discovers chez P. not only representation but also “signification au moment et dans les circonstances” (121). M.-S. has found surprising commentaries of P. such as the one reminding his readers of the condemnation of astrology by Christianity juxtaposed with an account of a death, complete with predictions and coincidences. History chez P. is, M.-S. concludes, a “réflexion sur l’histoire de la France, nourrie de la vie et de la geste des grands personnages et éclairée par leur mort”(125).

MC CLARY, SUSAN. Desire and Pleasure in Seventeenth-Century Music. Berkeley: U of California P, 2012.

Review: T. Knighton in TLS 5743 (April 26, 2013) 17. Author gives most of her attention to French and Italian music. According to the reviewer, McClary’s goal is to make seventeenth-century music intelligible by helping the reader understand “the effects the musical syntax was intended to have within a framework of more general cultural notions of desire and pleasure in the period.” The author helps her readers grasp “the import of the overlapping of two different harmonic systems.” The more complex analyses may be difficult for a non-specialist, but this is a “brilliant musical mapping of the seventeenth century.”

MC GOWAN, MARGARET M., ed. Dynastic Marriages 1612/1615: A Celebration of the Habsburg and Bourbon Unions.

Review by: D. Parrott in FS 68.2 (2014) 244. First book in a new series to be devoted to early modern festivals. Fourteen essays centering on the celebrations in Italy, Spain, and France in honor of the double marriage of Louis XIII of France and Philip IV of Spain. Reviewer praises both the essays and McGowan’s editorial skills.

MELZER, SARAH E. Colonizer or Colonized: The Hidden Stories of Early Modern French Culture. Philadelphia: U Pennsylvania Press, 2012.

Review: M. Harrington in MLR 109.1 (2014) 248-249. M. “offers a rich interrogation of the crossovers between early modern France’s views of itself as colonizer as well as other. This book constitutes an original contribution to the study of early modern aesthetics and colonial history, as well as inspiring reflection on France’s present-day cultural narrative.”

NOTTER, ANNICK, ERICK NOEL, OLIVIER CAUDRON, and BERNARD GAINOT. (Exhibition catalogue). La Rochelle: Musée du Nouveau Monde, 2010.

Review: R. Little in MLR 109.1 (2014) 252-253. Illustrated catalogue of one of several exhibitions created by La Rochelle in 2010 as an educational response to the “loi Taubira” (May 2001) to acknowledge slavery as a crime against humanity and to bear witness to the historical role of this port city in the triangular trade.

OY-MARRA, ELISABETH. “Phébus/Apollon – Le Bernin, Poussin et Carlo Maratta.” PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 143-64.

Examines various artistic representations of Apollo’s failed seduction of Daphne. Explains how different media highlight diverse aspects of the myth and its relation to royal power. Includes illustrations.

PARKER, GEOFFREY. Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century. New Haven: Yale UP, 2013.

Review: T. Rabb in TLS 5746 (May 17, 2013) 10-11. Author seeks to establish that the term “Age of General Crisis” applies to the entire globe in the seventeenth century. Argues that the Little Ice Age is essential background to the events he narrates. Recurrent low temperatures from 1610 to the second decade of the eighteenth century and the resulting hunger and despair contribute to Crisis. Makes clear that devotion to the military, the obduracy of political leaders and the indifference of those leaders to the suffering citizenry are responsible for much of the misery and tumult of the age. Reviewer notes some omissions but views this work as a “colossal” achievement. Reviewer also expresses hope that Parker will issue an abridged edition of this work, so that this “monumental statement about the nature of seventeenth-century history” will be more accessible to the non-specialist.

PLANCHE. MARIE-CLAIRE. De l’iconographie racinienne, dessiner et peindre les passions. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010.

Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 167 (2012) 315. This important addition to R. scholarship contains a trove of nearly 100 images in black and white. The reviewer would have appreciated more solid scholarly analysis and a more comprehensive bibliography, however the discovery and presentation of the iconographic corpus covering the years 1668-1815 remains highly useful. Chapters include examinations of the following topics: the poetics of the image in R., the iconographic corpus and editorial history, criteria of selection, place, and expressions and attitudes.

PLANTAVIT DE LA PAUSE, JEAN DE. Mémoires de Messire Jean de Plantavit de La Pause, seigneur de Margon, chevalier de l’ordre de Saint-Louis, lieutenant de roy de la province de Languedoc, colonel d’un régiment de dragons et brigadier des armées de Sa Majesté. Ed. Hubert de Vergnette de Lamotte. Paris: Éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, 2013.

Review: M. Green in FS 69.1 (2015) 94-95. More than mere autobiography of an obscure nobleman, the writings of this contemporary of Saint-Simon provide insight into military campaigns, court politics, religion, music, literature, and the arts. Edition includes tables of contents and indexes for each chapter; spelling and punctuation are somewhat modernized.

ROCHE, BRUNO. Le Rire des libertins dans la première moitié du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Champion, 2011.

Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 166 (2012) 139-140. Heterogeneous methodologically and judged “intellettualmente vivace” (140) R.’s contribution to the widely examined topic of “le rire” is organized in sections which examine social and religious perspectives, strategies of creation such as dissimulation and irony, and libertine passions. R. finds that “le rire” may contribute to the founding of a new positive anthropology: “jouir-savoir-pouvoir.”

ROSACO, BETSY. “The Herms of Versailles in the 1680s.” Princeton U Library Chronicle LXXVI, 1-2 (2014-2015) 145-75.

Looks at the third set of herms to be installed at Versailles, starting in 1684. Argues that unlike the first two sets, which had gallant or Bacchic themes, the third set includes literary and philosophical figures intended to form part of the Duc de Bourgogne’s education.

ROUSSILLON, MARINE. “La visibilité du pouvoir dans les Plaisirs de l’île enchantée (1664) spectacle, textes et images.” PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 103-17.

Studies the publications that accompany/follow each fête at Versailles to show how they bring together representations of power, an ethics of pleasure, and an aesthetically satisfying blend of various arts.

SCHRÖDER, VOLKER. “Royal Prints for Princeton College: A Franco-American Exchange in 1886.” PSCFL LXXVI, 1-2 (2014-2015) 12-50.

Looks at John Shaw Pierson’s role in the 1886 transaction between the BN and Princeton that led to the latter’s acquisition of a copy of hundreds of Cabinet du Roy engravings. Also investigates reception and use of the Cabinet at Princeton; includes exhibition “Versailles on Paper,” subject of this issue.

SCOTT, VICTORIA. Women on Stage in Early Modern France: 1540-1750. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010.

Review: L. Imantoan in TDR 57.3 (2013) 182. Scott sets out to write a history of actresses that does not rely on stereotypes. She opens her study by exploring difficulty of undertaking this task when evidence consists primarily of anecdotes. In chapter two, she gives a history of social attitudes towards actresses, “particularly attitudes associating actresses with prostitution” (Imantoan). In chapter three, she looks at the lives of Paris actresses in 1629 and 1631. In chapters four and five, she studies the relationships between actresses and playwrights, fame and obscurity. The last two chapters critique evolving acting styles and approaches to theatre.

SIMMS, BRENDAN. Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, 1453 to the present. London: Allen Lane, 2013.

Review: N. Ferguson in TLS 5758 (August 9, 2013) 3-4. A sometimes contentious argument for the primacy of foreign affairs in shaping domestic politics. Views Denmark, Germany and the Low Countries as key to gaining supremacy. According to reviewer, Simms “lovingly restores” seventeenth- and eighteenth-century diplomatic history.

SONNINO, PAUL. “The Three Testaments of Cardinal Mazarin.” FHS 37.3 (Summer 2014) 421-436.

The author demonstrates that Cardinal Mazarin’s testament actually exists in three different versions. An analysis of these different versions, he argues, contributes to our knowledge of the close relationship between Jean-Baptiste Colbert and Cardinal Mazarin.

SPARY, E. C. Eating the Enlightenment: Food and the sciences in Paris, 1670-1760. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2012.

Review: W. Doyle in TLS 5729 (Jan 18, 2013) 3. Explores of new food stuffs on consumption habits and ways of thinking of nutrition. Chiefly concerned with the eighteenth century, but does look at Jesuit and Jansenist clashes on self-denial.

SPICA, ANNE-E. “Représentation du pouvoir, pouvoir de la représentation: De l’Art de régner de Pierre Le Moyne (1665).” PSCFL XLI.80 (2014) 19-36.

Shows how Le Moyne intertwines the verbal and the visual in order to counter followers of Machiavelli and define the ideal Christian monarch as pious and merciful. Includes illustrations.

STAHL, ALAN M. “The Classical Program of the Medallic Series of Louis XIV.” PSCFL LXXVI, 1-2 (2014-2015) 266-87.

Studies series of medals commemorating major events of the Sun King’s reign, as well as Abbé Tallemant’s explanatory text. Places both text and medals in artistic and historical context surrounding their creation, especially the role of the “Petite Académie” and the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns.

STEDMAN, GESA. Cultural Exchange in Seventeenth-Century France and England. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013.

Review: P. Hammond in FS FS 68.1 (2014) 102. Less about “exchange” than the influence of French culture on the English. Reviewer: more about “things” than about the history of ideas, and does not contribute much new knowledge, but “many readers will find much to interest and to amuse them in the materials that Stedman quotes,” even if the quotes themselves do not always come from the most scholarly or reliable sources.

TEYSSANDIER, BERNARD, ed. ‘Le Roi hors de page’ et autres textes: une anthologie. Reims: PU de Reims, 2012.

Review: M. Meere in FS FS 68.2 (2014) 244-45. A well-researched text containing original texts with notes, annotated bibliography, critical essays, and extensive index. Seven sections deal with Louis XIII’s 1617 decrees that exiled Marie de Medicis to Blois; ordered the assassination of her minister, Concini; and brought about the trial and execution of Concini’s wife and de Medicis’s favorite, Léonora Galligaï. Reviewer’s only regret is omission of La Victoire du Phébus français contre le Python de ce temps (1617); otherwise praises this contribution to research on early modern pamphlet culture.

TRIBOUT, BRUNO. Les Récits de conjuration sous Louis XIV. Éditions du CIERL, Presses de l’Université Laval, 2010.

Review: F. Corradi in S Fr 166 (2012) 141-142. Underlining the importance of T’s theme by referring to the large 17th c. semantic field of conjuration, C. finds T.’s study important as it focuses on a restricted corpus of true “récits de conjuration.” Wide-ranging ramifications of the theme are indicated for 17th c. literary aesthetics. T. finds certain constants in the conceptualizations and representations of conjuration including the important common element of “un discours épidictique ambigu” (condemnation and admiration). Convincing examination which discovers a rather homogeneous “formula” despite the great diversity of genres. Reminds of the authors’ overarching concern to please the reader.

VERGÉ-FRANCESCHI, MICHEL. Ninon de Lenclos, Libertine du Grand Siècle. Paris : Payot, 2014.

Review: J. M. Goulemot in NQL 1113 (du 1er au 15 octobre 2014) 22-23. « Cette biographie foisonnante ne va pas sans poser à propos du genre qu’elle illustre quelques interrogations. » Le critique trouve que l’œuvre de Vergé-Franceschi démontre que Ninon de Lenclos fut libertine de mœurs mais il trouve qu’elle est moins convaincante pour démontrer un libertinage de l’esprit. En conclusion, le critique trouve que « des questions à poser demeurent, de fait, en suspens. Comment expliquer l’importance que lui ont reconnue ses contemporains et un certain imaginaire du siècle de Louis XIV, dont Voltaire s’est fait l’historien scrupuleux et admiratif ? Pourquoi n’a-t-elle pas survécu, le XVIIIe siècle achevé, que dans les manuels d’histoire littéraire, d’ordinaire si pudiques ? C’est l’un des mérites de cette biographie que de nous conduire à nous poser ces questions. »

DE WAELE, MICHEL. “Conflit civil et relations interétatiques dans la France d’Ancien Régime: La révolte de Gaston d’Orléans, 1631-1632.” FHS 37.4 (Fall 2014) 565-598.

« Après avoir présenté le parcours de Gaston d’Orléans, le texte analyse ensuite en quoi sa révolte de 1631-32 peut intéresser les autres puissances européennes et examine leurs interventions dans cette affaire qui, en bout de ligne aura contribué au renforcement de la France, et du cardinal de Richelieu, sur les plans intérieur et extérieur ».

WOOD, ELLEN MEIKSINS. Liberty and Property: a Social History of Western Thought from the Renaissance to Enlightenment. London, New York: Verso: 2012.

Review: J. Clark in TLS 5730 (Jan 25, 2013) 24. Chiefly treats France and England. Wood questions the idea of one “modernity” as she examines the different material conditions of different nations. Reviewer takes issue with many of her arguments but says she demonstrates that Marx still has much to offer when analyzing such questions as interaction between property and the state.

YERKES, CAROLYN. “The Grand Escalier at the Château de Versailles: The Monumental Staircase and its Edges.” Princeton U Library Chronicle LXXVI, 1-2 (2014-2015) 51-83.

Uses prints of the short-lived Grand Escalier (completed in 1679, removed in 1752) to examine the staircase as an innovative architectural achievement that combines technical and decorative mastery with functionality in terms of planning and design.