FRENCH 17

Les Amériques des écrivains français, in Travaux de Littérature 24 (2011).

Review: P. Adinolfi in S Fr 168 (2012) 624-625. Wide-ranging issue examines in 31 essays the American mythology in French works. Certain types are distinguished such as “la belle américaine” and “le sauvage brésilien.” The collection includes studies of particular interest to 17th c. scholars—on discoveries, philosophical ideas, récits de voyage, Challe, and utopias.

ARZOUMANOV, ANNA, ANNE REACH-NGO AND TRUNG TRAN, eds. Le Discours du livre. Mise en scène du texte et fabrique de l’oeuvre sous l’Ancien Régime. Paris: Classiques Garnier (Études et essais sur la Renaissance”, 93) 2011.

Review: M. Mastroianni in S Fr 168 (2012) 552-553. Wide-ranging collection of essays examines editing and re-editing, transformations and illustrations. Studies are organized in sections as follows: “Le texte en représentation”, “Politiques de réédition, codifications et mutations génétiques”, and “réactualisations idéologiques et usages du livre.” 17th c. scholars will particularly appreciate Claire Fourquet-Gracieux’s study on Port-Royal’s editing of psalms.

BAYLE, ARIANE, ed. La Contagion: enjeux croisés des discours médicaux et littéraires (XVIe-XIXe siècle). Dijon: Éditions universitaires de Dijon, 2013.

Review: H. Roberts in FS 68.2 (2014) 243. A collection of articles that combines the history of medicine and literary studies to show how medical discourse, especially that of contagion, infiltrated literary and artistic criticism. Includes postface, bibliography, and index. Reviewer notes that sections on the 16th and 17th centuries are especially strong.

BOILLET, DANIELLE, MARIE-MADELEINE FRAGONARD et HELENE TRAPE, éds. Ecrire des vies. Espagne, France, Italie, XVIe-XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne nouvelle, 2012.

Review: P. Eichel-Lojkine in BHR 75.3 (2013) 593-595. Voir les articles de F. Wild (“à propos de deux biographies françaises du XVIIe siècle”) et d’A. Cantillon (“à propos des biographies de Pascal”).

BROCHARD, CÉCILE and ESTHER PINON, eds. La Folie—Création ou destruction?, Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2011.

Review: F. Forcolin in S Fr 166 (2012) 200-201. The result of a 2010 journée d’étude at Nantes, this collective volume focuses on the multifaceted theme of madness and includes the “versant noir” and “le visage bouffon.” The essays are organized into four sections. The first part, “La folie et ses mythes: pérennité et subversions,” analyzes “la nef des fous” and the myth of Orlando including rewritings such as that of Quinault. Other sections may include references to the 17th c. but center on 19th and 20th c. as well as on Francophone authors and a few from other geographic areas, Márquez, for example.

CAMPANINI, MAGDA. In forma di lettere. La finzione epistolare in Francia dal Rinascimento al Classicismo. Venezia: Supernova, 2011.

Review: P. Adinolfi in S Fr 168 (2012) 624. C.’s corpus includes epistolary works from 1555 to 1700. She examines reflections on the era, on the epistolary genre itself, its material aspects, authors, editors, and reception. Other sections focus on the letter of love and its relation to romance, paratexts, dialogic tension, and the narrative, among others.

CAMPBELL, JOHN. “Mort et dramaturgie dans les tragédies de Racine.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 155-167.

Welcome investigation reveals the remarkable particularity of the place occupied by death in R.’s tragedies. Avoiding the trap of imposing anachronistic notions on R,’s theatre, C.’s analysis focuses on “la praxis du théâtre” (157) disclosing death as “un outil dramatique parmi d’autres” (160) and “surtout, une question de plaisir” (167).

COLLINET, JEAN-PIERRE. Visages de La Fontaine. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2010.

Review: J. Morgante in S Fr 167 (2012) 314. Praiseworthy volume brings together 28 studies, some revised from 1991-2010, by an eminent critic of La F. Organized in sections as follows: “Généralités” (including emphasis on La F.’s duality and diversity) “Les Fables”, and “Les Amours de Psyché et Cupidon.”

CORRADI, FEDERICO, ed and trans. Madame de Lafayette. La Princesse de Montpensier. Rome: Portaparole, 2011.

Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 167 (2012) 314. Welcome translation of this nouvelle of L, usefully annotated and furnished with a pertinent introduction which is attentive to recent discussions of the nouvelle and 17th c. French narrative. Text is reprised from that of Micheline Cuénin (1979) and the translation takes into account the 1980 one of Gesualdo Bufalino and Paola Masino.

DELEHANTY, ANN T. Literary Knowing in Neoclassical France : From Poetics to Aesthetics. Lewisburg : Bucknell UP, 2013.

Review: J. Phillips in FS 69.2 (2015) 243-44. Does not study the grand siècle as focused on rules; instead highlights role of sentiment and the possibility of transcendental experience through art. Authors discussed include Blaise Pascal, Dominique Bouhours, Nicolas Boileau, René Rapin, Jean-Baptiste Dubos, and John Dennis. Reviewer finds arguments convincing, supported by extensive notes and complete bibliography.

DENIS, DELPHINE, dir. Honoré d’Urfé, L’Astrée. Première partie. Paris: Champion, 2011.

Review: J. Morgante in S Fr 166 (2012) 137-139. Welcome scholarly edition of the first part of L’Astrée. Hailed as trustworthy, the critical apparatus includes variants which are judged to merit commentary. M. includes discussion of the 17th c. editions and remarks on editorial decisions of this edition. Of particular interest in the introduction are linguistic observations and the ideal of the social elite of the time. Similarly enlightening are discussions of early modern editorial practice. It is possible to consult electronically the site of the équipe attached to the C.E.L.L.F. directed by D. and Alexandre Gefen: http://astree.paris-sorbonne.fr

DENIS, DELPHINE, MIRELLE HUCHON, ANNA JAUBERT, MICHAEL RINN, and OLIVIER SOUTET, eds. Au corps du texte. Hommage à Georges Molinié. Paris: Champion, 2010.

Review: M. Pavesio in S Fr 166 (2012) 143. This valuable Festschrift by forty friends and colleagues of M. is organized in sections corresponding to the latter’s predominant research interests. The first section, “Langages de la première modernité” renders homage to M.’s seminal thesis published in 1982 and republished in 1995, Du Roman grec au roman baroque: un art majeur du genre narratif en France sous Louis XIII. Analyses focus on 17th c. stylistic and aesthetic concerns as present in authors as diverse as La Fontaine and Massillon. The second and third sections retain the philological, rhetorical and literary dimensions but focus on other periods. Includes a bibliography of M.’s criticism.

DUFOURCET, M.B., CH. MAZOUER, and A. SURGERS, eds. Spectacles et pouvoirs dans l’Europe de l’Ancien Régime (XVIe –XVIIIe siècles). Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2011.

Review: M. Pavesio in S Fr 168 (2012) 564. Drawn from presentations at a colloque of the Centre de recherches sur l’Europe classique and from the Centre Artes, the essays of this volume analyze the role of civil and ecclesiastical power in the organization and realization of spectacle. 17th c. scholars will find of particular interest essays on the following subjects: royal and political munificence, the prince in attendance at spectacles, the relations between music and power, and representations of peace.

DURU, AUDREY. Essais de soi: poésie spirituelle et rapport à soi, entre Montaigne et Descartes. Genève: Droz, 2012.

Review: E. Herdman in FS 68.2 (2014) 242-43. Explores literary and cultural impact of devotional poetry by lesser-known poets of late 16th-early 17th centuries. Shows that poets’ self-expression is more about religious and political autonomy than a quest for self as a modern reader might understand the term. Reviewer: “detailed and well-informed.”

EICHEL-LOJKINE, PATRICIA. Contes en réseaux: l’émergence du conte sur la scène littéraire européenne. Geneva: Droz, 2013.

Review: M.-C. Canova-Green in MLR 109.3 (2014) 779-780. “Contes en réseaux is a clear, well-thought-out, and deeply learned book. Both scholarly and accessible to a wider public interested in fairy tales, who will find the innovative readings of the tales offered by Eichel-Lojkine particularly appealing, it leads the reader to reconsider the genesis of the European literary fairy tale, notably in bringing to light the circulation of narratives between Jewish and Christian cultures. It should definitively alter the common perception of the fairy tale as a timeless object and help to counterbalance the excesses of universalist theories of the genre.”

EDMUNDS, JOHN, trans. Intro. by Joseph Harris. Corneille, Molière, Racine: Four French Plays: ‘Cinna’, ‘The Misanthrope’, ‘Andromaque’, ‘Phaedra’. London: Penguin, 2013.

Review: T. Chilcott in MLR 109.3 (2014) 802-803. Superb new verse translations of four major plays in the French classical canon. Preface by Harris provides valuable theatrical and cultural context. “…the inclusion of Corneille’s Critique and Racine’s Prefaces, as well as sections on Chronology and Further Reading, a genealogical table, and a guide to pronunciation, enhances the sense of comprehensive treatment.”

FÉERIES: ÉTUDES SUR LE CONTE MERVEILLEUX XVIIE –XIXE SIÈCLE. 7 (2010). Le Conte et la Fable. 8 (2011). Le merveilleux français à travers les siècles, les langues, les continents.

Review: M. Kaplanoglou in M&T 29.1 (2015) 163-65. Journal, begun in 2004. According to website, “devoted to the study of the French language fantasy tale from the 17th to the 19th century. Each issue is organised around a theme and presents an overview of the critical literature of the genre. The journal has a resolutely literary approach.” Volume 7, edited by Aurélia Gaillard and Jean-Paul Sermain, includes articles on La Fontaine, Perrault, “anthropological parameters,” “narrative motivation,” imagination, memory, morality, and the recurring motif of the key. Volume 8, edited by Jean Mainil, explores “how a corpus of texts specific to France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had such a lasting influence in different linguistic, cultural, and geographic contexts” and includes articles on Perrault and d’Aulnoy, among others.

FLOWER, JOHN. Historical Dictionary of French Literature. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2013.

Review: J. Hammond in MLR 109.4 (2014) 1080. “It is only in the bibliography that the reader is informed that ‘the historical dictionary focuses on imaginative prose works and poetry only’ which might explain why no single play by Corneille, Molière, or Racine is mentioned the information on the latter three is not only sketchy but at times inaccurate or misleading decision to ignore a number of what are commonly agreed to be major writers, such as Montaigne and Pascal, and to focus instead on an array of less-known authors ….” Reviewer nonetheless finds valuable insights in the “mini-essays” in this volume.

GILBY, EMMA and PAUL WHITE, ed. Method and Variation: Narrative in Early Modern French Thought. Oxford: Legenda, 2013.

Review: A. Stedman in FS 68.4 (2014) 542-43. Looks at how narrative and thought intersect within and across genres in a collection of eight essays, organized chronologically by author(s) treated, starting with Montaigne and ending with Lafayette. Reviewer: “add(s) critical understanding to the complex articulation of fable, history, and argument in the early modern period.”

GRANDE, NATHALIE. Le Rire galant. Usages du comique dans les fictions narratives de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Champion, 2011.

Review: C. Mainardi in S Fr 166 (2012) 140-141. Praiseworthy exploration allows G. to contribute to the definition of the galant aesthetic, thereby offering a corrective to the “classical” image of the Grand Siècle in which ridicule, satire, laughter, the smile, irony and intellectual diversion play an important role. Authors examined include the following: Bussy, Villedieu, Préchac, and Lafayette. Segrais’s Nouvelles françaises (1656) is chosen as the terminus a quo and Perrault’s Histoires ou contes du temps passé (1697) as terminus ad quem. Although M. does note an important omission, she praises G.’s bibliography which includes sections of both primary and secondary works.

GREENE, ROLAND. Five Words: Critical Semantics in the Age of Shakespeare and Cervantes. Chicago: U Chicago P, 2013.

Review: T. Gregory in MP 112.3 (2015) E234-E237. Spans nations and languages, including France/French; reviewer finds sections on English and Spanish strongest. The five words of the title, each the topic of a chapter, are invention, blood, language, resistance, and world, chosen because they are ubiquitous in the early modern period, defined here as 1525-1675. Analysis based in etymology, semantics, and textual analysis.

GUION, BEATRICE. “‘Ces grands mots de temps et de mort’: la mort dans les Oeuvres oratoires de Bossuet.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 169-180.

Careful and convincing demonstration presents solid and engaging arguments against both the romantic confessional appreciation and the baroque interpretation of B. Considering the demands of both doctrine and preaching, G. correctly reminds us that “la mort est d’abord présente pour inciter l’auditeur à la conversion” (169) and that our body is corruptible. Moral and theological lessons result from B.’s images and biblical references. G. underscores the role of the senses, antithesis, metaphoric assimilations and other key stylistic features such as repetition, all in the service of “l’exhortation au contemptus mundi et à la pénitence” (180).

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.

KARSENTI, TIPHAINE. Le Mythe de Troie dans le théâtre français (1562-1715). Paris: Champion, 2012. “Lumière Classiques, 90).

Review: D. Cecchetti in S Fr 168 (2012) 560. Monumental doctoral dissertation focuses on this key myth and examines 35 plays. Organization is chronological and according to genres. Exceptionally useful reference volume for students and scholars of myth and of the theatre. Includes minor as well as major authors.

KULESZA, MONIKA. L’Amour de la morale, la morale de l’amour. Les romans de Catherine Bernard. Warszawa: Unywerytet Warszawsky, Wydzial Neofilolog, 2010.

Review: F. Piva in S Fr 166 (2012) 142-143. Welcome study for the seriousness and competence it demonstrates as well as for the lucidity of its analyses of B.’s works, K.’s exploration will take its rightful place among others focusing on neglected women authors of the Grand Siècle. Despite outlining several problems that remain to be solved such as the relationship between B. and the world of letters and society in general as well as certain attributions such as that of Le Commerce galant, P. praises K.’s attentive and clear reading of B. alongside her confrontation of B.’s novels with the works of moralists such as La Rochefoucauld and Fontenelle.

LECLERC, JEAN, éd. L’Antiquité travestie: anthologie de poésie burlesque (1644-1658). Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 2010.

Review: C. Carlin in DFS 101 (Spring 2014) 123-124. « Une anthologie et édition savant de textes exemplaires » du genre burlesque. « Chaque poème est précédé d’une notice, suivie d’un résumé de l’œuvre antique travestie et une analyse de son traitement en mode burlesque, y compris (parmi d’autres éléments) son inscription dans la société de l’époque. Un appareil critique complète [sic], avec tout ce qu’il faut pour comprendre la genèse du poème, est suivi d’un tableau récapitulatif montrant le plan de ses parties et de ses grandes articulations. […] Ces nombreux supports éditoriaux, y compris le commentaire bien développé sur la langue à la fin de l’introduction, permettraient même aux non-spécialistes d’apprécier ces documents fascinants, représentatifs de plusieurs dimensions de la vie socioculturelle et politique de l’époque. »

LEE, CHRISTINE. “The Meanings of Romance: Rethinking Early Modern Fiction.” MP 112.2 (2014) 287-311.

Contends that “Romance” was not understood the way it is today; its meaning shifted substantially from 1550 to 1670. By comparing usage across languages, especially French and English, suggests that “romance” is not only a genre, but also a “cultural keyword” reflective of sociocultural change.

LEGAULT, MARIANNE. Female Intimacies in Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012.

Review: P. Zoberman in FS 68.2 (2014) 245-46. Monograph that, reviewer says, seeks “to restore the genealogy of female friendship and lesbian relationships in seventeenth-century French literature.” Uneven writing quality, errors in French, questionable text selection, and other issues mean that work “raises interesting issues but fails to address them satisfactorily.”

Review: E. Wilton-Godberfforde in MLR 109.4 (2014) 1083-1084. Revised and translated version of Narrations déviantes: l’intimité entre femmes dans l’imaginaire français du dix-septième siècle (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2008). Monograph “examines several genres and sources, including dictionary treatise, moral reflection, maxim, novel, comedy, fairy tale, harangue, and excerpts from Madeleine de Scudéry’s private correspondence.” Readings are divided between male and female literary discourses: “the ‘male imagination’ is presented through Honoré d’Urfé’s novel L’Astrée and Isaac de Benserade’s comedy Iphiset Iante. Legault seeks to underscore these writers’ sexual fascination in evoking female encounters, combined with a distinct apprehension over such closeness and a determined effort to reject and ridicule female intimacy. In contrast, the chapter on ‘women’s imagination’, illustrated through Scudéry’s novel Mathilde (D’Aguilar) and Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de la Force’s fairy tale Plus belle que Fée, emphasizes how these writers stand out by daring to privilege the erotic ties between women and by resisting heteronormative expectations, either openly or obliquely. Although structurally very neat, the divisions between the male and the female perspectives seem rather too binary.”

LESTRINGANT, FRANK. Une sainte horreur ou Le voyage en Eucharistie (XVIe-XVIIIe siècles) préface de PIERRE CHAUNU. Genève: Droz, 2012.

Review: D. Cecchetti in S Fr 168 (2012) 555. Praiseworthy and economically accessible second edition of L.’s important earlier study by the same title. Highly useful for students of religion and anthropology as well as for those of literature of the imaginary (Cyrano, for example).

LOCHERT, VERONIQUE and ZOE SCHWEITZER, éds. Philologie et théâtre: traduire, commenter, interpréter le théâtre antique en Europe (XVe-XVIIIe siècle). Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2012.

Review: E. Forman in MLR 109.4 (2014) 1052-1053. “The fifteen essays contained in this volume explore various aspects of the reception of ancient theatrical texts by the European Renaissance and Classical periods. The overarching emphasis is on the rediscovery of the texts’ dramatic potential, and the particular focus is on the role of translator in both interpreting them and recreating them as performance blueprints for the early modern stage.” Reviewer finds that an index and enhanced cumulative bibliography would make this volume an even more useful research tool.

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.”

MASTROIANNI, MICHELE. L’officina poetica di Jean-Baptiste Chassignet. Vercelli: Edizioni Mercurio, 2010.

Review: S. Lardon in S Fr 168 (2012) 557-558. Welcome recueil of M.’s articles, revised and augmented. The studies are grouped thematically in three sections relating to 1) biblical paraphrase, 2) religious poetry, and 3) emblematic and iconographic dimension. L. underscores the remarkable unity of the collection and its essential quality, not only for scholars of C. but also for those of 16th and 17th c. religious poetry. Index of names.

NISSIM, LIANA and ALESSANDRA PREDA. La Figure de Jacob dans les lettres françaises. Milano: Cisalpino, coll. “ Quarderni di Acme,” 119, 2010.

Review: A. Schellino in S Fr 166 (2012) 199-200. This collective volume, the result of the 2009 Seminario Balmas, focuses on the figure of Jacob from literature of the 1400s to today’s contemporary poetry and demonstrates the figure’s fascination and contradictions. 17th c. scholars will appreciate essays on Jacob and Pierre Charron, the French theatre and poetry, fable and rhetoric, Saint-Amant, and on Jacob’s ladder and finance in 17th c. and 18th c. theatre. Tables and illustrations.

PAPASOGLI, BENEDETTA. “Les leçons de la mort dans Les Aventures de Télémaque.” Tr Lit 25 (2012) 181-191.

Praiseworthy parcours from the first to the last book of F.’s novel examines conversations, narration, action, mise en scène, spiritual signs, the dialectic between exterior and interior, and, to be sure, “peinture moral” and pedagogy. P. carefully and convincingly analyzes F.’s “ecphrases de la mort”, beauty and ugliness in the novel, finding that “les contraires ne s’excluent pas” (191) (the Platonician Fénelon has given a body to Mentor) and that Télémaque “se prête à une lecture ouverte” (190).

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.

POIRSON, MARTIAL and JEAN-FRANÇOIS PERRIN, eds. Les scènes de l’enchantement, Arts du spectacle, théâtricalité et conte merveilleux (XVIIe-XIXe siècles). Paris: Éditions Desjonquères, 2011.

Review: P. Martinuzzi in S Fr 167 (2012) 320-321. Welcome highly interdisciplinary collection of studies focusing on the theatricality of the “conte merveilleux” and developing a possible poetics of the latter. Also considered are significant interactions between dramaturgy and specific conditions and reception.

PREVOT, JACQUES. Cyrano de Bergerac. L’écrivain de la crise. Paris: Ellipses, 2011. Collection “Bibliographies et Mythes historiques.”

Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 167 (2012) 313. C. is placed in a rich, erudite, and well-articulated historical-cultural context. After a biographical chapter which includes C.’s literary and libertine adventures, his contacts with the Fronde, etc., successive chapters analyze his works from the Entretiens pointus and letters, to his theatre and fiction. Useful chronology and well-oriented bibliography.

REID, MARTINE, ed. Les femmes dans la critique et l’histoire littéraire. Paris: Champion, 2011.

Review: A. Schellino in S Fr 167 (2012) 380-381. Praiseworthy investigation into the treatment of women authors by literary history and criticism. R. formulates the thesis of the volume thus: “Que les femmes auteurs aient été maltraitées par la critique et l’histoire littéraire, que leur présence se soit assez généralement trouvée condamnée sous des prétextes divers et leur travail minoré, contesté puis oublié, n’est désormais plus ignoré de personne” (7). These essays focus on the number of women authors as well as on the quality of their work. 17th c. scholars will appreciate the study by Myriam Dufour-Maître, “Oublier les ‘Précieuses’? Critique d’une catégorie critique (1999-2009)” pages 43-54, resuming the recent work on the subject, including hers, which has led to a redefinition of “préciosité.”

ROBERTS, HUGH. “Obscenity and the Politics of Authorship in Early Seventeenth-Century France: Guillaume Colletet and Le Parnasse des poètes satyriques (1622).” FS 68.1 (2014) 18-33.

Explores Colletet’s path from exile to immortel. Banished for “obscenity,” his use of forbidden words was less about libertinage than about establishing his credentials as a poet.

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.”

SCHOLAR, RICHARD and ALEXIS TADIE, eds. Fiction and the Frontiers of Knowledge in Europe, 1500-1800. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010.

Review: S. Pierse in MLR 109.2 (2014) 511-512. “The nebulous interface between fiction and early modern philosophy, science, medicine, or law will never look quite the same after this collection of erudite essays….” Essay by W. Williams linking Ronsard, Montaigne, Corneille, and Pascal “masterfully combines close linguistic analysis with subtle criticism of literature, philosophical thought, politics, self-exploration, and early modern historicity.” I. Moreau “probes philosophical, scientific, and fictional models from Descartes and Gassendi to Bernier, through exploration of the epistemological and moral dimensions encompassed within the term fiction. She traces legal and theatrical fiction and perceived planetary movements, and ultimately examines the collision of truth, reality, and rules, against hypotheses, constructs, and falsehoods.”

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.

STEDMAN, ALLISON. Rococo Fiction in France, 1600-1715: Seditious Frivolity. Lewisberg: Bucknell University Press, 2013.

Review: C. Carlin in DFS 101 (Spring 2014) 124-125. “These hybrid, experimental texts would not only influence the eighteenth-century novel; rococo’s rejection of universal, absolute truths, and its emphasis on individual uniqueness would support the dominant aesthetic of the Enlightenment in France across the arts. Stedman’s exploration of the phenomenon gives us a new lens for linking disparate texts across the seventeenth century. Although I have small quibbles (in ten pages on La Querelle du Cid, Stedman cites the 1898 Gasté compilation rather than Jean-Marc Civardi’s thorough critical edition published in 2004, and George Forestier’s name is misspelled throughout) Stedman’s impressive work represents an original contribution to the study of seventeenth-century French fiction.”

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

Review: M. Meere in 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.

TEYSSANDIER, BERNARD, ed. Les Fables d’Esope Phrygien. Reims: Epure, 2011. “Héritages critiques” 2011/1.

Review: A Bertolino in S Fr 167 (2012) 312-313. Welcome rediscovery and rehabilitation of B.’s 1645 useful and agreeable work dedicated to the “métier du roi” (Louis XIV). Reproduces the rare copy of the Bibliothèque Carnegie de Reims and includes dédicaces to both prince and queen, a “vie d’Esope” and 128 fables, each followed by an explanatory maxim. The second half of the volume contains essays of criticism on the work, its editorial process, its author, its genesis, and the political use of the fable in the 17th c. The bibliography includes Greek and Latin “fabliers,” modern transmissions, and principal secondary criticism.

THOURET, CLOTILDE. Seul en scène. Le Monologue dans le théâtre européen de la première modernité (1580-1640). Genève: Droz, 2010.

Review: M. Pavesio in S Fr 168 (2012) 560-561. Examines numerous aspects of the European monologue of the time indicated: poetic, historical, and anthropological. Focuses on dramatic practices of Italian, English, French and Spanish authors. Important analyses for the representation of thought and passion.

TONOLO, SOPHIE, ed. Madame Deshoulière. Poésies. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2010.

Review: J. Morgante in S Fr 167 (2012) 313-314. Highly useful edition for its pertinent introduction and annotations of texts. T.’s work highlights the value of D.’s poetry and its literary historic interest. Four appendices feature relevant texts such as the querelle of Phèdre (1677) in which D. participated.

TRAN-GERVAT, YEN-MAI. Traduire en français à l’âge classique: génie national et génie des langues. Paris: Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2013.

Review: J.-A. Perras in FS 68.3 (2014) 392. Born of a 2011 conference on translation, this is a “prelude” to a work closely studies the practice of translation in the 17th-18th centuries. Looks at general questions surrounding literary translation into French in the context of the simultaneous rise of a national language and national identity. Divided into two parts, one on translating from ancient languages, the other from other European languages; shows that translation was the subject of considerable reflection and debate in the neoclassical age.

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.

VAN DELFT, LOUIS. Les Moralistes. Une apologie. Paris: Gallimard, “Folio essais”, 2008.

Review: S. Lardon in S Fr 168 (2012) 559-560. Wide-ranging parcours of moralists illustrates this “apologie,” from the Ancients such as Cicero to figures representative of today’s reception. Admirable pluridisciplinary approach. L. characterizes Van D.’s essay as a voyage “à travers le temps, l’espace et les disciplines” (560). The volume is organized in five chapters: 1) “Définir, ma non troppo”, 2) “Toile de fond”, 3) L’homme en son théâtre”, 4) “Anthropologie”, and 5) “Moralia revisitée: modernités.”

YOSHIKAWA, KAZUYOSHI and NORIKO TAGUCHI, eds. Comment naît une oeuvre littéraire? Brouillons, contextes culturelles, évolutions thématiques. Paris: Champion, 2011.

Review: A. Schellino in S Fr 166 (2012) 202-204. This wide-ranging volume is the result of the 2007 Franco-Japanese Colloque organized by the Department of French Language and Literature of the University of Kyoto and the French-Japanese Institute of Kansai. Questions of inspiration and genesis of literary works are at the heart of this highly diverse subject which scholars have organized around principles including genesis and influence, intertextuality and thematic variation, among others. 17th c. scholars will appreciate examinations of “la génétique” chez Pascal and Racine’s “étapes de composition.” Other contributions focus on later authors.

ZIPES, JACK. The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2012.

REVIEW: J.T. Rudy in M&T 28.2 (2014) 402-04. “A cultural evolutionary approach to the fairy tale” that references everything from memes to collectors and collections. Includes audiovisual and digital media without losing sight of tales’ origins and studies centered on orality and folklore. Chapters on Perrault and d’Aulnoy will be of particular interest to dix-septièmistes.

ZONZA, CHRISTIAN, ed. L’île au XVIIe siècle: jeux et enjeux. Tübingen: Narr, 2010.

Review: M. Pavesio in S Fr 167 (2012) 316-317. These essays drawn from the 10th Colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle, held in Ajaccio, April 3-5, 2008, examine the theme of the island chronologically, generically and geographically, with the philosophical approach predominating. The studies are organized in the following sections: “Iles réelles,” “L’île et l’odyssée romanesque,” “L’île, parcours spirituel et moral,” “Iles et constructions utopiques,” “Iles et jeux.” Critical bibliography on the theme examined.