The Libertine Reader: Eroticism and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century France
Michel Feher, Denis Diderot, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles, Vivant Denon, Marquis de Sade, Marcel Hénaff, Chantal Thomas, Jean Sgard, Joan DeJean, Catherine Cusset
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The Libertine Reader includes all the varieties of libertine strategies: from the successful cunning of Mme de T- in Denon's No Tomorrow to the ill-fated genius of Mme Merteuil in Laclos's Dangerous Liaisons; from the laborious sentimental education of Meilcour in Cr�billon fils's Wayward Head and Heart to the hazardous master plan of the French ambassador in Pr�vost's The Story of a Modern Greek Woman. The discrepancies between the characters' words and their true intentions -- the libertine double entendre -- are exposed through the speaking vaginas in Diderot's Indiscreet Jewels and the wandering soul of Amanzei in Cr�billon fils's Sofa, while the contrasts between natural and civilized -- or degenerate -- erotics are the subjects of both Diderot's Supplement to Bougainville's Voyage and Laclos's On the Education of Women. Finally, Sade's Florville and Courval shows that destiny itself is on the side of libertinism.
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