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12 - The Libertine Novel

from Part II - The Eighteenth Century: Learning, Letters, Libertinage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2021

By
Marine Ganofsky
Edited by
Adam Watt
Adam Watt
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

This chapter offers a definition of the libertine novel as the erotic fiction of the Age the Enlightenment. Not only do libertine novels embody the intellectual audacity of the period through their transgressive and free-thinking characters; they also join efforts by scientists and philosophes to unveil the secret workings of the human machine whilst imagining a society fit for it. This chapter contends that this erotic and enlightened fiction represents a crucial element in the history of both literature and ideas, since it epitomises the moment when the Western world first stepped into modernity, challenging old ideals and idols, and redefining pleasure as any individual’s inalienable and natural right.

Keywords

Libertinageenlightenmenthistory of sexualityerotic literaturepornographymaterialismempiricismLaclosSadeCrébillon
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Novel in French , pp. 220 - 236
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Darnton, Robert, The Forbidden Best-sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (New York: Norton, 1995)Google Scholar
Darnton, Robert, The Literary Underground of the Old Regime (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982)Google Scholar
Delon, Michel, Le Savoir-vivre libertin (Paris: Hachette, 2000)Google Scholar
Feher, Michael (ed.), The Libertine Reader: Eroticism and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century France (Cambridge, MA: Zone Books, 1997)Google Scholar
Foucault, Didier, Histoire du libertinage: des goliards au marquis de Sade (Paris: Perrin, 2007)Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel, History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge [1976], trans. by Hurley, Robert (New York: Pantheon, 1978)Google Scholar
Goulemot, Jean-Marie, Ces Livres qu’on ne lit que d’une main: lecture et lecteurs de livres pornographiques au dix-huitième siècle (Aix-en-Provence: Alinea, 1991)Google Scholar
Perrin, Jean-François and Stewart, Philip (eds.), Du genre libertin au dix-huitième siècle (Paris: Desjonquères, 2004)Google Scholar
Starobinski, Jean, L’Invention de la liberté: 1700–1789 (Geneva: Skira, 1987)Google Scholar
Stewart, Philip, Le Masque et la parole: le langage de l’amour au dix-huitième siècle (Paris: Corti, 1973)Google Scholar
Trousson, Raymond (ed.), Romans libertins du dix-huitième siècle (Paris: Laffont, 1993)Google Scholar
Viala, Alain, La France galante (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2008)Google Scholar
Wald Lasowski, Patrick, Dictionnaire libertin: la langue du plaisir au siècle des Lumières (Paris: Gallimard, 2011)Google Scholar
Wald Lasowski, Patrick, Le Grand Dérèglement: le roman libertin du dix-huitième siècle (Paris: Gallimard, 2008)Google Scholar
Wald Lasowski, Patrick (ed.), Romanciers libertins du XVIIe siècle, 2 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, 2005)Google Scholar

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  • The Libertine Novel
  • Edited by Adam Watt, University of Exeter
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
  • Online publication: 04 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108683920.016
Available formats
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  • The Libertine Novel
  • Edited by Adam Watt, University of Exeter
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
  • Online publication: 04 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108683920.016
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Libertine Novel
  • Edited by Adam Watt, University of Exeter
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
  • Online publication: 04 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108683920.016
Available formats
×