Movements and schools
The French Enlightenment
French thought and fiction of the eighteenth century.
A young man raised to believe that all is for the best crosses earthquakes, wars and the Inquisition before concluding that one must cultivate one's garden: Candide turns fiction into an instrument of argument. In the eighteenth century the tale, the Persian letter, the epistolary novel and comedy served to examine laws, religion, education and desire. Rousseau invented modern feeling, Diderot broke narrative so that the reader would argue, Beaumarchais put into a valet's mouth what censorship forbade elsewhere.
works 8
- NovelPersian LettersLettres persanesMontesquieu · 1721Two travellers from Persia tell of Paris in letters, while the seraglio of one of them writes to him.LiteraturePublic domain
- TheatreThe Island of SlavesL'Île des esclavesPierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux · 1725On an island whose law reverses social conditions, two masters become the valets of their valets.LiteraturePublic domain
- NovelManon LescautAbbé Prévost · 1731A young man from a good family tells a stranger what a young woman has cost him.LiteraturePublic domain
- NovelJulie, or the New HeloiseJulie ou la Nouvelle HéloïseJean-Jacques Rousseau · 1761A commoner tutor loves his pupil, the daughter of a baron who refuses their union.LiteraturePublic domain
- TheatreThe Barber of SevilleLe Barbier de SévillePierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais · 1775A grand nobleman in disguise tries to approach a young girl whom her guardian keeps locked away and intends to marry.LiteraturePublic domain
- NovelDangerous LiaisonsLes Liaisons dangereusesPierre Choderlos de Laclos · 1782Two libertines divide up by letter the conquests they intend to make, and bet against each other.LiteraturePublic domain
- NovelJacques the Fatalist and His MasterJacques le Fataliste et son MaîtreDenis Diderot · 1796A valet wants to tell his master how he fell in love, and everything prevents him.LiteraturePublic domain