Le Libertinage et l'histoire: Politique de la séduction à la fin de l'Ancien Régime –...

reception, and because the quotations from the press, scattered in the notes, are sointeresting (p.40-1, 43, 45). The apparatus is also useful for its discussion of the ethicaland political dimension of Revolutionary theatre, particularly the role andresponsibility of the individual playwright (p.12-13). In short, readers will find, in thisedition, much information, and a valuable model for future projects: we need moreeditions like this one.

Mark DarlowChrist’s College, Cambridge

Le Libertinage et l’histoire: Politique de la séduction à la fin de l’AncienRégime. Stéphanie Genand. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. 2005. SVEC 2005:11. vi +277 pp. £50/€80/US$96 pb. 0-7294-0867-1.

In her introduction, Stéphanie Genand explains that her study of libertinage focuseson the period 1782-1802. The first of these dates is derived from the publication of LesLiaisons dangereuses, on the grounds that ‘ce texte a toujours été considéré comme lechef-d’œuvre de la littérature de séduction’ (p.5). The use of 1802 as a cut-off point isjustified by Napoleon’s rise to power on the one hand and the displacement oflibertinage by Romanticism on the other. The author concludes: ‘A la mort politique del’Ancien Régime semble donc correspondre sa disparition littéraire’ (p.6). However,that ‘literary disappearance’ will be shown to be a gradual and complex affair; for(Genand argues) the aristocratic novel of seduction proves at times surprisinglyresilient to the shocks of history.

In traditional French style, the main part of the book is divided into three parts. Inthe first of these, the author challenges what she calls ‘l’approche synchronique desrécits de séduction’ (p.10). In other words, she insists that the works of her corpusmust be understood in relation to literary history and history tout court, especiallysince the writers she examines express a sense of living through what she calls an‘étape charnière’ (p.13). In her second part, the author inquires what becomes of thelanguage, style and structure of the libertine novel under the pressure of history. Thisinvolves comparing it with the roman sentimental and the roman noir, among othergenres. Genand’s argument here is that elements of the libertine novel can be seen tobe particularly hardy. In her third part, the author explores to what extent the ‘modèlelibertin’ was able to survive the anti-aristocratic atmosphere of the Revolution and itsaftermath, a period when ‘même le silence est idéologique’ (p.173). Her answer is(once again) that libertinage survived better than has generally been noticed.

Genand achieves her goal of tracing a somewhat paradoxical relationship betweenhistory and libertinage, in which more than once the novel of seduction, or keyaspects of the latter, adapt to the very forces that seem likely to destroy the genre (atleast according to a certain reductive logic). The author’s research is meticulous, andshe expertly analyses the works that interest her, whilst bringing a number offorgotten writers, particularly women writers, to light. The general conclusionjustifiably claims that the novel of libertinage has been shown to be ‘un genre littérairemouvant, dont les évolutions [traduisent] moins le manque de cohésion que lacapacité d’adaptation’ (p.263). Overall this is a worthy and scholarly piece of researchthat remains faithful to its own literary-historical premises.

James FowlerUniversity of Kent

112 BOOK REVIEWS

© 2009 British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies