A collection by Dr James Fowler from the Department of French, entitled New Essays on Diderot, has just been published in paperback by Cambridge University Press.
The great 18th-century French thinker Denis Diderot (1713-84) once compared himself to a weathervane, by which he meant that his mind was in constant motion. In an extraordinarily diverse career he produced novels, plays, art criticism, works of philosophy and poetics, and also reflected on music and opera. Perhaps most famously, he ensured the publication of the Encyclopédie, which has often been credited with hastening the onset of the French Revolution. Known as one of the three greatest philosophers of the Enlightenment, Diderot rejected the Christian ideas in which he had been raised. Instead, he became an atheist and a determinist. His radical questioning of received ideas and established religion led to a brief imprisonment, and for that reason, no doubt, some of his subsequent works were written for posterity. The collection of essays celebrates the life and work of this extraordinary figure as we approach the tercentenary of his birth.
The collection includes an introduction from James, who also authors an essay in the volume entitled ‘La Religieuse: Diderot’s “Richardsonian” novel’.
For more information about the publication, please see the Cambridge University Press webpage here:
www.cambridge.org/fr/academic/subjects/literature/european-literature/new-essays-diderot