The Comic Philosophes: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Sade

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Summa Publications, Inc., 2002 - Literary Criticism - 136 pages
This work is a study of philosophe fiction through comic irony that is its unifying feature. Readings are offered of exemplary philosophe narratives from Les Lettres persanes to Candide, Le Neveu de Rameau to Justine, as well as an analysis of the evolution of irony from the classical world of Montesquieu and Voltaire to the modern (and subversive) conceptions of Diderot and Sade. Professor Werner argues for a new understanding of comic irony as inseparable from the philosophe aesthetic and, through Sade, an expansion of its usual canon of authors.

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Contents

Montesquieu
7
II
8
Voltaire
33
Diderot
63
IV
66
Sade
99

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