The literary enterprise in eighteenth-century France /

In this lively and fascinating study of eighteenth-century French literary culture, Rémy G. Saisselin abandons the emphasis on literary genres and the history of ideas that has long characterized traditional literary histories. Instead he introduces the concept of "literary spaces" - the library, the Temple of Fame, and the French version of Grub Street - to examine the changing values and expectations associated with a literary career in the Old Régime. Each of these major perspectives is analyzed through representative men of letters and their works; some, like Voltaire, are still well known in modern scholarly histories, while others are perhaps undeservedly forgotten.

Saisselin holds that the literary life of eighteenth-century France cannot be understood solely in terms of the definitions laid down by the philosophes, for literary histories are written according to the point of view that has prevailed. Rather, his study includes an examination of the entire milieu within which the would-be author had to establish himself, ranging from publishers to censors to hacks, journalists, scholars, and philosophes. The result is witty and humane scholarship which will appeal not only to those with a professional interest in French literature, but to lovers of Swift, Pope, Johnson, and the whole world of books and authorship.