Pascal, auteur spirituel (review)

This collection of articles is the fruit of three conferences held in Clermont-Ferrand between 2000 and 2005. Many of the contributors will be well known to Pascal scholars (Mesnard, Sellier, Ferreyrolles, Michon, Thirouin, Bord, Descotes), but there are also some less familiar names. The major value of the volume lies in the prominence which is given to those religious works by Pascal which are studied less often than the Pensées, such as the Écrits sur la grâce, Sur la conversion du pécheur and the Prière pour demander à Dieu le bon usage des maladies. Divided into four sections, the book begins with questions of context and sources (including discussion of the Council of Trent, Oratorian influences, St Paul, Calvin and Thomas Aquinas), moving to studies of actual Pascalian texts, before considering various literary and rhetorical forms, and ending with three articles on later writers who were marked by Pascal's influence (Fénelon, Marie de l'Incarnation and Sainte-Beuve). Two appendices are included at the end, one useful (an index of all references to St Paul in Pascal's writing, which has not hitherto been available) and one less useful (a facsimile of the Mémorial, which seems to be reproduced in every second book on Pascal). All the articles will be of interest, but it is worth singling out Laurent Thirouin's characteristically perspicacious offerings: his piece on 'Se divertir, se convertir' in particular, is masterly for the ways in which he links the terms 'divertissement', 'conversion' and 'conversation', leading to a fascinating analysis of a number of texts by both Blaise and Gilberte Pascal. We are all used to the inflated prices of Champion, but, for value for money, surely the time has come for each book to have an index which is more than barely adequate.