L'Idée d'énergie au tournant des lumières (1770-1820) (review)

78 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION 3:1 a number of issues in a single context. It also most clearly reveals the impossibility of neutrality. Day relates how Richard Cumberland defended Fielding by showing the negative effect of Clarissa on young women; he offers the extreme example of a young lady who insisted on emulating Clarissa by having her coffin in her bedroom. Day then presents Anna Seward's response, that it is unfair to judge a work by its effect on a single "romantic delirious fool." She supports her argument by pointing to similar effects the Bible has had on those who go to abnormal extremes in imitation of Christ. For Day, Seward displays the lack of a sense of humour typical of Richardsonians: her argument is dismissed as a confused over-reaction. I find Seward's argument appropriate and logical as an answer to Cumberland; I even find her humorous irony of a kind with Cumberland's in its presentation. Day clearly prefers Cumberland's view; he probably prefers Fielding to Richardson. Such preferences cannot be removed from a study of this kind, but they are at odds with Day's assumption of neutrality, and, as a result, weaken the credibility of his argument. The most curious problem with Day's study is one of intended audience. His publisher emphasizes his call for a "radical revision" of the "perception of 'an eighteenth century novel'" (p. 162). The dust-jacket describes the book as "an iconoclastic, learned and lively book, which gently but precisely undermines a basic category of modern literary understanding." The question is "Whose understanding?" It will come as no surprise to readers of Eighteenth-Century Fiction that eighteenth-century theories of prose fiction are varied and that they are not based on twentieth-century assumptions. Day is clearly well read in eighteenth-century criticism; his notes suggest that he is unaware of twentiethcentury discussions of the material he covers. His tone is one of fresh insight even though most of his conclusions are commonplace for specialist readers. While this is a useful introductory study for undergraduate or non-specialist readers, it contributes little to advanced scholarship in this field. Brian Corman University of Toronto Michel Delon. L'Idée d'énergie au tournant des lumières (1770-1820). Paris: Presses universitaires de France (Littératures modernes), 1988. 521pp. Après "L'idée du bonheur" (par R. Mauzi) et "L'idée de nature" (par J. Ehrard), nous avons maintenant le livre sur "L'idée d'énergie." Ce livre vient donc s'ajouter à une série qui aborde le XVIIIe siècle par le biais de l'histoire des idées. Il s'agit d'un ouvrage important à bien des égards, dont l'usage s'avérera incontournable pour les spécialistes du XVIIIe siècle finissant. Michel Delon apporte cependant deux changements importants à la tradition dans laquelle il s'insère: le premier concerne la méthode de l'histoire des idées, le second la période couverte. Peut-on extraire les idées du tissu des pratiques historiques et textuelles et en faire des objets à traiter séparément?—Michel Delon prend note des critiques dont l'histoire des idées a été la cible et nous en propose une version renouvelée qui éviterait le biais idéaliste en réinsérant l'objet "idée" dans l'épaisseur de ses divers contextes: "Consistance des oeuvres, consistance des systèmes de pensée, consistance des moments historiques, telles sont les postulations qui permettent d'éviter toute réduction, toute simplification abusive" (p. 18). Pourtant, la tâche s'avère ardue aux dires de l'auteur lui-même: "Les spécialistes REVIEWS 79 y verront, selon leur outillage propre, un lexeme, un philosophème, un idéologème, un mythème [...]" (p. 18). N'ayant pas opté à son tour pour un "outillage propre," Michel Delon traverse ceux des autres, en adoptant de la sorte une attitude bien plus descriptive qu'analytique, ce qui n'est pas pour donner à l'histoire des idées les nouvelles lettres de créance académiques dont elle avait un besoin urgent. L'auteur ne paraît...