Les Incas, ou, La destruction de l’Empire du Pérou by Jean-François Marmontel (review)

This critical edition adds to a growing number of the philosophe’s works to be re-edited in accessible form. Pierino Gallo places the text firmly in its Enlightenment context and looks back to the publication of Bélisaire in 1767 as well as forward to the Essai sur les romans of 1787 and its definition of a ‘roman politique’. Marmontel dedicated the text to Gustav III, whom he had met while the future Swedish king was in Paris. Gallo traces the evolution of the text, from the earliest version in manuscript form held in the Kungliga Biblioteket (Royal Library) at Stockholm to the published edition of 1777. Marmontel made a number of changes, which resulted in a more Manichean text: in particular the Incas are made more innocent and more civilized to reinforce the political message. The Introduction presents the work as a ‘texte “multiple”—historique et moral d’un côté, philosophique et politique de l’autre’ (p. 8) and Gallo offers clear ways through the text based on these four strands. Marmontel used the destruction of Peru as an excuse to attack intolerance and fanaticism and the resultant volume was ‘un des plus grands succès de librairie du xviii^e et xix^e siècle’ (p. 13) in France and beyond, despite it being labelled ‘un mauvais roman, une mauvaise histoire, un mauvais poème’ by his literary opponent Fréron. The Introduction provides a useful exploration of how the text’s genre troubled Marmontel’s contemporaries and gives good insights into Marmontel’s sources, from Lucan to Fénelon, Voltaire to Raynal. The Introduction concludes with pointers on some of the theatrical adaptations based on the text and its influence on Chateaubriand. Textual variants are handily placed at the bottom of each page for ease of reference, with editor’s notes at the back of the volume, primarily providing details of Marmontel’s sources. Overall this is a very useful edition that should inspire renewed interest for a fascinating text.