L'abbé de Saint-Pierre: entre classicisme et Lumières by Jean-Pierre Bois (review)

As the author of at least a dozen other works on war, peace, and international relations in the early modern era, Bois is well situated to write this literary biography of the abbé de Saint-Pierre. Saint-Pierre, best known for his Projet de paix perpétuelle, left little in the way of personal documents and correspondence, and contemporaries wrote few texts providing insight into the type of man he was. This poses no small challenge to the historian attempting to trace the portrait of such a figure. As a result, Bois's methodology focuses on studying Saint-Pierre's works and their context in order to better grasp the author's character: "Pour connaître et comprendre l'abbé de Saint-Pierre, il faut donc passer par son oeuvre [...] C'est ce que se propose cette approche biographique" (8). Bois, citing l'abbé Dubois, presents Saint-Pierre as "un homme de bien" (5). Despite a small number of tensions in Saint-Pierre's life—his expulsion from the Académie française, the closure of the Club de l'Entresol, and his quarrel with Louis Bertrand Castel—Bois's study reveals Saint-Pierre to be a peacemaker, a utopist and a reformer, proposing plans to do away with war, urging changes for the public good, seeking greater justice for all and the greatest happiness for the greatest number. In the end, Bois succeeds in revealing the man through his work. Bois's scholarship is solid and exhibits both depth and breadth. The sources Bois draws upon are numerous and well-chosen, including the full gamut of the prolific Saint-Pierre's works. Of particular interest to the specialist reader will be chapter 6, "Les grands projets de l'abbé de Saint-Pierre: entre classicisme et Lumières." Reprising the book's title in that of the chapter, Bois enumerates and discusses the importance of Saint-Pierre's modifications to his own earlier works as he compiled them into a single multi-volume collection. The chapter shows the evolution of thought, of the writer, and of the writer's milieu through the detailed examination of textual changes. Also of special interest is the final chapter, "L'abbé de Saint-Pierre du XVIII^e au XX^e siècle," in which Bois considers the abbé's legacy. This legacy reveals Saint-Pierre's temporal flip-side. Despite being "caught" between the Classical period and the Enlightenment, Saint-Pierre's influence extends far beyond that one transitionalmoment. Throughout the book, Bois's stylistic clarity and logical organization save the reader from getting bogged down in a mass of details, and Bois successfully guides the reader on a complicated journey through Saint-Pierre's works. As a result, even non-specialists will keep their bearings in reading Bois's book. Ultimately, the study's deep erudition and its focus on an infrequently studied author show that this work is aimed at the professional scholar. However, Bois's clear prose and well-constructed explanations make this specialist work accessible to any educated reader.