Les Baisers des Lumières (review)

The thirteen essays of this inspired volume all focus upon the kiss as leitmotif and symbol pervading the imaginary of the Age of Enlightenment, from the handkissing of polite greeting via the magical power of kisses in fairy-tales to the snogs stolen by libertines in 'boudoirs' and 'bosquets'. This is an original and revealing point of entry into the libertine world in particular, and contributions on the libertine novel dominate the collection, both spatially and epistemologically. There are insightful explorations of the semiological and narratological functions of the kiss in Sade's Juliette (François Raviez), Casanova's Histoire de ma vie (Elena Real) and Pigault-Lebrun's L'Enfant du carnaval (Alain Montandon), as well as useful surveys of 'Le baiser libertin' (Michèle Bokobza Kahan) and 'Le baiser galant' (Jörn Steigerwald). As noted in the Préface, the kiss is paradigmatic of a sensibility that is peculiar to the eighteenth century, playing a major role in an extensive and complex semiotics of eroticism and sentiment, bearing profound moral and social, as well as sexual, meanings. Curiously, the editor claims that 'les libertins embrassent peu' (p. 7), yet Sade and Casanova are there to suggest otherwise. 'Tout le long de sa vie Casanova a reçu et donné beaucoup de baisers', declares Elena Real in the opening sentence of an essay that links the kiss in Casanova's world exclusively to love. Sade's libertines also regularly exchange 'langues de feu' (p. 161), though with no emotional significance and solely as a prelude to greater physical intimacy. While kissing in the 'roman galant' and 'roman libertin' is often quickly followed by acts of a more explicitly sexual nature, its functions and meanings in mainstream literature of the period are perhaps more subtle. Yen Mai Tran-Gervat conducts a sensitive investigation into the ambivalent status of the kiss in 'romans parodiques' such as Marivaux's Pharsamon and Diderot's Jacques le fataliste, and there is an instructive analysis by Gabrielle Vickermann-Ribémont of the complex network of significations associated with the practice of 'le baisemains', as reflected in literature. Other essays deal with more esoteric yet no less fascinating subjects: the geometry of kissing, for instance (Claude Jamain), while the more poetically inclined will find much of interest in a reading of Claude-Joseph Dorat's Les Baisers (Jean-Pierre Dubost). Through close readings of their literary representations, these 'études osculologiques' offer important insights into gestures of greeting, affection and passion, characteristic of an age noted as much for its preoccupation with the body as the mind.