Le Roman libertin au XVIIIe siècle: une esthétique de la séduction by Dominique Hölzle (review)

This excellent study suggests that male characters in the roman galant and the roman libertin feel threatened by a double danger: on the one side lurks the ennui of a frivolous, worldly existence; on the other, passion in all its destructive force. The galants attempt to steer a middle course, by aestheticizing the domain of love. The abbé Du Bos's suggestion that the theatre and other forms of enjoyment provide 'artificial' emotions, without risk of tragic or unpleasant after-effects, throws light on this phenomenon. But the libertines or roués (for instance, those of Richardson, Dorat, and Laclos) go further. By turning their pursuit of 'belles-âmes' into elaborate performances, they aim to sublimate passion and its dangers. And so libertines strive to produce a pleasing narrative set out in letters addressed to fellow libertines, who supply a kind of audience. But critically, their 'esthétique de la séduction' is also one of sensibilité, heavily influenced by Richardson (whose Lovelace is a case in point) and Rousseau. The roués perform and watch themselves perform; in their role as actors they bring to mind Diderot's Paradoxe sur le comédien. But ineluctably, they fall under the sway of pathos; having intended a comedy, they are embroiled in something more serious. This failure of the dispositif esthétique is accompanied by a pedagogical failure: the invalidation of libertine 'knowledge' of the self and the world. In this respect, romans libertins mondains form a contrast with their pornographic cousins, which are so often shaped by the successful transmission of libertine knowledge, generally associated with materialism. The rise of romans de roués coincides with a fading of the poetics of galanterie, which is increasingly parodied (a trend recapitulated in the contrast between Crébillon's early and late novels). And if an author clings too long to the codes of galanterie, he or she will strike a false note. Thus Dorat's Lady Sidley recalls both Clarissa and Julie; but, still under the sway of the roman galant, the author confuses 'le discours du sentiment avec l'emphase' (p. 257). Finally, the 'richness' of the romans de roués depends on the way they probe and test, in practice, the era's theories of fiction: those of Burke, Du Bos, Diderot, and Rousseau. This is a fascinating study, to be highly recommended. The consideration of the roman des roués in relation to the roman galant is extremely revealing, as is the demonstration of the counter-intuitive (and therefore usually overlooked) debt that the libertine novel owes to Richardson and Rousseau.