Description
Book SynopsisThis collection of twenty essays, of which five are in French, written by leading English and French literary and historical scholars, deconstructs the ethical and political framework supporting and circumscribing the actions of a powerful elite in France between the early 1600s and the final years of Louis XIV''s reign.
Trade Review
"The editors are to be complimented for assembling this international team of scholars, who have explored a theme which is central to the cultural and political history of seventeenth-century France." French History Vol. 12, No. 3 1998 ". . .this collection contains much that will interest the historian and the literary scholar." (English Historical Review, April 1998)
Table of ContentsDerek Watts
Derek Watts: A Bibliography
Contributors
Part I: The Ethics of Action
Introduction, Elizabeth Woodrough
1. 'Alternative' Ethical Systems in France during the Grand Siècle, William D. Howarth
2. A Note on Lay Piety in the Early Seventeenth Century, John Cruickshank
3. Guez de Balzac: The Enduring Influence of Rome, Margaret McGowan
4. L'Image de la Ligue dans les Mémoires du Cardinal de Retz, Simone Bertière
5. The Political Testaments of Richelieu and La Rochefoucauld, Elizabeth Woodrough
6. Considérations morales et politiques autour d'Henri II de Montmorency: Une polyphonie discordante, Noémi Hepp
7. Medicine and Statecraft in the Mémoires of the Cardinal de Retz, Colin Jones
8. The Fouquet-Colbert Rivalry and the 'Revolution' of 1661, Richard Bonney
9. Crescit ut aspicitur: Condé and the Reinterpretation of Heroism, 1650-1662, Mark Bannister
10. Love, Marriage and a Disputed Sentence in La Princesse de Clèves, John Campbell
11. Marie de Villars: A Political Woman?, Wendy Perkins
12. Ascendant et déclinaison de la noblesse française dans le système de Boulainvilliers, Yves Coirault
Part II: The Politics of Theatre
13. Corneille: Ethic and Polis, Henry Phillips
14. Sur l'echec des conjurés dans La Mort de Sénèque, Madeleine Bertaud
15. 'Le poids d'une couronne': The Dilemma of Monarchy in La Calprenède's Tragedies, Guy Snaith
16. African Temptresses and Roman Matrons: Female Roles on the Paris Stage, 1634-1643, David Clarke
17. How Quinault uses Political Commonplaces, William Brooks
18. Politics and Tragedy: The Case of the Earl of Essex, C.J. Gossip
19. 'Je commence à rougir': Shame, Self-Esteem and Guilt in the Presentation of Racine's Hippolyte, Edward Forman
20. L'influence de Louis XIV sur la vie littéraire: pour un bilan critique, Jean Rohou
Index
