Description
Book SynopsisExplores why and how the nocturnal and the erotic came to be so intrinsically connected in French eighteenth century fiction between the start of a rakish Regence (1715-1723) and 1789.
Trade Review'With an engaging narrative arc,
Night in French Libertine Fiction shows how the playful dichotomy between celebrating the limits imposed by the night and using the night to transgress social or moral limits (as detailed in chapters two through six) is destroyed by the Sadean extension of the logic of libertinism.'
Craig Koslofsky,
H-FranceTable of ContentsIntroduction
i. Libertine fiction: a nocturnal genre?
ii. Libertine nocturnes
iii. The ‘Nocturnal Order’ of libertine nights
iv. The eroticisation of the nocturnal
v. The nocturnalisation of eroticism
vi. Chapter outline
1. Enlightening the night: a cultural and historical perspective on eighteenth-century nights
i. Intellectual enlightenment
ii. Material enlightenment
2. The nocturnal aesthetics of libertine fiction
i. Libertine writing, pornography and obscurity
ii. The embellishing obscurity of Crébillon’s oriental tales
iii. The eroticism of
demi-jours in
Le Souper des petits-maîtres and
Les Soupers de Daphnéiv. Voluptuous shadows in
Thémidorev.
Félicia and sublime obscurity
3. Night as a hiding space
i. Night as a private space within communal living in
Le Portier des chartreux and
Mémoires de Suzonii. Night as an indulgent architectural space in
La Petite Maisoniii. Night as an intimate body part in
La Nuit merveilleuse4. Nocturnal illusions: dreams of sylph-like lovers
i. The dream: the sleep of reason produces sylphs in
Le Sylpheii. The mistake: the genie Makis, or the mistaken lover in
Angolaiii. The lie: Clitandre, or a sylph of no consequence in
La Nuit et le momentiv. The illusion: Mirbelle, or the fleshless sylph in
Les Malheurs de l’inconstance5. Nocturnal revelations
i. Damon’s Nyctelian initiation in
Point de lendemainii. Laure’s nocturnal education in
Le Rideau levéiii. Cécile’s nightly enlightenment in
Les Liaisons dangereuses6. Queens of the night: women and their nocturnal mystery in
Les Liaisons dangereusesi. The marquise de Merteuil’s nights, or the masquerade of femininity
ii. The présidente de Tourvel’s shadow, or the female mystery
7. The end of libertine nights:
Les Cent Vingt Journées de Sodomei. Sade’s Gothic and sublime nocturnes: within the dark night of the soul
ii. The Sadean nocturnal fortress
iii. Sade versus the libertine
clair-obscurEpilogue: beyond libertine nights – mornings and morrows
i. Mornings
ii. Morrows
Bibliography
Index
