{"product_id":"the-travails-of-conscience-9780674905672","title":"The Travails of Conscience","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Arnauld family rose to prominence at the end of the sixteenth century by attaching themselves to King Louis XIV with absolute loyalty and obedience. Sedgwick's engaging history chronicles the Arnauld family's reaction to momentous political and religious developments and offers a unique perspective on a tumultuous period in French history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlexander Sedgwick examines the emotional turmoil of many Arnauld family members, as they sought to distance themselves from a corrupt world and focus their minds upon God...This book is largely based on memoirs, letter and polemical tracts written by the Arnaulds and their friends...[and is] successful in evoking the tormented lives of the Jansenists and their wish to pass on their beliefs. -- Roger Mettam * English Historical Review *\u003cbr\u003eSedgwick resumes his theme of Jansenist individualism by focusing on the family most closely identified with the movement. The author skillfully traces the traits that brought the Arnaulds to prominence: education, dedication to royal service, and family cohesion...Sedgwick describes the remarkable characters of the story: Mother Angelique, the reformer at Port-Royal; the patriarch Robert Arnauld de'Andilly; Antoine 'le Grand Arnauld'; and foreign minister Simon Arnauld de Pomponne. The strength of the book, however, lies not in these highly readable portraits but in its analysis of internal family dynamics (the interaction of strong women who separated themselves from the world but remained dependent on family protection and men who wavered between the world and the divine) amid the culture and politics of early modern France. Recommended reading for all students of the Ancien Régime. -- D.C. Baxter * Choice *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Travails of Conscience\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles the rise of the Arnauld family from provincial obscurity to bourgeois prominence and, eventually, to aristocratic eminence as well. But it does much more: it uses the vicissitudes of the Arnauld family to provide an ongoing commentary on the great problems of French society and culture at the time, ranging from the disorders of the seventeenth century, the Counter-Reformation, the place of Augustinianism in the religious life of the French elites of the time, the rise of absolutism, and the final mutation of Jansenism into patriotism during the fading years of the Old Regime. The style of the book is extremely pleasing: it is simple, lucid, and at times, gently ironic. -- Patrice Higonnet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction    Making One's Way in the World. The Early Generations   Angelique the Reformer (1591-1636)   The Conversion of a Family I: The Women   The Reformation of a Family II: The Solitaires   Robert Arnauld d'Andilly. The Patriarch   Le Grand Arnauld and the Origins of Jansenism   The Arnauld Family During the Fronde   The Confrontation, 1661-1669   Pomponne: The Rise and Fall of a Minister   Toward the Destruction of Port-Royal   The Marquis' Children, Jansenists in Spite of Themselves   The Arnaulds in History","brand":"Harvard University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49403613380951,"sku":"9780674905672","price":65.41,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780674905672.jpg?v=1730483990","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-travails-of-conscience-9780674905672","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}