Enlightened pleasures : eighteenth-century France and the new epicureanism /
Kavanagh, Thomas M.
New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press : Annie Burr Lewis Fund,
c2010.
"Novelists, artists, and philosophers of the eighteenth century understood pleasure as a virtue - a gift to be shared with one's companion, with a reader, or with the public. In this daring new book, Thomas Kavanagh overturns the prevailing scholarly tradition that views eighteenth-century France primarily as the incubator of the Revolution. Instead, Kavanagh demonstrates how the art and literature of the era put the experience of pleasure at the center of the cultural agenda, leading to advances in both ethics and aesthetics."--Publisher's description.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: A new epicureanism -- The pleasures of failure : Jourdan's Le guerrier philosophe -- Mirroring pleasure : La Morlière's Angola -- Life-writing as Epicurean allegory : Thérèse philosophe -- The esthetics of pleasure : Du Bos and Boucher -- Rousseau's Eudemony of liberty -- Laclos' Anthropology of pleasure -- Recasting the Epicurean novel : Mirabeau's La morale des sens -- Theaters of pleasure -- Conclusion: From pleasure to happiness.
"Novelists, artists, and philosophers of the eighteenth century understood pleasure as a virtue - a gift to be shared with one's companion, with a reader, or with the public. In this daring new book, Thomas Kavanagh overturns the prevailing scholarly tradition that views eighteenth-century France primarily as the incubator of the Revolution. Instead, Kavanagh demonstrates how the art and literature of the era put the experience of pleasure at the center of the cultural agenda, leading to advances in both ethics and aesthetics."--Publisher's description.
Philosophy, French
Epicureans (Greek philosophy)
Pleasure.
French literature