Jacques the fatalist and his master
By: Denis Diderot ; translated with an introduction and notes by David Coward.
Contributors: Coward, David.
Series: Oxford world's classics; Oxford world's classics (Oxford University Press)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 258
Description: "Jacques the Fatalist is Diderot's answer to the problem of existence. If human beings are determined by their genes and their environment, how can they claim to be free to want or do anything? Where are Jacques and his Master going? Are they simply occupying space, living mechanically until they die, believing erroneously that they are in charge of their Destiny? Diderot intervenes to cheat our expectations of what fiction should be and do, and behaves like a provocative, ironic, and unfailingly entertaining master of revels which finally show why Fate is not to be equated with doom." "In the introduction to this new translation, David Coward explains the philosophical basis of Diderot's fascination with Fate and shows why Jacques the Fatalist pioneers techniques of action which, two centuries on, novelists still regard as experimental."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-258).