Enlightened pleasures
Subtitle: eighteenth-century France and the new epicureanism
By: Thomas M. Kavanagh
Series: The Lewis Walpole series in eighteenth-century culture and history; Lewis Walpole series in eighteenth-century culture and history
Publisher: Yale University Press; Annie Burr Lewis Fund
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New Haven [Conn.]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 254
ISBN-13: 9780300140941
Description: "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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: A new epicureanism; title: The pleasures of failure : Jourdan's Le guerrier philosophe; title: Mirroring pleasure : La Morlière's Angola; title: Life-writing as Epicurean allegory : Thérèse philosophe; title: The esthetics of pleasure : Du Bos and Boucher; title: Rousseau's Eudemony of liberty; title: Laclos' Anthropology of pleasure; title: Recasting the Epicurean novel : Mirabeau's La morale des sens; title: Theaters of pleasure; title: Conclusion: From pleasure to happiness.