Enlightened pleasures:eighteenth-century France and the new epicureanism

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kavanagh Thomas M.
Published: Yale University Press Annie Burr Lewis Fund,
Publisher Address: New Haven [Conn.]
Publication Dates: c2010.
Literature type: Book
Language: English
Series: The Lewis Walpole series in eighteenth-century culture and history
Subjects:
Carrier Form: 254 p.: ill. ; 25 cm.
ISBN: 9780300140941 (cloth : alk. paper)
0300140940 (cloth : alk. paper)
Index Number: K565
CLC: K565.4
Call Number: K565.4/K219
Contents: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: A new epicureanism -- The pleasures of failure : Jourdan's Le guerrier philosophe -- Mirroring pleasure : La Morliere's Angola -- Life-writing as Epicurean allegory : Therese 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.