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1 results

  • 12 - The Libertine Novel

  • from Part II - The Eighteenth Century: Learning, Letters, Libertinage
  • Edited by Adam Watt, University of Exeter
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
    Published online:
    04 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 February 2021, pp 220-236

  • Summary

    This chapter offers a definition of the libertine novel as the erotic fiction of the Age the Enlightenment. Not only do libertine novels embody the intellectual audacity of the period through their transgressive and free-thinking characters; they also join efforts by scientists and philosophes to unveil the secret workings of the human machine whilst imagining a society fit for it. This chapter contends that this erotic and enlightened fiction represents a crucial element in the history of both literature and ideas, since it epitomises the moment when the Western world first stepped into modernity, challenging old ideals and idols, and redefining pleasure as any individual’s inalienable and natural right.