Correspondance de Madame de Graffigny. Vol. X: 26 avril 1749-2 juillet 1750, letters 1391-1569 by J. A. Dainard, Marie-Thérèse Inguenaud, Dorothy P. Arthur, M.-P. Ducretet-Powell, E. Showalter, D. W. Smith

Abstract

II56 Reviews between memory, history, and collective identity,the book also extends and corrects current scholarship on the construction ofmemory. As such it isdestined to become an essential reference for the fieldof French seventeenth-century literarystudies. GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON MARIE-CLAUDE CANOVA-GREEN Correspondance deMadame deGraffigny. Ed. by J. A. DAINARD. Vol. x: 26 avril I749 2 juillet I750, lettresI39I-I569. Ed. byMARIE-THERESE INGUENAUD, DOROTHY P. ARTHUR, M.-P. DUCRETET-POWELL, E. SHOWALTER, and D. W. SMITH. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. 2006. xxvii+638 pp. ?90. ISBN 978-o-7294-o806-6. This major edition pursues its splendid path towards completion. In volume x, we seeMme de Graffigny at last emerging from her financial problems as legacies and pensions alleviate substantially the embarrassments that had made her life in Paris so precarious. She still has crosses to bear, notably her continuing worries over her health, and the sulks and hysterics of her companion, Anne-Catherine de Ligniville ('Minette'), which she attributes firmlyto the menstrual cycles of theyounger woman. But relief isat hand asHelvetius at lastdeclares his intention to marryMinette. Death is a significant theme of thisvolume. She loses her friendMme deMontigny and is heartbroken, even though shewas tobenefit substantially fromher friend'swill. She expresses pleasure at the death of her enemyMme Du Chaitelet ('Je nem'en saurois cacher: j'en suis ravie' (p. 197)), and, with remarkable insouciance, downplays the illness ofDevaux's mistress, Mme Lemire ('la Petite'), until, inDecember 1749, la Petite dies, atwhich point, fullof remorse, she does her best toconsole her despairing friend. In the summer of 1749 she spends twomonths at the village ofThiais, near Choisy-le-Roi, a sojourn thatbrought balm and contentment to her soul, as well as better health to her body. But thisvolume isdominated by her work on her play La Gouvernante, which will become Cenie in itsfinalform. InMay I749 she tellsDevaux: '[.. .] je ne puis m'enpecher de t'en gazouiller quelque chose' (p. 34) but, fortunately for us, she twitterson about the play and itsprogress for the rest of that year and throughout the following one until itspremiere (which shewas too scared to attend) on 25 June 1750. The production was a triumph and consolidated her reputation as one of the leading lights of the French literaryworld of the time. The impeccably high standards of the edition aremaintained throughout thisvolume and the modern scholar will look forwardwith pleasure to those that await publication. SWANSEA UNIVERSITY MICHAEL CARDY Confiscations at Customs: Banned Books and theFrench Booktrade during theLast Years of the Ancien regime. By ROBERT L. DAWSON. (SVEC 2006:07) Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. 2006. xv+3I5 pp. ?65. ISBN 978-0-72940-88I-3. The publication in 1979 ofRobert Darnton's The Business ofEnlightenment: A Pub lishing History of the 'Encyclopedie', I775-I800 (Harvard: Harvard University Press) relaunched the study of the clandestine book trade in pre-Revolutionary France, and subsequent investigations bymany scholars have demonstrated repeatedly how complex, deceptive, and misleading the documentation on forbidden books can be. Complex, because many of the documents refer, with infuriatingvagueness, towhat may be differentbooks with similar titles,or the same book variously described. De ceptive, because the title-pages of illicitbooks recorded inofficial registers often claim ...