La Figure du bibliomane: Histoire du livre et strategie litteraire au XIXe siecle (review)

Abstract

"Bibliomanie: Folie, manie d'amasser des livres . . . On ne peut s'en servir qu'en riant" (51). Thus did the 1708 Dictionnaire universel stigmatize the practice of collecting books for purposes other than reading. A century later, however, the ridicule once accorded the bibliomane was ceding to respect, even admiration. As Daniel Desor-meaux contends in his fascinating study, this transforming perception of an emerging esthetic, political and social phenomenon gave rise, in turn, to new literary stakes and strategies. Desormeaux proposes not a history of bibliomania (although his book is enlightening on this topic), but rather a highly original analysis of book-love as both literary theme and rhetorical strategy in the works of five nineteenth-century authors, all of them, in differing ways, bibliomanes.