Les Œuvres complètes de Voltaire ed. by Nicholas Cronk, et al, and: Les Œuvres complètes de Voltaire ed. by Nicholas Cronk et al (review)

Abstract

MLR, I02.3, 2007 853 artificiallycoherent totality (his term is 'reconstitution'), inorder toenable his readers to pick their thematicway more deftly through the loosely arranged entries inwhat Barthes memorably called 'le scraps-book [sic] de lamondanite' ('La Bruyere' (I963), inEssais critiques (Paris: Seuil, I964), pp. 221-36 (p. 234)). Luoni argues that, in iron ingout the aspects of apparent randomness in theorder of the remarques and indeed of thechapters, he isable to arrive at a clearer idea ofwhat La Bruyere really 'thought' about things, largely because, as he correctly asserts, theportraitswere mostly added at a later stage, so as todisrupt any sententious dynamic that could have built up in theearlier editions. The study is thus a kind of annotated paraphrase, divided into five sections (or traites),devoted successively to 'levice' (by far the longest), 'lavertu', 'le ressentiment', 'ledesespoir', and 'la consolation surnaturelle'. There is thenan appen dix devoted toLa Bruyere's religious views, inwhich some welcome consideration is given to theposthumous Dialogues sur lequietisme, and a practical index tokey terms. The insights afforded by this taxonomical exercise lie in itsoccasional rehabilitation of a passage by theprovision of a thematic context itdoes not enjoy in theoriginal, and in some enlightening commentaries. But the reader ismore often leftasking why this should need to be done. Quite apart from any (as Luoni implies) modish fascination with theaesthetics of disorder orwith theparticularities of theaccretive text,one need only turn to the firstchapter, 'Des ouvrages de l'esprit' (towhich he devotes little attention), todiscover the likelihood thatLa Bruyere isexperimenting with stylistics asmuch as promoting orthodoxies. More narrowly, does the first-personpronoun, as Luoni suggests, obviously and always refer to thehistorical La Bruyere? And do we takehis unusual (fortheperiod) use of theword 'philosophe' at facevalue as a synonym for what we would more comfortably label a 'moraliste'? There are arguments foran swering both questions in theaffirmative,but not forpretending theydon't exist. The underlying methodological uncertainty, therefore,arises from the failure to examine whether or not such an imposition of thematic order is by definition amisreading (the sort of thing that, in a different idiom, Brunchvicg did toPascal inhis edition of thePensees, vols xii-xiv of the I4-vOl. UEuvres completes (Paris: Hachette, I904-I4)), thatobscures the true radicalism of theCaracteres, present in theways inwhich La Bruyere, forall his political conservatism and religious orthodoxy, shocks the reader into seeing things in a new and disconcerting light.The work afterall begins with the threewords 'Tout estdit', and itsoften contradictory impact isasmuch due tohow it is written as to any innovative thinkingper se.But that simple (and relativelyuncontro versial) critical prealable goes largelyunaddressed. The selective bibliography reveals an easy command of the secondary material, which is often brought pertinently to bear on the core arguments, despite certain surprising omissions: Paul Benichou and A. J.Krailsheimer, in their contextualizations (respectively,Morales du grand siecle (Paris: Gallimard, I948) and Studies in Self-Interest fromDescartes toLa Bruyere (Oxford: Clarendon Press, I962)); Robert Garapon's 1978 study (Les 'Caracteres'de La Bruyere: La Bruyere au travail (Paris: SEDES)), some ofwhose conclusions (if notmethods) would have supported those ofLuoni; and Barthes's I963 introduction to the io- i 8 edition, which might have proved more inconvenient. ST CATHERINE'S COLLEGE,OXFORD RICHARD PARISH Les cEuvres completes de Voltaire. Ed. by NICHOLAS CRONK and others. Vol. LxiiiC: L'Ingenu. Ed. by RICHARD A. FRANCIS. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. 2oo6. xvi+346 pp. ?95. ISBN 978-o-7294-o824-0. While doubtless not sowell known as Candide, L'Ingenu (I 767) is every bit as inter esting and complex and was, moreover, written at a timewhen Voltaire was deeply 854 Reviews disturbed by grossmiscarriages of justicewithin theFrench judicial system, thecauses celebres involving La Barre, Calas, Sirven, and de Lally. His campaigns reflectedwhat was his greatest message to his times and our own-the need for tolerance in all matters of belief and ideology.Voltaire provided himselfwith a smallmeasure ofpro tection against persecution by the French authorities by setting his fiction in the late seventeenth century-his massive documentation forLe Siecle de Louis XIV greatly assisted him in this regard, of course- but since the system in France had barely changed since thatperiod, his contemporaries can have...