(review)

Abstract

502 Reviews Encyclopedie. He points out that electronic searches function very much like renvois, since they enable connections to be made between the most disparate articles and subject areas. Yet, he cautions, they are also to some extent pre-programmed accord? ing to the objectives of the project managers. With a hint of regret, he suggests that the use of these 'moteurs de recherche' will prevent happy, arbitrary 'vagabondage' through the pages of the Encyclopedie. But one wonders whether he is right to be pes? simistic, since search engines can also throw up some very peculiar and unexpected results. Robert Morrissey then presents the electronic Encylopedie, pointing out nu? merous scholarly and practical problems with which the ARTFL collaborators have had to grapple. For example, in order to make full use of the author search capability, should articles that were anonymous in the original edition carry the name of their (assumed) author? Morrissey gives an impression of the enormity of the task and the necessity for some pragmatic and ad hoc decisions. Hence the job of putting the Encyclopedie on-line has some intriguing parallels with the editorial work of Diderot and d'Alembert. Other essays include those by Beatrice Didier on the musical ar? ticles, Roger Chartier on writing and reading in the Encyclopedie, and Jacques Proust on the spread of Enclyopedie ideas via Holland to Japan. Bronislaw Baczko provides an entertaining 'journey' through the geographical (or as it turns out, biographical) articles. Despite the evident scholarly quality of the book, it is sometimes unclear how the electronic Encyclopedie has facilitated and enhanced people's research. Instead of revealing unexplored domains, there is a tendency to referback to familiar sections (Diderot's article 'Encyclopedie', forexample). One chapter which does fullydemon? strate the possibilities of this new electronic resource is Colin Jones's investigation of dentistry in the Encylopedie. Jones's thorough use of the keyword search facilitywith 'dents', 'bouche', and other related words leads him to the work's remotest parts, and allows him to draw more far-reaching conclusions than might have been possible by more old-fashioned means. On the whole, the book reveals a most positive state of affairs: this area of research is in its infancy, and scholars will need to question their own working practices in order to exploit this new and challenging facilityto the full. University of Exeter Melissa Percival Cahiers Voltaire: revue annuellede la Societe Voltaire, vol. I. Ed. by Ulla Kolving. Ferney-Voltaire. 2002. 244 pp. ?40. ISBN 2-84559-016-4. This firstlivraison of the Societe Voltaire is a welcome addition to the field on ac? count of the novel parameters that it has chosen for the various types of encounter with Voltaire that it wishes to promote. As its President, Andre Magnan, says, the editorial line is to 'developper des savoirs, favoriser des debats, animer des enquetes et actualiser des informations' (p. 6). The firstsection assembles nine 'etudes et textes'. Magnan provides a sensitive expose of the difficultand ambiguous relationship be? tween Voltaire and Madame Denis, which the dominant biographical tradition has tended to judge with severity. Jean-Noel Pascal's examination of the CEdipe travesti usefully complements the section in David Jory's critical edition of CEdipe (OC, ia (2001), 90-113) devoted to the 'Reception ofthe play'. Mare Buffat's 'Voltaire selon Faguet' invites us to read the latter's text and to re-evaluate the reasons we may have for disagreeing with its uncompromising denigration. Andrew Brown and Ulla Kolving present respectively 'Une version perdue du Siecle de Louis XIV" and 'Deux lettres inedites d'Emilie Du Chatelet'. Their equally enlighteningjoint contribution, 'Deux lettres inedites de Henault a Voltaire', allows us to judge how and why?faced with advice and criticism?Voltaire the historian was both inner- and other-directed. Jean-Daniel Candaux and Francois Bessire have short pieces in which respectively MLR, 100.2, 2005 503 'Vorontsov raconte sa premiere rencontre avec Voltaire (1758)' (pp. 105-07) and J. de Vrinz spends 'Un apres-midi chez Voltaire' (pp. 109-13). This section closes on an opportune republication of Julien Benda's introduction to his 1935 edition of the Dictionnaire philosophique that is no longer readily...