Abstract
Libertine Novels and Aristocratic Reaction in the Eighteenth century. Crébillon, Duclos, and Louvet, among others, contributed to a tradition of autobiographical novels in which the hero recalls his discovery of love and pleasure and his initiation into the conventions of aristocratic society, before retirement to the country and an idyllic marriage. Such a conclusion does not seem to be simply a cliché based on moral and literary conventions but the ultimate step towards maturity, a liberation from social restraints and domineering mistresses, and a return both to the innocence which preceded the initiation into society, and to an outdated form of ideal love. It represents the reaction of the Eighteenth Century aristocracy which, in the face of the absolute monarchy's demand of total submission, looked back to its history to revive a greater political role. These novels therefore capture the image of a threatened society looking back to its past to save its precarious heritage.
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