The Lives of Ovid in Seventeenth-Century French Culture by Helena Taylor

Abstract

MLR, .,   In places Caws could have gone further. In the Entretien with Sacy, Pascal did not just juxtapose Montaigne and Descartes, but built a philosophical ‘machine infernale’ where Stoicism and scepticism would reveal each other’s vanity, both for life and for salvation. As for the Pensées, Caws’s equation of fragment with aphorism is debatable. e Entretien, L’Esprit de la géométrie, several fragments marked as preface, chapter sections, and conclusion, and public readings given by Pascal of some of the Pensées assembled into bundles indicate a coherent apologetical project . Had he not died prematurely, he would surely have merged the fragments into chapters, while maintaining the aphoristic nature of many existential paradoxes pointing only to a solution beyond existence. More could be said in that regard on miracles and prophecies as irrational but indubitable proofs in history. Nietzsche and perhaps Char and Foucault could have been more explicitly discussed in the chapter on posterity, and the satirical Rondeau against the Jesuits needs retranslating . is said, Caws’s reflection on the complexity of editing the Pensées, which stresses that each edition can be seen as a different and interesting understanding of the text, is seductive. Her description of the impact this astonishing writer had on the life of those surrounding him also vividly brings this period to life. Ultimately, this biography is a study of the relations between life and thought. It will also undoubtedly prompt those familiar with this work to read it afresh. T C, C J K e Lives of Ovid in Seventeenth-Century French Culture. By H T. (Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs) Oxford: Oxford University Press. . xii+ pp. £. ISBN ––––. Helena Taylor’s e Lives of Ovid is an essential read not only for scholars of the Grand Siècle, but also for classicists and those interested more generally in life writing and court culture. While much attention has been paid to the place of Ovid’s writings in poetry, urban salons, and the court of Louis XVI, Taylor’s volume takes the study of seventeenth-century Ovid in a new direction: it does not focus solely on the reception of Ovid’s work, but instead examines contemporary responses to his life. Employing these ‘lives’ as a means of re-evaluating political and poetic arguments and upheavals, Taylor assesses with resounding success their impact on French ideology and culture. Her observations also shed new light on life writing, calling into question the wider implications of this practice for both author and reader and exploring its oen overlooked link with broader literary culture. At the same time, Taylor considers the relationship of seventeenth-century writers with their classical counterparts, asking how narratives of Ovid’s life can offer new perspectives on imitatio and aemulatio and, above all, on the elevation of France’s cultural status during the period in question. In five erudite and accessible chapters, Taylor pursues her line of enquiry with wit and dexterity. Chapter  identifies the many forms in which Ovid himself told the story of his life and investigates how his narrative was enhanced and supplemented by medieval and humanist writings. In  Reviews addition, it determines the ways in which Ovid fashioned his narrative with a view to shaping and controlling later interpretation, also tracing critical developments in the practice of life writing. e second chapter examines the characterization of Ovid in a range of materials prefacing translations of his poetry. Much of this writing focuses on the stylistic features promoted by respective translators, and Taylor traces how, throughout the seventeenth century, the figure of Ovid grew increasingly synonymous with innovation. In the third chapter Taylor turns to the histoire galante, taking stock of fictional narratives of Ovid’s life to show how his love poetry earned him the especial attention of female authors; she also demonstrates that Ovid’s status as an exiled poet allowed writers, through the retelling and reimagining of his story, to question courtly power dynamics. Exile remains a prominent theme in the fourth chapter, where Taylor determines how the works of exiled authors éophile de Viau and Bussy-Rabutin draw parallels with tales of Ovid’s...