Utopia e... Amici e nemici del genere utopico nella letteratura francese (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 365 regicide would have received similar treatment earlier in the century). Sturm is keen to link Crébillon with Laclos and Sade in their portrayal of sexual exploiters . Although such comparisons can be useful, they seem to me to devalue Crébillon's own status and merits and, whether intentionally or not, tend to cast him in the role of precursor. (There is also perhaps the misleading implication that the eighteenth-century novel climaxes with Sade, an implication that neglects best-sellers such as Paul et Virginie.) Sturm's modestly priced study should therefore be approached as a stimulating introduction to Crébillon's work which supplies a series of general insights but does not delve thoroughly into individual texts and is hampered by the lack of an index. A comprehensive evaluation will have to await publication of the critical edition of the Œuvres complètes, under preparation at the Université de Grenoble. This will list re-editions and variants and, one hopes, provide fresh biographical information and thereby offer an opportunity unavailable at the moment. Simon Davies Queen's University of Belfast Nadia Minerva. Utopia e... Amici e nemici del genere utópico nella letteratura francese. Ravenna: Angelo Longo Editore. 245pp. £40.00. ISBN 88-8063-061-X. Nadia Minerva has brought to the attention of the reader different aspects and meanings of the Utopian genre in French literature, in the hope of clarifying some of the traditional questions surrounding the definition of the genre, its relationship to the dystopian discourse, and its evolution from what she justifiably considers the prototype—More's Utopia (1516). Her discussion opens with a survey of the French translators of Utopia. The subtitle, Friends and Enemies of the Utopian Genre in French Literature, well represents the heterogeneous content of the book. She underlines the ideological meaning that More's Utopia acquired for the French from the very beginning. The first translator, Jehan Le Blond (1550), shortly followed by an imitator, Barthélémy Aneau (1559), suppressed the expression "nee minus salutaris quam festivus" (not less useful than entertaining), which is how More himself described his book. In the eighteenth century, especially during the French Revolution, More's Utopia even more decidedly played the role of a political model. The best example would be Thomas Rousseau, who in his preface wrote: "Tous les hommes paraissent vouloir faire en ce moment quelques pas vers le bonheur ... chacun veut être politique , réformateur, législateur" (p. 23). He added that each politician ought to know More's book by heart (posséder par cœur), updating it in order to fulfil the political agenda of the French revolutionaries. 366 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION 9:3 The second section of the first chapter deals with a genre defined as "microutopie ," a Utopian fragment contained in a longer work of fiction. Among the examples discussed, Minerva includes Marivaux's Effets surprenants de la sympathie (1793), Montesquieu's Lettres persanes (1721), and Prévost's Cleveland (1732-39). In each instance the author identifies the section that responds to the Utopian genre, although the larger work, as in the case of Cleveland, criticizes the Utopian genre. The most complete discussion of the "microutopie " is reserved for Voltaire's Candide, in which the author, following earlier interpretations—duly acknowledged, particularly Jean-Michel Racault's L'Utopie narrative en France et en Angleterre 1675-1761 (1991)—identifies three "micro-utopies": the Eldorado, the farm in Asia, and the castle of Thunderten -tronckh. The second chapter studies the analogies and differences between the Utopian genre and the imaginary voyages. Although preceded by fundamental studies (also duly acknowledged by the author), such as Raymond Trousson's Voyages aux Pays de Nulle part (1975), Minerva's discussion is well informed and at times illuminating. Probably one of the best sections of the book, this chapter exhibits some inevitable shortcomings. In order to explain the characteristics of the French Utopia, examples which do not belong to this genre are utilized : More's Utopia, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and the robinsonnades, ancient maps and charts, Columbus and other Spanish and Portuguese explorers of the sixteenth century. The difficulty facing the author is understandable. Having decided to...