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Françoise de Graffigny
(1695-1758)
French novelist
 1 other title

Pierre de Marivaux
(1688-1763)
French novelist

Jean Jacques Rousseau
(1712-78)
French philosopher
 2 other titles

Legenda: Oxford, 2009
£45.00 ($89.50 US)  Hardback  310pp
ISBN: 978-1-905981-96-0

Eighteenth-century sensibilité has always been controversial. In fact, the term itself refers to complex forms of physical and emotional responsiveness, and Lewis’s study investigates the fictional exploration of various key problems of sentimental response. These are analysed in conjunction with some of the actual (often emotional) reactions that the term, its fictions and images have provoked through time, including an indispensable survey of the varying construction of sensibilité as an object of study.

Lewis provides a new reading of the theme of sensibility by analysing the ‘textual images’ in three best-selling novels from the mid-century: Graffigny’s Lettres d’une Péruvienne, Marivaux’s La Vie de Marianne and Rousseau’s Julie. The examination of a largely neglected corpus of illustrations, understood as readings of each text, provides striking new evidence of the complexity, thematic richness and duplicity of these ‘spectacles’ and ‘signs’.

Ann Lewis is a Lecturer in French at Birkbeck College, University of London.