Saint-Amand, Pierre. The Libertine's Progress: Seduction in the Eighteenth-Century French Novel. Hanover: Brown UP, 1994.

Grinnell library catalog page

Trans. Jennifer Curtiss Gage

Saint-Amand views the 18th century French novel as the arena in which Enlightenment culture reveals its underside, “foundering on the blind reefs of desire (4). Saint-Amand writes that love in these novels takes the place of divinity, the coquette takes the place of the sorceress, and the seducer takes the place of the Devil. He places superstition at the core of these novels and dissects seduction and desire, mimicry, mediation and narcissism.

In his chapter on “sorceresses,” Saint-Amand examines The Virtuous Orphana, or the Life of Marianne, Countess of *** by Marivaux, Manon Lescaut by Prévost, and The Nun by Diderot. In Marivaux, he claims that coquetry is the female combative response to male phallic power and outlines Marianne’s seductive use of body, garb, attitude and tears. He moves on to the commodification of the prostitute Manon in Prévost and Suzanne’s “incestuous and homosexual desire for attachment to the mother” (51) and religious lesbian seductions in Diderot.

Saint-Amand writes of “initiations” in The Upstart Peasant by Marivaux and The Wayward Head and Heart by Crébillon. In the former, argues Saint-Amand, Jacob constantly participates in seduction to enjoy flattery and self-love, but ultimately fails at seduction because his desire is imitative of a more accomplished seducer. In Crébillon, another apprentice-seducer casts about for an object for his desire while imitating a greater man, and ends up abused.

Finally, Saint-Amand addresses “diabolos” in Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Laclos, Juliette by Sade, Elective Affinities and Faust by Goethe. In Laclos, he writes of the seducer’s “satanic pleasure of imitating a god” (101) and in so doing, becoming a demon. Saint-Amand also points this out in Sade, along with contagious mimesis and the exploitation of the coquette. Seduction in Goethe focuses on the unwelcome third party, idolatry, and Satan’s first seduction.

Entered by Sarah on 28 July 2004 at 10:32 AM.