Items related to Diderot
Synopsis
A major reappraisal of the life and career of the art critic, novelist, dramatist, tireless correspondent and philosopher Denis Diderot. The author of "E.M. Forster: A Life" explores the range and subtlety of Diderot's mind, as well as the scale and tenacity of his intellectual adventure.
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About the Author
P.N. Furbank was born in Surrey in 1920 and has worked as an academic, in publishing and as a freelance writer and critic. In 1986 he was appointed Visiting Professor in Literature at the Open University.His publications include Samuel Butler (1835-1902), Italo Svevo: The Man and the Writer, Reflections on the Word 'Image', E.M. Forster: A Life, Unholy Pleasure: The Idea of Social Class and (with W.R. Owens) The Canonisation of Daniel Defoe.
From Publishers Weekly
"Truly, posterity would be an ungrateful wretch if it forgot me altogether," wrote Denis Diderot (1713-1784), "seeing how often I remember it."305 Diderot was not to be forgotten but rather misremembered, often as simply the cutler's son who for 20-plus years labored over that monument of the 18th century, the Encyclopedie. This account gives short shrift to a life that included a spell in prison, the writing of a pornographic novel, an eccentric family, a longtime love affair and a circle of celebrated friends, among them D'Alembert, Mme d'Epinay, Grimm and Rousseau. It also shortchanges the works that are uniquely Diderot's own. Furbank's ( E. M. Forster ) special strength is in illuminating Diderot's plays, philosophical writings, art criticism and fiction, lucidly following his struggle with two ideas--fiction as deception and fiction as illusion. Weaving together biography and criticism can distort a subject's chronology and can strain a writer's transitions and place undue demands on a reader, such as having to recall the dates of works each time they are mentioned. But works and life are unavoidably integral; as Marmontel notes, "He who knows Diderot only from his books does not know him at all." Furbank certainly does not fit into this category. Illustrations not seen by PW .
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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- PublisherMinerva
- Publication date1993
- ISBN 10 0749398876
- ISBN 13 9780749398873
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages544
- Rating
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Diderot
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Diderot: A Critical Biography
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Diderot : A Critical Biography
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Diderot
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