Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon Criticism
Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, known as Crébillon fils, was a French novelist and dramatist born in 1707, notable for his exploration of sexuality and social customs in the aristocratic society of 18th-century France. His works reflect the Enlightenment era’s scientific curiosity and cosmopolitanism, often illustrating the complex interplay between sensual pleasure and virtue. Crébillon was particularly interested in the ethics and psychology of his time, as explored through his elegantly immoral tales, such as L'Ecumoire and Le Sopha, which satirized French societal norms using exotic settings, as analyzed by P. L. M. Fein and Thomas R. Vessely.
Crébillon's most acclaimed work, Les Egarements du coeur et de l'esprit or The Wayward Head and Heart, is admired for its subtle critique of societal shallowness and the complex tensions between reason and passion, as noted by Vivienne Mylne. This memoir-novel goes beyond mere erotic storytelling to offer a nuanced view of moral and social dilemmas. Despite initial criticism from English contemporaries, who found his work lacking compared to the English novel, modern critics have reassessed Crébillon's contributions, highlighting his psychological insights and wit. Rayner Heppenstall provides a comprehensive overview of his oeuvre, while Thomas M. Kavanagh remarks on the pleasure of reading Crébillon’s intricate character interactions.
Critics like Clifton Cherpack have explored Crébillon's themes of love and desire, while his narrative style and the way his characters navigate their desires and societal expectations continue to resonate with modern audiences, offering rich material for scholarly examination.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Essays
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The Ways of Love
(summary)
In the essay below, Cherpack studies the views on love and sex found in Crébillon's works.
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An introduction to The Wayward Head and Heart
(summary)
Heppenstall gives an overview of Crébillon's works, discussing the minor French novelist Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon and his father's classical tragedies.
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Crébillon: Innovations in Points of View
(summary)
In the following essay, first published in 1965, Mylne assesses Crébillon's treatment of the memoir-novel, particularly Les Egarements.
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Crébillon fils, Mirror of His Society
(summary)
Here, Fein contends that the actions of Crébillon's characters reflect their own desires, others' desires, and the desires of society.
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Innocence and Impotence: The Scenario of Initiation in L'Ecumoire and in the Literary Fairy Tale
(summary)
In the essay below, Vessely focuses on the sexuality of Tanzaï in Crébillon's French literary fairy tale L'Ecumoire.
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The Moment's Notice: Crébillon's Game of Libertinage
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Kavanagh examines the role of fate in Crébillon's writings, observing that his novels acknowledge a limit to human power as it confronts the reality of chance.
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The Ways of Love
(summary)
- Further Reading