The Comic Philosophes

Download or read book The Comic Philosophes written by Stephen Werner and published by Summa Publications, Inc.. This book was released on 2002 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is a study of philosophe fiction through comic irony that is its unifying feature. Readings are offered of exemplary philosophe narratives from Les Lettres persanes to Candide, Le Neveu de Rameau to Justine, as well as an analysis of the evolution of irony from the classical world of Montesquieu and Voltaire to the modern (and subversive) conceptions of Diderot and Sade. Professor Werner argues for a new understanding of comic irony as inseparable from the philosophe aesthetic and, through Sade, an expansion of its usual canon of authors.