'The Philosophes' by Charles Palissot

Open Access

In 1760, the French playwright Charles Palissot de Montenoy wrote Les Philosophes 's 2013; a scandalous farcical comedy about a group of opportunistic self-styled philosophers. Les Philosophes emerged in the charged historical context of the pamphlet wars surrounding the publication of Diderot and d's 2019;Alembert's 2019;s Encyclopedie, and delivered an oblique but acerbic criticism of the intellectuals of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, including the likes of Diderot and Rousseau. This book presents the first high-quality English translation of the play, including critical apparatus. The translation is based on Olivier Ferret's 2019;s edition, and renders the text into iambic pentameter to preserve the character of the original. Adaptations are further provided of Ferret's 2019;s introduction and notes. This masterful and highly accessible translation of Les Philosophes opens up this polemical text to a non-specialist audience. It will be a valuable resource to non-Francophone scholars and students working on the philosophical exchanges of the Enlightenment. Moreover, this translation 's 2013; the result of a year-long project undertaken by Jessica Goodman with six of her undergraduate French students 's 2013; expounds the value of collaboration between scholar and student, and, as such, provides a model for other language tutors embarking on translation projects with their students.

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