The libertine's nemesis

By J. E. Fowler

Subjects: Crebillon, claude-prosper jolyot de, 1707-1777, Sade, marquis de, 1740-1814, Roman européen, Literary, Libertinage dans la littérature, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Criticism and interpretation, Clarissa (Richardson, Samuel), History and criticism, Histoire et critique, Prudence in literature, European fiction, French fiction, history and criticism, Prudence dans la littérature, Libertinism in literature, Laclos, choderlos de, 1741-1803

Description: "What is the role of the prude in the 'roman libertin'? James Fowler argues that in the most famous novels of the genre (by Richardson, Crébillon fils, Laclos and Sade) the prude is not the libertine's victim but an equal and opposite force working against him, and that ultimately she brings retribution for his social, erotic and philosophical presumption. In a word, she is his Nemisis. He is vulnerable to her power because of the ambivalence he feels towards her; she is his ideological enemy, but also his ideal object. Moreover, the libertine succumbs to an involuntary nostalgia for the values of the seventeenth century, which the prude continues to embody through the age of Enlightenment. In Crébillon fils and Richardson, the encounter between libertine and prude is played out as a skirmish or duel between two individuals. In Laclos and Sade, the presence of female libertines (the Marquise de Merteuil and Juliette) allows that encounter to be reenacted within a murderous triangle"--Publisher's description, p. [4] of cover.