Correspondance gnrale d'Helvtius, Volume IV: 1774-1800 / Lettres 721-855 (IV) (Correspondance Generale d'Helvetius: 1774-1800 / Lettres 721-855) - Softcover

Helvtius, Claude Adrien

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1442638834 ISBN 13: 9781442638839

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 1998

Synopsis

This is the fourth of five volumes of the letters of the French philosopher Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771), author of the controversial De l'Esprit (1758). Featuring the correspondence of Mme Helvetius, nee Anne Catherine de Ligniville (1722-1800), in the years following her husband's death, this volume also includes letters by and to Helvetius discovered since the publication of the first three volumes. Mme Helvetius enjoyed an active widowhood, welcoming to her salon in Auteuil a group of intellectuals who came to be known as the Ideologues. A close friend of Benjamin Franklin, she was involved in political events before and during the French Revolution, as well as in Napoleon's coup d'etat. In the last letter of the series her grandson describes her burial in her garden, which took place without religious or revolutionary ceremony in the presence of all her favourite pets. Most of the newly discovered letters are addressed to Helvetius by figures as important as d'Alembert, Boulanger, Chastellux, Saint-Lambert, Servan, Thieriot, and Trublet. Some of these complete an existing exchange, others provide dates for letters already published. The fifth and final volume will be devoted primarily to a comprehensive index. It will also include a chronological list of all the letters, corrections and modifications, and other useful material.

About this title

About the Author:

Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771) was a French philosopher, freemason, and litterateur. David Smith is a professor emeritus of French at the University of Toronto. Peter Allan is a professor of French at Mount Allison University. Alan Dainard is a professor of French at University of Toronto. Marie-Therese Inguenaud is a professor of French at the University of Paris VII Jean Orsoni is a professor of French at the University of Quebec at Trois-Riveres.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1442638834
• ISBN 13: 9781442638839
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 428
• Editor: Smith David, Allan Peter