Bibliograph

When the world spoke French, Marc Fumaroli ; translated from the French by Richard Howard

Type

Label

When the world spoke French, Marc Fumaroli ; translated from the French by Richard Howard

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

When the world spoke French

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

657270919

Responsibility statement

Marc Fumaroli ; translated from the French by Richard Howard

Series statement

New York review books classics

Summary

During the eighteenth century, from the death of Louis XIV until the Revolution, French culture set the standard for all of Europe. In Sweden, Austria, Italy, Spain, England, Russia, and Germany, among kings and queens, diplomats, military leaders, writers, aristocrats, and artists, French was the universal language of politics and intellectual life. In When the World Spoke French, Marc Fumaroli presents a gallery of portraits of Europeans and Americans who conversed and corresponded in French, along with excerpts from their letters or other writings. --from publisher description

Table Of Contents

Paris at the dawn of the Enlightenment : the Abbé Conti and the Comte de Caylus -- A French Alcibiades and his English Plato : Anthony Hamilton and the Comte de Gramont -- An English Cicero in the France of Louis XIV : Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke -- The French Achilles of the Hapsburgs : Eugène, Prince of Savoy-Carignan -- Lelio and Marivaux -- Louis XV's condottiere : Herman-Maurice of Saxony, Marshal of France -- Frederick II and Voltaire -- Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina, Margravine of Bayreuth, sister of Frederick II -- Francesco Algarotti and Frederick II -- Charlotte-Sophie d'Aldenburg, Countess of Bentinck : "The Sévigné of Germany" -- The Parisian model seen from London : Lord Chesterfield, his son's tutor -- The Marquise du Deffand : From Voltaire to Walpole -- Catherine the Great : Voltaire's eminent correspondent -- Ekaterina Romanova Vorontsova, Princess of Dashkova : a Russian heroine at home and abroad -- The Abbé Galiani : the warmth of Naples and the wit of Paris -- Friedrich Melchior Grimm and the Strabismus of the Enlightenment -- William Beckford : the author of Vathek -- Goya, the Marquesa de Santa Cruz, and William Beckford -- Louis-Antoine Caraccioli and "French Europe" -- Gustav III of Sweden : a Parisian from Stockholm -- A romance in "The cyclops's maw" : Hans Axel von Fersen and the "Austrian woman" -- Benjamin Franklin, Frenchmen, and Frenchwomen -- A United States ambassador to the rescue of Louis XVI : Gouveneur Morris -- A queen of England in partibus : Louise Maximilienne Caroline von Stolberg-Gedern, Countess of Albany -- Charles-Joseph de Ligne : the last homme d'esprit -- An Enlightenment test site : Poland and its last king, Stanisław II Augustus Poniatowski

Classification