Volume 47, Number 1 · January 20, 2000
Talk!
By Benedetta Craveri
L'Art de la conversation
edited by Jacqueline Hellegouarc'h, with a preface by Marc Fumaroli
Paris: Classiques Garnier, 593 pp., FF175
'De l'air galant' et autres Conversations (1653-1686): Pour une étude de l'archive galante
by Madeleine de Scudéry, edited by Delphine Denis
Paris: Champion, 393 pp., FF380
Correspondence: Models of Letter-Writing from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century
by Roger Chartier, by Alain Boureau, by Cécile Dauphin, translated by Christopher Woodall
Princeton University Press, 162 pp., $37.50
Les Caractères
by Jean de La Bruyère, edited by Louis Van Delft
Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 544 pp., FF150
Visiting Paris in 1752, the celebrated Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova was struck, as so many other foreign travelers had been, by the peculiarly French combination of brilliant conversation and graceful manners. Largely owing to the example of Mme. de Rambouillet, who, around 1620, had opened her famous Paris salon to members of a self-selected elite, including both court aristocracy and talented commoners, the qualities of politesse and bienséances—decorum, the right forms of behavior—became central to an entire way of life. Nobody better explained the meaning of bienséances than Lord Chesterfield, who in 1750 sent his son to Paris to perfect a gentleman's education and learn the 'graces.'
Review, 6220 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |