Article: Desormeaux, Daniel. La Figure du bibliomane: Histoire du livre et strategie litteraire au XIXe siecle.(Book Review)

Saint-Genouph: Nizet, 2001. Pp. 251. ISBN 2-7078-1254-4

"Bibliomanie: Folie, manie d'amasser des livres ... On ne peut s'en servir qu'en riant" (51). Thus did the 1708 Dictionnaire universel stigmatize the practice of collecting books for purposes other than reading. A century later, however, the ridicule once accorded the bibliomane was ceding to respect, even admiration. As Daniel Desormeaux contends in his fascinating study, this transforming perception of an emerging esthetic, political and social phenomenon gave rise, in turn, to new literary stakes and strategies. Desormeaux proposes not a history of bibliomania (although his book is enlightening on this ...

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