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Article: Les Jugements de la critique sur la 'folie' de J.J. Rousseau: representations et interpretations 1760-1990.(Review)
- Article from:
- The Modern Language Review
- Article date:
- January 1, 1999
- Author:
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The Complete Works of Voltaire/OEuvres completes de Voltaire. Ed. by GUNNAR VON PROSCHWITZ. Vol. IV: Histoire de Charles XII. Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation. 1996. 701 pp. 90 [pounds sterling].
In terms of philosophic and social history, Voltaire was learning his trade in the Histoire de Charles XII (1731), came of age in the Siecle de Louis XIV (1751), and emerged as the leading historian of his generation in the Essai sur les moeurs (1756). Such are the conclusions reached by J. H. Brumfitt in his oft-quoted study, Voltaire Historian ((Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 9). In Charles XII, Voltaire's theories of causation are ill-defined and his method ...