Dear members of Humanities Commons,

The Voltaire Foundation in Oxford, UK, has published a new book: “Night in French libertine fiction”, by Marine Ganofsky (http://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/book/night-french-libertine-fiction).

Between the start of the Régence (1715-1723) and the French Revolution the nocturnal and the erotic became intrinsically connected: shadows and darkness were reconfigured as the object of the philosophes’ fascination, while night was increasingly experienced as the realm of the self. Marine Ganofsky delves into the night scenes of libertine fiction to analyse how the idea of night was reimagined and represented by writers ranging from Crébillon to Sade. Her original analysis of erotic encounters in pornographic novels, gallant stories and sensual fairy tales reveals how they capture the period’s emancipation from superstitions and traditions. The nocturnal settings of these libertine narratives were the primary means of staging men and women’s hitherto hidden sexual encounters and innermost fantasies, and ultimately illustrate the conquest of night-time terrors in favour of social encounters and amorous intimacy.

June 2018, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment
ISBN 978-0-7294-1215-5, 292 pages

Voltaire Foundation
University of Oxford, UK