Enlightening the World Encyclopédie, The Book That Changed the Course of History

by Blom, Philipp

• ISBN13: 9781403968951
• ISBN10: 1403968950
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-11
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Summary

In 1777 several of the world's greatest men gathered together to create a book that would champion rationalism, free thinking, and secularism--theEncyclopeacute;die. Such leading minds as Diderot, Rousseau, and Voltaire conceived of a work that would tear down the social order dominated by the Crown and Church, a brave act at a time when heresy could still be punished by death. During the years it took to produce all twenty-seven volumes, the writers faced exile, jail, and censorship. But when they were done, they had created a book that would provide the foundation for the Enlightenment and change the world forever. Novelist and historian Philipp Blom presents the story behind the sixteen-year struggle to create theEncyclopeacute;die, the men who wrote it, the powerful forces that tried to suppress it, and the tremendous impact it had on the world.

Author Biography

Philipp Blom is a journalist, translator, novelist, and historian. He is author of To Have and To Hold and writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and The Daily Telegraph. He lives in Paris.

Table of Contents

Prologue	xiii
Paris, 1739	1	(14)
Friendship	15	(20)
Project	35	(16)
Prison	51	(18)
Philosophe	69	(12)
Controversy	81	(20)
Play of Nature	101	(22)
The War of Fools	123	(16)
Encyclopédie	139	(20)
Love of the Sexes	159	(18)
Virtue	177	(12)
Regicide	189	(14)
Geneva	203	(18)
Fanaticism	221	(16)
Hide, Dissemble, Disguise	237	(14)
Métier	251	(16)
Phoenix	267	(16)
Mutilation	283	(20)
Posterity	303	(24)
Bibliography	327	(10)
Notes	337	(20)
Index	357