Denis Diderot. The Philosopher’s retreats

Résumé 0

The melancholic return, from time to time, to a restorative and inspiring nature is not in opposition to Diderot place of sociability. The studious retreats he depicts are a revitalisation (Dorval) or preparations (Ariste) among a wide variety of carefully chosen tasks. As one who opposed Rousseau during the crisis of the Hermitage, his withdraw from the world is a literary gesture extolling the virtues socialised under the sign of friendship and love. Two examples are discussed in this context : the incipit of Rameau’s Nephew, a libertine loneliness subtly exposed to the beating heart of the capital, and the “Promenade Vernet,” the Salon of 1767, an ecstatic reverie (and ironically) an eroticises landscape sublimated by the genius of the artist and the philosopher.