0192805916.Oxford.University.Press.USA.Rameaus.Nephew.and.First.Satire.Nov.2006(1)

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’
RAMEAU’ S NEPHEW
FIRST SATIRE
D D (–) was born at Langres in Champagne, the
son of a master cutler who wanted him to follow a career in the Church.
He attended the best Paris schools, took a degree in theology in but
turned away from religion and tried his hand brie
fl
y at law before deciding
to make his way as a translator and writer. In , he was invited to
provide a French version of Ephraim Chambers’s
Cyclopaedia
().
The project became the
Encyclopaedia
(
Encyclopédie
, –), intended
to be a compendium of human knowledge in all
fi
elds but also the
embodiment of the new ‘philosophic’ spirit of intellectual enquiry. As
editor-in-chief, Diderot became the impresario of the French Enlighten-
ment. But ideas were dangerous, and in Diderot was imprisoned for
four months for publishing opinions judged contrary to religion and the
public good. He became a star of the salons, where he was known as a
brilliant conversationalist. He invented art criticism, and devised a new
form of theatre which would determine the shape of European drama.
But in private he pursued ideas of startling orginality in texts like
Sup-
plement to Bougainville’s Voyage
(
Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville
)
and
D’Alembert’s Dream
(
Le Rêve de d’Alembert
), which for the most part
were not published until after his death. He anticipated DNA, Darwin,
and modern genetics, but also discussed the human and ethical implica-
tions of biological materialism in
fi
ctions ––
The Nun
(
La Religieuse
),
Rameau’s Nephew
(
Le Neveu de Rameau
), and
Jacques the Fatalist
(
Jacques
le fataliste
) –– which seem more at home in our century than in his. His
life, spent among books, was uneventful and he rarely strayed far from
Paris. In , though, he travelled to St Petersburg to meet his patron,
Catherine II. But his hopes of persuading her to implement his ‘philo-
sophic’ ideas failed, and in he returned to Paris where he continued
talking and writing until his death in .
M M has worked as a translator since .
For Oxford World’s Classics she has translated Zola’s
L’Assommoir
,
Stendhal’s
The Charterhouse of Parma
, Maupassant’s
Bel-Ami
,
Constant’s
Adolphe
, Huysmans’s
Against Nature
(winner of the Scott
Moncrie
ff
prize for translation, ), and Flaubert’s
Madame Bovary
.
N C is Director of the Voltaire Foundation and General
Editor of
The Complete Works of Voltaire
, and Fellow of St Edmund Hall,
Oxford. For Oxford World’s Classics he has edited Voltaire’s
Letters
concerning the English Nation
and Rostand’s
Cyrano de Bergerac
.
’
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OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS
DENIS DIDEROT
Rameau’s Nephew
and
First Satire
Translated by
MARGARET MAULDON
With an Introduction and Notes by
NICHOLAS CRONK
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford
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Translation © Margaret Mauldon, 2006
Appendix © Christopher Wells, 2006
Editorial material © Nicholas Cronk, 2006
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
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First published as an Oxford World’s Classics paperback 2006
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Diderot, Denis, 1713–1784.
[Neveu de Rameau. English]
Rameau’s nephew ; and, First satire / Denis Diderot ; translated by Margaret Mauldon ;
with an introduction and notes by Nicholas Cronk.
p. cm. –– (Oxford world’s classics)
Includes bibliographical references.
I. Mauldon, Margaret. II. Cronk, Nicholas. III. Diderot, Denis, 1713–1784.
Satire première. English. IV. Title. V. Title: First satire. VI. Series: Oxford world’s
classics (Oxford University Press)
PQ1979.A66E5 2006 848.5′08 –– dc22 2006011792
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ISBN 0–19–280591–6 978–0–19–280591–1
1
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