The Indiscreet Jewels

"Philosopher, critic, novelist, and editor of the monumental Encyclopedie, Denis Diderot was one of the eighteenth century's most influential and provocative figures. For the first time complete in English translation, The Indiscreet Jewels is the earliest and, perhaps, most daring of Diderot's "philosophical" novels - a fearessly libertine fable on the order of such ribald classics as Boccaccio and Rabelais." "Published in 1748, with three chapters added later in the author's career, this extraordinary fiction is a take-off on the erotic-oriental tales popular at the time. Set in a sultan's court in the Congo, the novel begins with Mangogul (the Sultan) suffering from acute boredom, only to be rescued by a genie offering the potentate a magic ring that, when pointed at women, causes their genitals, or "jewels," to speak. The resulting story, exuberant and delightful in its wit and satire, was so openly irreverent and critical of the French Court at Versailles - with the Sultan as Louis XV and his favorite as Mme de Pompadour - that it secured its author some egregious trouble with the Parisian authorities." "But The Indiscreet Jewels is far from being just a political roman a clef. The Sultan's "scientific method" reveals an allegory of the female body, perennially silent, at last recovering its voice and daring to speak. What the "jewels" say is at once a parody and supreme example of the French Enlightenment's urge to seek knowledge above and beyond the hypocrisies, inhibitions, and limitations of everyday life."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved