Description
Mehlman, Jeffrey. A Study in Diderot. First edition. Middletown, Connecticut, Wesleyan University Press, 1979. 14 x 22cm. 109 pages. Original Hardcover with original dustjacket in protective collector's mylar. Excellent condition. 'Cataract' is a highly original study of literary speculation in the form of a precise and stimulating reading of Diderot. The book's point of inception is the recourse of both Diderot and, two centuries later, Michel Serres, to Lucretius as a guide to the 'science' of their respective ages. In elaborating a genealogy that moves from Lucretius to Diderot to Serres, the study constructs a tripartite cataract - cloud/dyke/downpour - whose meteorology comes to saturate Diderot's text, cutting across such divisions as philosophy, fiction, theatre and politics. Chapters Philosophy / Fiction / Theatre / Politics / Posterity / The Contemporaneity of Diderot
