Central to the Enlightenment is the ideal of the Secular City, in militant reply to the Civitas Dei of St Augustine. The essays in this volume, all by distinguished eighteenth century specialists, illustrate the elaboration of that vision, both in the planning and depiction of actual cities and in the speculation on social justice to which Voltaire in particular devoted himself. Yet even in him, secularization is never total, and the persistence of a displaced religious, even messianic strain in the Enlightenment is also illustrated in a variety of writers, culminating in the contradictions of the French Revolution.
Contents: Introduction: topographies of the secular city, David Meakin.
Part 1 Images of the city: Paris et l'imaginaire de la ville dans les
almanachs francais du XVIIIe siecle, Lise Andries; enlightenment London and
urbanity, Roy Porter; city life in the 1720s - the example of four of
Voltaire's acquaintances, Norma Perry; la cite des lumieres et l'homme selon
la nature dans les Lettres philosophiques, Micheal Baridon; city,
market-place, meal - some figures of totality in Voltaire's Contes, Robin
Howells. Part 2 Voltaire and the secular ideal: some reflections on
Voltaire's "l'Ingenu" and a hitherto neglected source - the "Questions sur
les miracles", Graham Gargett; Voltaire and venality - the ambiguities of an
abuse, William Doyle; reflexions alphabetiques sur la justice dans le
"Dictionnaire philosophique portatif", Christiane Mervaud; signposts to the
secular city - the Voltaire-Condorcet relationship, David Williams. Part 3
Cross-currents in the secular city: enlightenment cross-currents - the
"Dictionnaire Philosophique" of Chicaneau de Neuville, David Adams; "Candide"
and "Paul et Virgine" - two fictions of the enlightenment, Simon Davies;
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre - unpublished prose fables, Malcolm Cook; le combat
de Condorcet contre "l'infame", Anne-Marie Chouillet; religion and the
secular city in Raynal's "Histoire des deux Indes", Anthony Strugnell; Le
Reve universaliste de l'Orateur de genre humain, Roland Mortier.
