Modern Language Review

In this volume Julie Candler Hayes explores a generous selection of writings by eighteenth-century writer, scientist, and translator Marie-Geneviève-Charlotte Thiroux d’Arconville (1720–1805). Candler Hayes compiles and edits several of d’Arconville’s texts, ranging from autobiographical writings to philosophical and scientific ones, and provides translations of these writings into English. Candler Hayes notably points out that d’Arconville’s ‘works have never been translated’ (p. 11); this volume is therefore the first to offer English translations of d’Arconville’s diverse texts to readers, and as such, it brings both d’Arconville and her writings to a wider and more varied audience.

The concise Introduction paints a general picture of d’Arconville for the reader, relating details of her early life, her marriage, and her imprisonment during the Revolution, as well as her scientific and philosophical interests, with a particular focus on her views of friendship, self-love, and marriage. The volume is then divided into two parts: Part i examines d’Arconville’s published works from 1756 to 1783, while Part ii focuses on her unpublished late manuscripts, which are dated from 1801 to 1805.

In Part i Candler Hayes includes translations of some of d’Arconville’s prefaces, such as her Discourse on Chemistry and the preface to The Life of Marie de Médicis, as well as translations of some of d’Arconville’s other writings, including Thoughts and Moral Reflections and her Treatise on Friendship. Candler Hayes provides useful cultural and historical contextualization and explanatory footnotes, and this helps to guide the reader through d’Arconville’s material, which focuses predominantly on science and moral philosophy. Part i reveals the width and breadth of d’Arconville’s knowledge: she reflects on history in her work on historical figures; she engages with the work of physician John Pringle and delves into experiments in her Discourse on Putrefaction; and she explores moral philosophy, as seen in the excerpt on the passions from Thoughts and Moral Reflections, wherein she makes numerous philosophical comments regarding self-love and love for another. D’Arconville’s commentary on women in Thoughts and Moral Reflections is particularly scathing, as she writes: ‘Men are proud, but most women are merely vain’ [End Page 390] (p. 95). While d’Arconville might be critical of women, she nonetheless demonstrates a keen awareness of the challenges that women encountered at the time. For instance, she analyses marriage and asserts that ‘when a woman loses her husband, at least she gains her liberty’ (p. 101).

Part ii contains excerpts from the late unpublished manuscripts, which were recently discovered and ‘include thousands of pages of essays of literary criticism, moral philosophy, and autobiographical writing’ (pp. 3–4). While Candler Hayes notes that the ‘brief selection [of excerpts] cannot do justice to the range of the late essays’ (p. 143), she nonetheless succeeds in presenting readers with a rich and varied selection of excerpts that underscore d’Arconville’s unique voice and evoke her personal views on topics such as writing, publishing, marriage, happiness, liberty, self-love, virtue, fidelity, and education, among other early modern preoccupations. Many of the excerpts draw attention to d’Arconville’s philosophical musings and sense of in-depth reflection. The excerpts from Thoughts, Reflections, and Anecdotes reveal intimate and emotional instances, and showcase d’Arconville’s wit. For example, in ‘The Story of my Childhood’ d’Arconville recounts her parents’ relationship, her youth, myriad anecdotes, and humorous accounts of her childhood daydreams, as well as experiences of grief, loss, and joy; this excerpt in particular, alongside the excerpt entitled ‘My Memories’, presents a marked difference in tone and voice from d’Arconville’s published work.

This volume is a significant...