French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Lachaume, Le Langage du désir chez Bossuet. Chercher quelque ombre d’infinité
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Review published in Acta Fabula : "Desiderio desideravi. Bossuet & the Desire for the Grand Desire" by Philippe Richard.
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Agnès Lachaume, Le Langage du désir chez Bossuet. Chercher quelque ombre d’infinité
Paris: Honoré Champion, coll. "Lumière classique", 2017
EAN 9782745331762
732 p.
125 EUR
Publisher's overview:
Bossuet, a champion of desire? Initially surprising, this rigorously developed and fruitful connection reveals that the preacher invites his audience not to suppress, but to exalt every impulse. Can the desire for God be discussed in the exact same terms as the desire for worldly things? The Bishop of Meaux enriches the traditional answer with tones more characteristic of his century. Heavenly goods infinitely surpass the earthly goods that imperfectly foreshadow them. This analogy is expressed through powerful imagery, cataloged here in a useful index. Bossuet's delightful and impetuous eloquence resonates to better convey the language of this desire, for the earthly quest for God cannot do without the groping search for words.
A former student of the École Normale Supérieure (rue d'Ulm) and holder of the agrégation in Modern Literature, Agnès Lachaume currently teaches in scientific preparatory classes in Toulouse.
This scholarly study examines the theology and rhetoric of Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, the renowned seventeenth-century French bishop and court preacher. Traditionally celebrated for his oratory skill and defense of orthodox doctrine, Bossuet is here analyzed through the conceptual lens of desire. Agnès Lachaume investigates how the preacher navigates the complex relationship between earthly longings and the ultimate pursuit of the divine, connecting classical Christian asceticism with the distinct sensibilities of the classical age. The work contextualizes these themes within the broader intellectual and religious landscape of seventeenth-century France.
The book will prove especially valuable to scholars, researchers, and advanced students of seventeenth-century French literature, theology, and the history of rhetoric. It offers fresh perspectives on classical eloquence, religious imagery, and the spiritual vocabulary of the Grand Siècle. By closely analyzing Bossuet's linguistic strategies and analogical reasoning, Lachaume provides readers with the necessary critical tools to better understand how sacred language articulates transcendent longings, shedding new light on an iconic figure of the French classical heritage.