French Literature Reviews - 2026
C. Duflo, Philosophy of the Pornographers
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Philosophy of the Pornographers
The Philosophical Ambitions of the Libertine Novel
Colas Duflo
Seuil, coll. L'Ordre philosophique
Publication date 07/02/2019
23.00 € TTC
312 pages
EAN 9782021404173
Removing the guilt from pleasure, defending sexual behaviors condemned by the Church as "natural," and asserting that a free sexuality is compatible with an honest life and even fosters it: these theses were at the heart of a new morality promoted by the most daring Enlightenment thinkers, grounded in reason rather than Revelation. Yet, the significance of libertine and pornographic novels in shaping and spreading these ideas has long been overlooked. The Indiscreet Jewels, The Debauchee, Therese Philosopher, Juliette, or the Vices of the Adepts... these texts, widely distributed underground, deploy a narrative philosophy blending lustful scenes with rigorous metaphysical reasoning. Between bouts of lovemaking, characters discourse on the dangers of religious intolerance, demonstrate the liberating consequences of materialism or atheism, and extol the virtues of "Spinozism." And quite often, here for the first time, we hear the voices of women.
Colas Duflo shows how this clandestine literature—as scandalous through the scenes it depicts as through the philosophical questions it raises—paved the way for the values underlying our modern societies: freedoms and tolerance that we would be wrong to take for granted, given how regularly they confront regressive and repressive waves.
Colas Duflo, professor at Paris-Nanterre University, is a specialist in 18th-century philosophy and literature. His published works include Diderot philosophe (Champion classiques), Diderot. Du matérialisme à la politique (CNRS Éditions), and Les Aventures de Sophie. La philosophie dans le roman au XVIIIe siècle (CNRS Éditions).
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An article on this work can be read on laviedesidees.fr:
"In the Flesh and in Eros", by Élise Sultan-Villet (published online July 26, 2019).
The obscenity of libertine novels has long discredited them. Unjustly so: the pornographic writings of the Enlightenment freely and joyfully disseminate philosophical theses while challenging the social norms of the Ancien Régime.
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CONTENTS
I. Sophie among the Pornographers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Pornography and Philosophy Intertwined. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Libertine Novel and Narrative Philosophy. . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Heterodox Enlightenment in the Novel. . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The Clandestine Novelistic Corpus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Obscene Literature with Philosophical Ambitions. . . . . . 27
The Meaning of Hybridity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
On Dissortation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Reflective Fictional Forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
The Philosopher Character. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
II. The Gatekeeper of Subversion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
The Vile Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Nature and Morality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Discourse of Pleasure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
On Incest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
III. Clandestine Philosophical Excursions. . . . . . . . . . . 79
The Clandestine Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
The Anti-Religious Struggle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Natural Religion, Deism, Atheism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
IV. A Comprehensive Course in Heterodox Philosophy: Therese Philosopher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
First Heterodox Thesis: Metaphysical Freedom is a Chimera. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Second Heterodox Thesis: Moral Exculpation of the Flesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Third Heterodox Thesis: Identity of God and Nature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Fourth Heterodox Thesis: Religions Are the Work of Men. . . . . . . . . . . 118
Fifth Heterodox Thesis: Identity of Soul and Body. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
V. Experiments in Moral Philosophy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
The Novel and the Secularization of Moral Thought. . . . . . . . 128
Cynicism and Norms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Heterodox Educations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
VI. Reasoning Like a Jewel. Experience and Determination in The Indiscreet Jewels. . . . . . . 145
The Libertine Novel and the Debate of Ideas. . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Recognizing Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Automata. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
VII. Who is the Audience for Libertine Novels with Explicit Philosophical Ambitions?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Edifying Confessions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Confidence and Discussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Genetic Narrative and Dissertation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
VIII. Interlude. The Air of the Jewels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Intellectual Quarrels of the Enlightenment with an Oriental Flavor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Libertinism and Parody of Noble Genres. . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
IX. Are Clandestine Novels Materialist?. . . . . . . . 191
The Anti-Philosophical Identification of Materialists and Libertines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Fundamental Materialism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Materialist Arguments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
A Materialist Morality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.
X. What Are We Waiting For to Be Happy?. . . . . . . . 205
Narrative Models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Happiness and Philosophy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
The Use of Pleasures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
XI. The Perverted Enlightenment. Sade and the Tradition of the Libertine Novel with Philosophical Ambitions. . . 221
Sade and the History of the Philosophically Ambitious Novel. 223
Sade the Philosopher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Sade the Philosopher?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
XII. Sade's Philosophical Novel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Sade the Novelist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
An Anti-Rousseauist Novel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
The Narrative Confrontation of Philosophies. . . . . . . . . . 252
XIII. Misfortunes and Prosperity of the Enlightenment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
The Enlightenment Heritage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
The Making of the Philosopher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
"There Must Be Principles". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Nature as Norm: The Paradoxes of a Commonplace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Epilogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
The book examines a body of widely distributed underground texts that deployed a narrative philosophy blending lustful scenes with rigorous metaphysical reasoning. Texts such as The Indiscreet Jewels and Therese Philosopher contributed to shaping and spreading a new morality grounded in reason rather than Revelation. By removing the guilt from pleasure and defending sexual behaviors condemned by the Church as natural, these works asserted that a free sexuality is compatible with an honest life and even fosters it. Characters discourse on the dangers of religious intolerance, demonstrate the liberating consequences of materialism or atheism, and extol the virtues of Spinozism.
Colas Duflo shows how this clandestine literature paved the way for the values underlying modern societies, including freedoms and tolerance that regularly confront regressive and repressive waves. The obscenity of libertine novels has long discredited them, but these pornographic writings freely and joyfully disseminated philosophical theses while challenging social norms. Readers interested in eighteenth-century literature, the history of philosophy, and the intellectual traditions of the Enlightenment may find this exploration relevant to understanding the complex relationship between fiction, morality, and subversion during the period.