French Literature Reviews - 2026

Buffon in the Pléiade
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Buffon
WORKS

Edited by Stéphane Schmitt in collaboration with Cédric Crémière, with a preface by Michel Delon.

Gallimard
Bibliothèque de la Pléiade Collection (No 532)
08-03-2007
ISBN 9782070118038.
1760 pages, 120 ill.
65.00 €

Reflections on the Law of Attraction and Other Texts - General Natural History - Natural History of Man - Correspondence with the Sorbonne - Discourse on Style - Natural History of Animals - The Epochs of Nature - Natural History of Minerals.

publisher's overview:

Drawn from the thirty-six volumes of the Natural History, this volume offers a selection of texts organized according to the structure conceived and followed by Buffon; it is illustrated with one hundred and twenty engravings from the original edition. The work was one of the most resounding publishing successes of the 18^th century, which immediately recognized the author's literary genius. In the 19^th century, he was ranked among the four most eminent writers of the previous century, alongside Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau. Natural History was soon adapted into various anthologies, ranging from the schoolchild's Buffon to the family Buffon, by way of the young lady's Buffon. And in the 20^th century, Francis Ponge hailed Buffon as "one of the greatest prose poets in our literature"—effectively, his equal. Yet a few decades ago, Buffon seemed to recede into the background, to the point where he might have been thought relegated to the limbo of literature. That, however, was to underestimate the theoretical imagination of a thinker whose central place in the debates and intellectual struggles of the Enlightenment has recently been restored. It was also to underestimate the driving force of his phrasing, the variety of his language, and the freedom of a style that embraces both the near and the far to speak to us of the world we inhabit. Even if the horse has vanished from our cities, even if the cat is no longer deemed the most hypocritical of our companions, and even if deserts and savannas have become tourist destinations, Buffon's descriptions remain invaluable documents of a bygone era and enduring testaments to a sensitivity toward reality that can still be our own.

Published within the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade series, this volume gathers a selection of writings drawn from Buffon's thirty-six-volume Natural History. Alongside these texts, the edition includes related pieces such as reflections on the law of attraction, correspondence with the Sorbonne, the Discourse on Style, and The Epochs of Nature. Illustrated with engravings, the collection follows the organizational structure originally conceived by the author, presenting a view of his intellectual output across multiple domains of inquiry.

During the Enlightenment, Buffon's project achieved publishing success and established his reputation alongside prominent literary figures of his era. While his standing fluctuated in subsequent generations, twentieth-century writers such as Francis Ponge recognized the literary quality of his prose. Today, scholars continue to examine his theoretical imagination and stylistic range, viewing his descriptions as documents of an earlier period and expressions of attentiveness to the natural world. Readers interested in eighteenth-century French literature and intellectual history may find this volume relevant to their studies.