French Literature Reviews - 2026
V. Wiel, Usage du monde et liberté à l’Âge classique
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Review published in Acta Fabula (October 2019, vol. 20, no. 8): Christabelle Thouin-Dieuaide, "How to Make Use of the World? The Method of Four Classical Authors".
Véronique Wiel, Usage du monde et liberté à l’Âge classique,
Honoré Champion, "Lumière classique" series, 2017
EAN13: 9782745344700. — 318 p. — 55 EUR.
It is impossible to overstate the extent to which the "classical" age is a critical one: a time of acute, total crisis, as it marks the beginning of the dismantling of the old world. A fundamental question thus arises: how to reinvent freedom within the conditions of modernity?
This endeavor is expressed preeminently in terms of use, revealing in particular a conception that is as original as it is overlooked, encapsulated in Paul's dictum: "to use this world, as not using it." Demonstrating its continued relevance in the classical age means showing how Fénelon, Pascal, Malebranche, and Mme de Lambert variously appropriated it and turned it into an embodiment of freedom available to modernity—including our own.
Véronique Wiel is an Associate Professor (HDR) at the Catholic Institute of Paris. Her research, which bridges various disciplinary fields such as philosophy, theology, and rhetoric, focuses primarily on Malebranche, to whom she dedicated a monograph published in the same series, Écriture et philosophie chez Malebranche.
Véronique Wiel's study contributes to scholarship on seventeenth-century French literature and philosophy by examining how classical writers negotiated the shifting boundaries of modernity and tradition. The period is widely recognized as a time of profound intellectual transition, during which inherited worldviews underwent rigorous scrutiny. Within this climate of critical reconfiguration, questions concerning human agency and moral autonomy acquired renewed urgency. Authors of the era frequently engaged with complex theological and philosophical legacies to articulate new paths for intellectual and personal independence.
The volume explores the writings of Fénelon, Pascal, Malebranche, and Mme de Lambert, focusing on their distinct approaches to the problem of freedom and worldly engagement. Readers interested in seventeenth-century French philosophy, theology, and the history of ideas may find this study relevant to their pursuits. The work bridges several disciplinary boundaries, reflecting the author's broader research interests in rhetoric and early modern thought.