Le_Mondain

Le Mondain

Le Mondain

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"Le Mondain" ("The Worldling" or "The Man of the World") is a philosophical poem written by French enlightenment writer and philosopher Voltaire in 1736. It satirises Christian imagery, including the story of Adam and Eve, to defend a way of life focused on worldly pleasure rather than the promised pleasure of a religion's afterlife. It opposes religious morality and especially the teaching of original sin. Its points echo Voltaire's prose works Lettres philosophiques and Remarques sur Pascal. Voltaire noted a trend against using poetic forms to make philosophical arguments, and wrote "Le Mondain" in deliberate opposition to this trend.[1]

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The poem is set in the Garden of Eden but, contrary to the teaching of original sin, Eden is not portrayed as a paradise from which man would be expelled, but a state of barbarity. Adam's nails are described as long and dirty since no-one has yet invented a tool to trim or clean them. The implication is that the world we experience is hence not a prison into which we have been thrown as punishment.[2] Instead, the poem's closing line says, "Le paradis terrestre est où je suis" ("The earthly paradise is where I am.")

Reaction

Line 22 of the poem, "Le superflu, chose très-nécessaire" ("The superfluous, a very necessary thing"), became a common catch-phrase.[1][2]

Responding to hostile reactions in 1737, Voltaire wrote a poem in the same style, Défense du Mondain ou l'apologie du luxe ("Defense of the Worldling or an Apology for Luxury").[2] The themes of the two are somewhat different; "Le Mondain" focusing on the personal benefits of worldly pleasure, while the Défense talks about the social benefits of seeking pleasure.[1]

The French dramatist Alexis Piron wrote a poem in response, L'Antimondain, in 1738.[1]

The poem's publication caused a scandal which led to Voltaire fleeing in 1738 from the Chateau de Cirey in France to Brussels, where he spent three months before returning.[3]

The poem has been described as embracing the doux commerce philosophy.[4]

Published editions

  • "Le Mondain" – Critical edition by Haydn T. Mason, in Œuvres complètes de Voltaire, Volume 16 (Voltaire Foundation, Oxford) ISBN 0729407942

References

  1. [1]
    "Introduction" in "Le Mondain" – Critical edition by Haydn T. Mason, in Œuvres complètes de Voltaire, Volume 16 (Voltaire Foundation, Oxford) ISBN 0729407942
  2. [2]
    Hont, Istvan (2006). "The early Enlightenment debate on commerce and Luxury". In Goldie, Mark; Wokler, Robert (eds.). The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought. Cambridge University Press. pp. 413–414. ISBN 9780521374224.
  3. [3]
    Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  4. [4]
    Graeme Garrard (9 January 2003). Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment: A Republican Critique of the Philosophes. SUNY Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7914-5604-0.

Further reading

  • Cronk, Nicholas. "The epicurean spirit: champagne and the defence of poetry in Voltaire's Le Mondain", Studies in Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 371 (1999), pp. 53–80.


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