DIDEROT (Denis). La Religieuse. - Lot 134

DIDEROT (Denis). La Religieuse. An anticlerical work par excellence, La Religieuse is an ode to the freedom to choose one's destiny. Paris, chez Buisson, Imprimeur-Libraire, An 5 de la République (1797). In-8 (19,2x12,3), full contemporary havane flamed and glazed calf, triple fillet on covers, smooth spine, decorated with a red morocco piece and rich gilt small-iron decoration, scrolls on the edges, red edges. Period binding. (2) false title and title page, 411 pages. Fragment of head cover missing, corners dulled. Inside fresh and clean, good margins. First edition of Diderot's "La Religieuse", very rare and sought-after. Tchemerzine, II, 969. A novel-memoir begun in 1760, completed around 1780 and published posthumously in October 1796, twelve years after the author's death? In it, Diderot makes a case against coercive religious institutions, which are contrary to true religion insofar as they lead individuals to earthly suffering and eternal damnation. The closed world leads to the degradation of human nature. Idleness, social uselessness and promiscuity gradually plunge recluses into morbid or mystical reveries, then into madness, sometimes leading to suicide. We know the origin of this novel, a rather cruel joke made by Mme d'Epinay's group, who had just welcomed the Marquis de Croismare. The latter was dealing with a lawsuit concerning a young girl who had been placed in a convent against her will. Diderot was asked to write down the girl's letters to the Marquis, and to make him believe that she had escaped. These letters became La religieuse. The novel remained unfinished, and Diderot was wary of publishing it. In 1780, he modified and corrected his manuscript. It was not published until after his death, in 1796, according to the manuscript owned by the Grimm brothers.