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    This is not a Story
    This is not a Story
    This is not a Story
    Ebook53 pages41 minutes

    This is not a Story

    By Denis Diderot and Peter Phalen

    3.5/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 1, 1991
    This is not a Story
    Author

    Denis Diderot

    Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer of erotic fiction. Born into wealth, he studied philosophy at a Jesuit college before attempting to enter the clergy. In 1734, tiring of religion, he declared his wish to become a professional writer, and was disowned by his father. From this point onward, he lived as a bohemian in Paris, writing anonymous works of erotica, including The Talking Jewels (1748). In 1751, he cofounded the Encyclopédie, a controversial resource on the sciences that drew condemnation from the church and the French government. Despite his relative obscurity and lack of financial success, he was later recognized as a foundational figure in the radicalization of French society prior to the Revolution.

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      Book preview

      This is not a Story - Denis Diderot

      The Project Gutenberg eBook, This is not a Story, by Denis Diderot, Translated by Peter Phalen

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: This is not a Story Original French title: Ceci n'est pas un conte

      Author: Denis Diderot

      Release Date: December 2, 2010 [eBook #34544]

      Language: English

      ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THIS IS NOT A STORY***

      Translated from Project Gutenberg´s French edition, which can be found here: www.gutenberg.org/etext/28602

      This Is Not a Story (written around 1772-published in 1798)

      Original French title: Ceci n'est pas un conte

      By Denis Diderot

      Translation into English by Peter Phalen

      Copyright (2010) by Peter Phalen

      This work is licensed for non-commecial use under the Creative Commons

      Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license.

      This story is found in Grimm´s Correspondence, dated April 1773, but that version is incomplete. The history of Tanié and la Reymer is missing, as is the end of the history of Mademoiselle de La Chaux.

      M. A.-A. Barbier (Dictionary of the Anonymous) suggested that Diderot´s memory must have failed him when he attributed translations of Hume´s First Essays on Metaphysics [p. 321] and the Essays on Human Understanding [p. 328] to Mademoiselle de La Chaux. But this was certainly not the case. Diderot was only giving the works of Hume as translated by Mademoiselle de La Chaux a more general title. The Political Discourses make up the second part of the Essays. Mademoiselle de La Chaux wrote the first translation of this part (Of Commerce; Of Luxury; Of Money, Amsterdam, 1752, 1753, in-12; Paris and Lyon, in-12). It includes only seven of Hume´s seventeen discourses along with some commentary by the translator. Abbot Le Blanc and later Mauvillon did not publish their versions of the same piece until 1754. Mademoiselle de La Chaux´s translation of Hume´s Writings on Economics was included in the XVth tome of the Collections from the Leading Economists. She died in 1755.

      This Is Not A Story

      When one tells a story it is for a listener; and however short the story is, it is highly unlikely that the teller is not occasionally interrupted by his audience. So I have introduced into the narration that will be read, and which is not a story, or which is a bad one if you have doubts about that, a character that might approximate the role of the reader; and I begin.

      * * * * *

      And you conclude right there?

      —That a subject this interesting must make us dizzy, be the talk of the town for a month, be phrased and rephrased until flavorless, produce a thousand arguments, at least twenty leaflets, and around a hundred bits of verse in favor or against. In spite of all the finesse, learning, and pure grit of the author, given that his work has not lead to any violence it is mediocre. Very mediocre.

      —But it seems to me that we owe him a rather agreeable evening, and that this reading has brought…

      —What? A litany of worn-out vignettes fired from left and right, saying just one single thing known for all eternity, that man and woman are extraordinarily unfortunate beasts.

      —Nevertheless the epidemic has won you over, and you have contributed just like any other.

      —Whether or not it be to one´s

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