Bolingbroke, exil et écriture au siècle des Lumières

"L'une des contributions les plus complètes à l'histoire anglo-française des Lumières"

E.Le Roy Ladurie.

"New and very valuable for British historians"

Eveline Cruickshanks.

Entre Lumières et Enlightenment, Bolingbroke, philosophe et homme d'Etat, illustre par son parcours les liens décisifs qui rattachent l'écriture à l'exil. Exil politique, tout d'abord, celui de l'ancien ministre réfugié en France ; exil intérieur, ensuite, lorsque le politicien éconduit médite sur les partis et les factions. Exil métaphysique, enfin, à la mesure du deuil cosmologique ou religieux accompagnant la révolution copernicienne.

Henry S^t John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751), was hailed by Disraeli as one of the greatest Conservative thinkers of his age. Yet the publication of his posthumous works was deemed outrageous by his contemporaries, who deeply resented his attacks against the church - "Sir, he was a scoundrel and a coward" (Samuel Johnson).

In turn Tory minister, Jacobite renegade and mylord anglois, Bolingbroke had a seminal influence on Voltaire, Swift and Pope and a host of lesser writers. This study explores in the light of the history of mentality the links between politics, religion and philosophy, unearthing a great deal of hitherto unexplored or unpublished material.