Catherine & Diderot: The Empress, the Philosopher, and the Fate of the EnlightenmentIn a dual biography crafted around the famous encounter between the French philosopher who wrote about power and the Russian empress who wielded it with great aplomb, Robert Zaretsky invites us to reflect on the fraught relationship between politics and philosophy, and between a man of thought and a woman of action. |
Contents
Prologue | 1 |
1 The Sea at Scheveningen | 7 |
2 Reading Voltaire in Saint Petersburg | 31 |
3 R is for Riga | 42 |
4 Glasnost | 68 |
5 The Shadow Lands | 91 |
6 The Hermitage | 109 |
7 Extraordinary Men and Events | 139 |
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Common terms and phrases
admiration André Billy Angélique arrived asked Betsky Bougainville’s Cath Catherine II Catherine’s city’s claim confessed conversation Correspondance country’s court d’Alembert declared Denis Diderot despot Diderot et Catherine Documents of Catherine Elizabeth empire empress Encyclopédie enlightened erine exclaimed Falconet France Frederick French Furbank Geoffrin Golitsyn Grimm Helvétius Helvétius’s Hermitage Holland human Ibid imperial insisted Isabel de Madariaga Jacques the Fatalist later laws less liberty Madame matter Memoirs of Catherine Mme Geoffrin Montesquieu moral Nakaz Nanette Narishkin nature never nevertheless novel observed Oeuvres one’s Orlov Orou Oxford University Press P. N. Furbank Palace Parisian Peter philosophe political Pugachev Rameau’s Nephew reader reason replied Republic of Letters Robert Massie rule ruler Russia Saint Petersburg salons seemed Seneca serfs Socrates Sophie Volland sovereign story subjects tell thinkers thought tion told Tourneux trans truth turned Voltaire Voltaire’s Voyage words work’s writing wrote York