La Pucelle
Author: Voltaire
Volume: 7
Series: Œuvres complètes de Voltaire
Volume Editors: Jeroom Vercruysse
Publication Date: 1970
Pages: 733
ISBN: 978-0-7294-0221-7
Price: £105
About
Voltaire’s satirical epic La Pucelle was one of the most contentious works of his career, and was outlawed, burned and banned for much of the following two centuries. His trenchant criticism of superstition finds its full expression in this poem, which retells the story of France’s heroine Joan of Arc from an irreverent, ribald point of view. In fact there are two poems: the early pirated copy that was widely distributed, having been spiced up and supplemented by its unauthorised editors, and Voltaire’s later official version, considerably toned-down. This edition is among the first to present these two texts in their entirety, without trying to create a composite. The complicated history of La Pucelle’s composition, its various editions and its lasting influence are here related in full, alongside the full texts of both ‘poems’, allowing readers to judge the still-controversial masterpiece for themselves.
Table of contents
La Pucelle (édition critique par Jeroom Vercruysse)
Reviews
Ce travail, résultat d’une étude méthodique des nombreux manuscrits, est présenté au lecteur dans le déploiement d’une abondante documentation relative aux variantes essentielles et étendues, de textes annexes, d’index, etc… A cette garantie de l’appareil critique s’ajoutent une recherche systématique des “sources” du poème dans la poésie italienne, dans d’autres œuvres nombreuses et variées, dans l’actualité contemporaine; une analyse des procédés stylistiques et littéraires, et enfin une étude de la “fortune” du poème jusqu’à notre époque. […] On a la surprise de découvrir, après cette entreprise de “restauration”, le vrai visage du monument voltairien. Le travail de J. V. éclaire sur l’attitude profonde de Voltaire face au phénomène-Jeanne [d’Arc].
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