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- Herausgeber: BrightSummaries.com
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Serie: BrightSummaries.com
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
Unlock the more straightforward side of The Nun with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of
The Nun by Denis Diderot, a novel which fiercely criticises the cruelty and excesses of the Church. Through the main character, the innocent novitiate Suzanne Simenon, and the ordeals she undergoes at two convents, the author condemns the power that has been placed in the hands of the sadistic nuns and delivers a passionate argument in favour of freedom of thought and expression.
The Nun was published posthumously in 1796 and was an immediate success, as its support of tolerance, justice and liberty was seen as a clear illustration of the values of the French Revolution. Denis Diderot was a leading writer of the Enlightenment in the 18th century, and wrote novels, plays, philosophical dialogues and essays.
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Denis Diderot
French writer, philosopher and encyclopaedia editor
Born in Langres, France, in 1713.Died in Paris in 1784.Notable works:Encyclopaedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Crafts (1751-1772), encyclopaediaAddendum to the Journey of Bougainville (1772), philosophical taleJacques the Fatalist and His Master (1778), novelDenis Diderot was a contemporary of Montesquieu, Rousseau and Voltaire, and one of the leading figures of the Enlightenment, an 18th-century philosophical movement devoted to reason and knowledge. The movement rejected despotism and obscurantism, and strongly advocated for reflection, which was seen as the antithesis of crime and ignorance, in works that were often combative and wilfully transgressive. Consequently, knowledge, morality and religion are recurring themes in Diderot’s work.
Diderot tried his hand at a wide range of literary genres, including novels (The Nun), plays (The Natural Son), philosophical dialogues (Jacques the Fatalist) and essays (Paradox of the Actor). His magnum opus remains the Encyclopaedia, which he produced in collaboration with the versatile mathematician and philosopher d’Alembert (1717-1783). Its aim was to bring together the knowledge of the age and pass it on to future generations.
The Nun
An anticlerical novel
Genre: novelReference edition: Diderot, D. (2008) The Nun. Trans. Goulbourne, D. Oxford: Oxford University Press.1st edition: 1796Themes: memoirs, confessions, religion, novitiate, mysticism, fanaticism, perversion, hypocrisyThe Nun is a first-person narrative in which a young woman, Suzanne Simonin, describes her novitiate in two convents, Sainte-Marie and Sainte-Eutrope. She was born as the result of her mother’s extramarital affair, has not chosen the religious life and intends to refuse to take her vows.
The novel, which was begun in 1760 and published posthumously in 1796, features some of Diderot’s favourite themes: this anticlerical novel is an indictment of the control the Church can exert over an individual, who in this case is a good, innocent young woman. Influenced by the philosophy of libertinism, which advocated freethinking, the author denounces religious customs and criticises religion’s perversions.
