St Petersburg Dialogues
| Author | Joseph de Maistre |
|---|---|
| Original title | Les Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg |
| Translator | Richard Lebrun |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre | dialogue |
Publication date | 1821 |
Published in English | 1993 |
St Petersburg Dialogues: or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence (French: Les Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg, ou Entretiens sur le Gouvernement Temporel de la Providence) is an 1821 book by the Savoyard diplomat and philosopher Joseph de Maistre.
Summary[edit]
In a series of dialogues, three characters, called the Count, the Senator and the Chevalier, meet in Saint Petersburg and explore a range of subjects related to theodicy, punishment and epistemology. The book argues that the continuous blood sacrifice of men is a constant and fundamental law in all of human life and society.[1][2][3]
Reception[edit]
St Petersburg Dialogues is Maistre's most famous and influential work. The scholar Mark Wegierski writes that it is "extraordinary" in its wide range, which includes "pointed criticisms of Locke and Voltaire, the beginnings of a logothetic linguistic theory, as well as such controversial passages as those in praise of the executioner, and on the divinity of war".[1]
According to the Maistre scholar Carolina Armenteros, the essayistic style of the dialogues expresses an "organicism … opposed to the mechanistic rationalism of the Enlightenment," offering "a pre-romantic and imaginative ideal of the search for truth that springs from respect for variation and particularity … an ideal rooted in awe."[4]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Wegierski, Mark (1995). "St. Petersburg Dialogues". The Review of Metaphysics. 48 (3): 665–666. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
- ^ McCalla, Arthur (1994). "Reviewed Work: The St. Petersburg Dialogues: Or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence by Joseph de Maistre, Richard A. Lebrun". Nineteenth-Century French Studies. 22 (3/4): 592–594. JSTOR 23537187.
- ^ Offord, D. (1 April 1994). "St Petersburg Dialogues or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence (Book Review)". The Slavonic and East European Review. 72 (2): 329. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
- ^ Armenteros, Carolina; Lebrun, Richard (2010). The New enfant du siècle: Joseph de Maistre as a Writer. St Andrews Studies in French History and Culture. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-907548-00-0.
External links[edit]
French Wikisource has original text related to this article: Les Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg
