A Woman, a Man, and Two Kingdoms

November 4, 1991
Steegmuller, whose biography Cocteau was a 1971 National Book Award winner, informs and delights again with this history/biography. From 1769 until 1779, French aristocrat Louise dEpinay (1726-1783), known best for her slightly novelized memoirs and her letters to her granddaughter, engaged in a witty, intellectual correspondence with Ferdinando Galiani, a Neapolitan priest who had been called home from his post in Paris. Their letters display the correspondents' insight, charm and intelligence. Steegmuller's text and the period illustrations fill out this re-creation of the times and its great figures, including Diderot and Voltaire. The book, a heady experience, is among the author's best since his pseudonmymous debut, as Byron Steel, in 1927 with O Rare Ben Jonson.

October 1, 1991
Though little known to the general public today, Madame d'Epinay (1726-83) and the Abbe Galiani (1728-87) were two of the most famous figures of 18th-century European society. She was a French writer and friend of such luminaries as Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, and Grimm. He was a Neapolitan diplomat, satirist, and economist. They came to know each other during his residence in Paris from 1759 to 1769, and after he returned to Naples they engaged in a wide-ranging correspondence. Steegmuller clearly prefers anecdotes to detailed analyses of philosophical or economic issues, and his book offers nothing that will be new to specialists. Yet he has a sure grasp of the material, displays sound judgment in his careful use of the available memoirs and letters, and offers the reader a witty and interesting series of vignettes of the political, social, and intellectual scene. For larger public libraries or ones with readers interested in history.-- Thomas J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., N.Y.

Copyright 1991 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.