THE EMBATTLED PHILOSOPHER. By Lester G. Crocker. (Neville Spearman, 25s.)
CATHERINE THE GREAT, in a letter to Grimm, referred to Diderot as a man who, 'in all things is . . . different from the others.' Inseparable from the Encyclopedists, yet a fascinating, tantalising figure on his own, he has been too scattered for the specialist and too complex for the populariser. Just as Diderot wrestled with the Encyclopedia, Dr. Crocker has attempted to dispatch the Lernman Hydra all at once and has filled 400 pages. His book was written for the American public, whom it appears to have satisfied, but the British reader may suffer from indigestion. Out of sheer snob- bery, too, he will feel that Rameau's Nephew or Regret on my old Dressing-gown are works to which he has not been introduced. Every attempt is made to disclose some horror, such as the blurb mention of Diderot's 'one great amour, for a homely woman who had peculiar tastes in love.' This is apparently a reference to Sophie Volland. Some writers have to be made palatable, but there is no need to serve up Diderot in such local-coloured sauce.
Dr. Crocker could have made his book more convincing by quoting less from other critics
(named and unnamed), listing his source documents and adding an outline bibliography. His remarks on Diderot's novels are interesting and emphasise their curious modernity; until the publication of the promised new Diderot materials in France the book is a guide to one of the most entertaining of the classics who deserves to be much better known in translation.
MARGARET CROSLAND
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