Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds
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1700s
17th century
A01=Bernard de Fontenelle
academic
age of enlightenment
alien life
astronomy
Author_Bernard de Fontenelle
Category=PSP
classic literature
classic philosophy
descartes
england
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
european history
extraterrestrial
french language
heliocentric
logic
natural philosophy
natural world
philosophy
physics
popular science
scholarly
science
scientific
translation
universe
western world
world history
Product details
- ISBN 9780520071711
- Weight: 181g
- Dimensions: 140 x 210mm
- Publication Date: 22 Jun 1990
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Surveying the night sky, a charming philosopher and his hostess, the Marquise, are considering the possibility of travelers from the moon. 'What if they were skillful enough to navigate on the outer surface of our air, and from there, through their curiosity to see us, they angled for us like fish? Would that please you?' asks the philosopher. 'Why not?' the Marquise replies. 'As for me, I'd put myself into their nets of my own volition just to have the pleasure of seeing those who caught me'. In this imaginary conversation of three hundred years ago, readers can share the excitement of a new, extremely daring view of the universe. "Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds" ("Entretiens sur la pluralite des mondes"), first published in 1686, is one of the best loved classics of the early French enlightenment. Through a series of informal dialogues that take place on successive evenings in the marquise's moonlit gardens, Fontenelle describes the new cosmology of the Copernican world view with matchless clarity, imagination, and wit. Moreover, he boldly makes his interlocutor a woman, inviting female participation in the almost exclusively male province of scientific discourse.
The popular Fontenelle lived through an entire century, from 1657 to 1757, and wrote prolifically. H. A. Hargreaves' fresh, appealing translation brings the author's masterpiece to new generations of readers, while the introduction by Nina Rattner Gelbart clearly demonstrates the importance of the "Conversations" for the history of science, of women, of literature, and of French civilization, and for the popularization of culture.
H. A. Hargreaves is Professor of English at the University of Alberta. His interests range from Shakespeare to science fiction, and he is himself a cutural popularizer, having written as many stories, scripts, and documentaries as he has scholarly articles. Nina Rattner Gelbart is Professor of History at Occidental College, Los Angeles. She has written on Englightenment science, medicine, and utopian novels, and is the author of the prizewinning The King's Midwife: A History and Mystery of Madame du Coudray (California, 1998).
