Essai sur le récit

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This collection contains the complete text of Bérardier de Bataut's "Essai sur le récit", originally published in 1776. When François-Joseph Bérardier de Bataut first published his "Essai sur le récit, ou entretiens sur la manière de raconter" in 1776, the book received enthusiastic reviews and was praised for being an instructive account of the art of storytelling. This fact has not, however, prevented the book from being all but forgotten today. While the "Essai sur le récit" remains strongly influenced by the classicist period, especially in the range of authors quoted and in some of the core values attributed to narrative, it also contains quite a few more innovative aspects, especially in the very definition of narrative given and in the treatment of narrative circumstances. Attention to Bérardier’s text thus promises to contribute to a growing interest in the persistence of the classical heritage during the Age of Enlightenment, at the same time as it proves relevant to our understanding of the poetics of narrative in the French eighteenth century. (From: Christof Schöch: "Ancient or modern? Bérardier de Bataut's Essai sur le récit". Romance Studies, 30.1, 2012, 25-35.)