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Encyclopédie: The Triumph of Reason in an Unreasonable Age

Philipp Blom

In 1750, a group of young men in Paris embarked on a modest translation of a dictionary. The project grew into the greatest publishing venture of its day, a work considered so dangerous and subversive that it was banned by the pope and its authors threatened with imprisonment and execution.

The writers of the Encyclopédie included some of the greatest minds of the day, among them Denis Diderot, Jean d'Alemebert, Voltaire, and Rousseau, a group marked by close friendships and spectacular break-ups, by changing allegiances, bitterness, and great generosity in the face of constant danger. Philipp Blom recreates the lives of the protagonists on a vivid historical canvas and brings us the story of the greatest intellectual enterprise of the eighteenth century.

Publishers:

UK - Fourth Estate
US - Palgrave
Germany - Eichborn / Die Andere Bibliothek
Spain - Anagrama

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