Diderot, Denis 1713-84
French writer

Born in Langres, the son of a master cutler, he was trained by the Jesuits at home and in Paris. He refused to become either a lawyer or a physician, and worked instead as a tutor and bookseller's hack (1734-44). His Pens�es philosophiques (1796, Eng trans Philosophical Thoughts, 1916) was burned by the parlement of Paris in 1746, and in 1749 he was imprisoned for his Lettre sur les aveugles (1749, Eng trans An Essay on Blindness, 1750). In 1748 he had published his first novel, Les Bijoux indiscrets (Eng trans The Indiscreet Toys, 1749), and he was then invited to edit an expanded translation of Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia (1727) with Jean d'Alembert. In Diderot's hands the character of the work was transformed. He enlisted nearly all the important French writers of the time as contributors to his Encyclop�die, ou Dictionnaire raisonn� des sciences, des arts et des m�tiers (35 vols, 1751-76, 'Encyclopedia, or Critical Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Trades'), and produced a major work of the Enlightenment. However, it was seen as propaganda for the Philosophe Party, its sale was repeatedly prohibited, and Diderot ran a constant risk of imprisonment or exile. He was rescued from financial difficulties by Catherine II of Russia, to whom in 1773 he paid a five-month visit. His later works include the novel La Religieuse (1796, Eng trans The Nun, 1797), which exposed convent life, and Le Neveu de Rameau (1821, Eng trans Rameau's Nephew, 1897), an imaginary conversation between the author and a parasite, in which the follies of society are laid bare with sardonic humour and piercing insight. His plays are less successful, the best efforts being two short pieces: Est-il bon? Est-il m�chant? (1784, 'Is He Good? Is He Bad?', not produced until 1913) and La Pi�ce et le prologue (1820, 'The Play and the Prologue'). His letters to Sophie Volland are the most interesting of his voluminous correspondence. As a critic he stood far in advance of his contemporaries, and anticipated the Romanticists. His Salons (4 vols, 1957-67) are the earliest example of modern aesthetic criticism.

Bibliography: P France, Diderot (1974); L G Crocker, The Embattled Philosopher: a Biography of Diderot (1954, rev edn 1966)