Denis Diderot: About women

A collection of works by Denis Diderot, an 18th-century French Enlightenment thinker well known to us as the chief editor of the *Encyclopédie*, titled *On Women—and the Trilogy on Sex, Love, and Marriage* (translated by Jumisa), has been published as part of the newly revamped "Munji Spectrum" series. Denis Diderot, a thinker, art theorist, novelist, playwright, and natural philosopher, was a highly multifaceted intellectual, even considering that the specialization of academic disciplines had not yet fully taken place in his time. This book compiles one essay (*On Women*) and three short stories (*This Is Not a Short Story*, *Madame de La Carlière*, and *Appendix to the Travels of Bougainville or a Dialogue Between A and B*) that address the themes of women, love, and marriage among his diverse academic interests; in particular, these three short stories form a "trilogy on sex, love, and marriage." As a novelist, he received belated attention in the 20th century. This was partly due to the twists and turns of events, such as the fact that the manuscript was not published during Diderot's lifetime and was discovered posthumously, but also because of his writing style, which is so complex and unique that it is difficult to categorize it by genre. In novels such as *The Nephew of Rameau* and *Jacques the Fatalist*, as well as the ‘Trilogy on Sex, Love, and Marriage’ included in this book, Diderot presents a conversational style in which two characters engage in philosophical dialogue. While the two characters express their respective opinions on sharply opposing themes, they repeatedly deviate from the topic and interrupt each other, disrupting the flow; for this reason, his novels have earned the nickname ‘the Nouveau Roman of the 18th Century.’

Korean title: 여성에 대하여

Korean author: 드니 디드로

Korean publisher: 문학과지성사

ISBN-13: 9788932038315