The Enlightenment remains widely associated with the rise of scientific progress and the loss of religious faith, a dual tendency that is thought to have contributed to the disenchantment of the world. In her wide-ranging and richly illustrated book, Tili Boon Cuillé questions the accuracy of this narrative by investigating the fate of the marvelous in the age of reason. Exploring the affinities between the natural sciences and the fine arts, Cuillé examines the representation of natural phenomena - whether harmonious or discordant - in natural history, painting, opera, and the novel from Buffon and Rameau to Ossian and Stal. She demonstrates that philosophical, artistic, and emotional responses to the 'spectacle of nature' in eighteenth-century France included wonder, enthusiasm, melancholy, and the 'sentiment of divinity.' |