The Age of Louis XIVThis volume of the Pulitzer Prize–winning series offers a comprehensive view of European civilization during the long and powerful reign of Louis XIV. Will and Ariel Durant continue their magisterial history of the Western world as France exerted an almost hypnotic dominance over the European continent. Their expansive narrative begins at the end of the Thirty Years War, a conflict which decimated the Holy Roman Empire and allowed France to flourish. This was also the time when Louis XIV, at the age of five, came to the throne. Book One examines the French zenith from a number of perspectives: from the politics at court to the king’s relationship to the church, the arts, and literary greats such as Moliere and Racine. In Book Two, the narrative moves to England, where Oliver Cromwell leads a revolt against monarchy, and authors including John Milton and Jonathan Swift write their immortal epics. With five books in all, the authors offer a sweeping survey of the era, from Peter the Great’s Russia to the advances in science and medicine, Isaac Newton’s revolutionary ideas, and the great philosophical debate between faith and reason. |
Contents
Daniel Defoe | |
Steele and Addison | |
Jonathan Swift | |
Adventurous Sweden | |
16981725 | |
16481715 | |
16481715 | |
The Sephardim | |
The Jansenists and the Jesuits | |
16561715 | |
The King and the Huguenots | |
Fénelon | |
16431715 | |
WashingtonNational Gallery | |
Bossuet | |
Apprenticeship | |
Molière and the Ladies | |
LAffaire Tartuffe | |
The Amorous Atheist | |
Meridian | |
Curtain | |
16431715 | |
The Romantic Protest | |
Mme de Sévigné | |
La Rochefoucauld | |
La Bruyère | |
Dutch Republic 2000000 The Holy Roman Empire which included Germany | |
For Good Measure | |
16491715 | |
The Dutch Republic | |
The Flowering of Genre | |
Jan de Witt | |
William III of Orange | |
ENGLAND 16491714 | |
164960 | |
The Irish Revolt | |
The Scottish Revolt | |
Oliver Absolute | |
Puritan Heyday | |
The Quakers | |
Death and Taxes | |
The Road Back | |
The King Returns | |
160874 | |
The Young Poet | |
The Reformer | |
Marriage and Divorce | |
Freedom of the Press | |
The Latin Secretary | |
The Old Poet | |
The Final Years | |
166085 | |
The Religious Caldron | |
The English Economy | |
Art and Music | |
Morals | |
Manners | |
Religion and Politics | |
The Popish Plot IX Comoedia finita | |
16851714 | |
Deposuit potentes de sede | |
England under William III | |
England under Queen Anne | |
in France the movement that in England had just raised Parliament above the king | |
16601714 | |
The Restoration Drama | |
John Dryden | |
A Catalogue | |
Evelyn and Pepys | |
16481715 | |
16481715 | |
16481715 | |
Results | |
16481715 | |
163277 | |
16421727 | |
16461716 | |
Wanderjahre | |
Leibniz and Christianity | |
Locke Reviewed | |
Monads | |
Was God Just? | |
Paralipomena | |
FRANCE AGAINST EUROPE 16831715 | |
THE SUN SETS I Mme de Maintenon | |
168997 | |
The Spanish Problem | |
17012 | |
The War of the Spanish Succession | |
Louis XIV | |
Anne of Austria FIG 3ANTOINE COYSEVOX Colbert | |
Cardinal Mazarin | |
Ninon de Lenclos FIG 6PIERRE MIGNARD Madame de Montespan | |
The Great Condé FIG 8N DE LARMESSIN Louise de La Vallière | |
Henrietta Anne Duchess of Orléans FIG 10Death Mask of Blaise Pascal | |
Fénelon | |
Jacques Bossuet | |
Bathing Nymphs | |
Ebony cabinet FIG 16The Louvre Colonnade FIG 17Church of St LouisdesInvalides Paris | |
Gobelin Tapestry The Family of Darius at the Feet of Alexander | |
FIG 19Chapel at Versailles | |
Duchess of Burgundy FIG 21DESJARDINS Pierre Mignard | |
Duchess of Maine as a Child | |
Molière | |
Temptation of St Anthony | |
The Storm FIG 27MEINDERT HOBBEMA Water Mill with the Great Red Roof | |
Head of a Girl FIG 29EDWARD PIERCE John Milton | |
Oliver Cromwell FIG 31SIR PETER LELY Charles II of England | |
Henry Purcell FIG 33PETER PAUL RUBENS George Villiers Duke of Buckingham | |
Sheldonian Theatre Oxford | |
St Pauls Cathedral London | |
Sir Christopher Wren | |
Nell Gwyn FIG 38ANTHONY VANDYCK James II as a | |
Jonathan Swift | |
Frederick the Great | |
Peter the Great FIG 42BALDASSARE LONGHENA Palazzo Rezzonico Venice | |
Tobias and the Angel Raphael | |
Altar of St Ignatius in Church of Il Gesù Rome Fig 45SebastienN BOURDON Queen Christina of Sweden FIG 46CLAUDIO COELLO Charles II of S... | |
Rape of Oreithyia | |
Robert Boyle FIG 49ENGRAVING AFTER A PAINTING BY CASPAR NETSCHER Christian Huygens | |
Thomas Sydenham FIG 51UNKNOWN ARTIST Isaac Newton | |
Fontenelle | |
John Locke FIG 54UNKNOWN ARTIST Thomas Hobbes | |
Jan de Witt | |
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz FIG 58UNKNOWN ARTIST Benedictus Spinoza | |
Louis XIV | |
PHOTOGRAPHS | |
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL GUIDE | |
Common terms and phrases
accepted Amsterdam Anglican army Bayle beauty became bishop Boileau Bossuet Brun Catholic century Charles Charles II Christ Christian Church classic Colbert Corneille court Cromwell death Descartes died divine drama Duke Dutch England English Essay Europe faith father Fénelon Fontenelle France French friends gave German History Hobbes Holland Hôtel de Bourgogne Huguenots human hundred Ibid ideas James Jan de Witt Jesuits Jewish Jews King King’s later Leibniz letters literature lived Locke London Louis XIV Louvre married Mazarin Milton mind Molière moral nature never Newton painting palace Paris Parliament Pascal passion peace Peter philosophy piety play political Pope Port-Royal Prince Protestant published Puritan Queen Racine reason refused reign religion religious restored returned Rome royal Russia satire scholium sent Shaftesbury soon soul Spain Spanish Spinoza spirit Tartuffe things thought thousand took treatise United Provinces Versailles victory Voltaire wife William women wrote