This engaging book spans three centuries to provide the first full account of the long and diverse history of genius in France. Exploring a wide range of examples from literature, philosophy, and history, as well as medicine, psychology, and journalism, Ann Jefferson examines the ways in which the idea of genius has been ceaselessly reflected on an

List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Introduction 1 Part I: Enlightenment Genius 17 Chapter 1: The Eighteenth Century: Mimesis and Effect 19 Chapter 2: Genius Obscured: Diderot 35 Part II: Nineteenth-Century Genius: The Idiom of the Age 45 Chapter 3: Language, Religion, Nation 47 Chapter 4: Individual versus Collective Genius 61 Chapter 5: The Romantic Poet and the Brotherhood of Genius 67 Chapter 6: Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare, and the Dynasty of Genius 81 Part III: Genius in the Clinic 89 Chapter 7: Genius under Observation: Lelut 91 Chapter 8: Genius, Neurosis, and Family Trees: Moreau de Tours 104 Chapter 9: Genius Restored to Health 114 Part IV: Failure, Femininity, and the Realist Novel 123 Chapter 10: A Novel of Female Genius: Mme de Stael's Corinne 125 Chapter 11: Balzac's Louis Lambert: Genius and the Feminine Mediator 137 Chapter 12: Creativity and Procreation in Zola's L'OEuvre 146 Part V: Precocity and Child Prodigies 159 Chapter 13: Exemplarity and Performance in Literature for Children 161 Chapter 14: Alfred Binet and the Measurement of Intelligence 173 Chapter 15: Minou Drouet: The Prodigy under Suspicion 183 Part VI: Genius in Theory 193 Chapter 16: Cultural Critique and the End of Genius: Barthes, Sartre 195 Chapter 17: The Return of Genius: Mad Poets 204 Chapter 18: Julia Kristeva and Female Genius 212 Chapter 19: Derrida, Cixous, and the Impostor 219 Notes 227 Bibliography 251 Index 267

"In the mid-twentieth century the concept of 'genius' was often dismissed as a mystification, an invitation to adore what we couldn't understand. Yet, Ann Jefferson's rich and astute history of the uses of the term in France shows that, from the eighteenth century to the present day, much of what matters in our thinking about the mind, and about the arts and sciences, could not have been thought without it."—Michael Wood, Princeton University"A marvelous topic brilliantly handled. Ann Jefferson's superb literary and cultural analysis makes a series of probes into the fascinating history of the idea of genius, carrying us, after a look back at antiquity, from Diderot and Mme de Staël to Cixous and Derrida. The sparkling account of child prodigies, fakes, and frauds is a tour de force. This is a book that will engross and delight readers with a wide range of interests."—Michael Sheringham, All Souls College, University of Oxford"Is genius a sign of divine inspiration or clinical madness? Does it attract admirers, or doom its possessor to solitude? Can a woman, or a child, be a genius? In Ann Jefferson's immensely learned tour of three hundred years of French cultural debates, writers and philosophers rub shoulders with doctors, journalists, and child prodigies. Jefferson's wide-ranging and engagingly written study of genius in France is a tremendous achievement."—Toril Moi, Duke University"Ann Jefferson's magnificent work on the notion of genius examines a vast array of French artistic, philosophical, and medical debates, showing how genius was linked to perfection and fraudulence, national glory and exclusion, and the highest mental powers and degeneracy. Written in a marvelously accessible style, this book represents a decisive, lasting contribution to the history of French intellectual and literary life."—Thomas G. Pavel, University of Chicago"This book follows how the French viewed the idea of genius, from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Jefferson's work is erudite and clear, challenging and persistent."—David Bellos, author of Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything"This thoughtful and engaging book combines rigorous literary and intellectual history with linguistic sensitivity to track cultural understandings of genius from the eighteenth century to the present in French thought and writing. Genius in France will change how this idea is conceptualized and discussed."—Miranda Gill, University of Cambridge