''Madame de La Carlière,'' sub-titled ''On the inconsequence of public judgement of our actions,'' is a

fable Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular mo ...

written by the French writer

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promine ...

in 1772, and published for the first time in 1798. It was published posthumously, as Diderot had died in 1784. Preceded by '' This is not a fable'' and followed by '' Supplement to the Voyage of Bougaineville'', it forms a

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek language, Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) t ...

of moral fables written in 1772 that would appear in the Literary Correspondence in 1773. ''Madame de La Carlière'' takes its name from the mother of

Sophie Volland Louise-Henriette Volland, known as Sophie Volland (1716-1784), was a correspondent and lover of Denis Diderot. None of the letters she wrote have survived. Biography Louise-Henriette Volland was born November 27, 1716. She met Diderot in the spring ...

, Élisabeth Françoise Brunel de La Carlière.Raymond Trousson, Denis Diderot, Paris, Tallandier, 2005, p. 212. In 1988, ''Madame de La Carlière'' was performed as a stage piece alongside Diderot's novel ''Rameau's Nephew'' at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, as part of a celebration commemorating the 200th anniversary of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and the

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolu ...

.Bernstein, Richard, "This Time, Bicentennial Is France's," ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 29 September 1988.

Bibliography

* Laffitte M., ''Diderot : hésitations autour de la promesse (Histoire de Madame de la Carlière)''. In : ''Revue romane'' (ISSN 0035-3906), 1992, vol. 27, n°1, p. 90-103.

Notes

1772 books 1798 books French books Novels by Denis Diderot Early Modern literature Fables Books published posthumously {{18thC-novel-stub