Denis Diderot (1713 – 1784, Denis Diderot (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) was a French man of letters and philosopher who, from 1745 to 1772, served as chief editor of the Encyclopédie, one of the principal works of the Age of Enlightenment.
In this novel of 1796 the servant Jacques rides through France with his master. He appears to act as though he is truly free in a world of dizzying variety and unpredictability. Characters emerge and disappear as the pair travel across the country, and tales begin and are submerged by greater stories, to reveal a panoramic view of eighteenth-century society.
Jacques seems to choose his own path, yet he remains convinced of one philosophical belief: that every decision he makes, however whimsical, is wholly predetermined. He gravely instructs his master throughout on the inescapability of what is ‘written above’. The guiding hand envisioned is less a divine supervision than the inexorable workings of history on every scale of occurrence.
Playful, picaresque and comic, Diderot’s novel is a compelling exploration of Enlightenment philosophy. Critics have received this work as post-modernist before postmodernism was given birth. So less of a Grand Narrative than a kaleidoscope of little stories in a jumble with no central purpose. If that’s how the world seems to you, then perhaps Jacques the Fatalist is the novel for you.
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261 pages in Penguin Classics paperback edition
First published 1796
ISBN-13 : 978-0140444728
