Diderot and the Encyclopædists Volume II.

Diderot and the Encyclopædists Volume II by John Morley probes the restless intelligence of Denis Diderot, tracing his literary experiments, art criticism, and political ventures across Enlightenment Europe. Morley’s elegant biography unpacks Diderot’s late dialogues and essays, his controversial novels like The Nun and Jacques le Fataliste, and the philosophical tensions between Rousseau, Richardson, and Sterne that shaped his fiction. The book also offers a deep dive into 18th-century aesthetics: Diderot’s groundbreaking Salons, his Essay on Painting and Essay on Beauty, and his responses to artists such as Greuze, Boucher and Fragonard. Morley situates these critiques within the broader development of French art criticism and the Enlightenment’s debates about taste, morality, and representation. Episodes of travel and diplomacy—Diderot’s connections with St. Petersburg, the Princess Dashkova, and the Hague—illuminate how ideas crossed borders and influenced courts and salons. A lucid blend of literary history and philosophy, this volume is essential listening for students of Philosophy, art historians, and anyone fascinated by the intellectual life of the eighteenth century. Choose this audiobook to understand Diderot not just as a polemicist, but as a pioneering critic and cultural thinker.