Angol
This book reassess Taine as the very model of the European intellectual into the second half of the nineteenth century. The author draws on unpublished manuscripts and letters to reveal a self-disguised, tentative and ironic mentality very like the one Taine described in his psycological writings. These qualities are reflected not only in his own ludic response to his times, but in that of many fellow Second Empire intellectuals. Darwinian evolution, new scientific discoveries, la Critique' and Impressionism all made a profound impact on Taine's thinking and on his contribution to the moral revival of the Nationalism of the Third Republic. Hilary Nias is a linguist and cultural historian, and holds a PhD from the University of Reading. Her principle area of research is the history of European thought. She is currently editing Taine's unpublished notebooks of 1853-80, and preparing a translation of the philosophical essays of Theodore Jouffrey (1796-1842).
