La Société d'Auteuil et la Révolution

The ' Société d'Auteuil ' and the Revolution. The author analyses the political role played by a group of intellectuals gathered together in a country house near Paris belonging to Madame Helvetius, wife of the well-known French philosopher, following his death in 1771 . These men (Volney, Garat, Chamfort, Mirabeau, Sieyès, Condorcet etc.) constituted the intellectual and political group most directly connected with the per¬ petuation of Enlightenment. Their activity, during the revolution, revealed both the revolutionary spirit and the uncertainties and weaknesses of the group, following the rapid sequence of events. The study of this activity by means of the diversity of individual attitudes permits a comparison to be made of the relationship between enlightenment and revolution to that between theory and practice.Moravia Sergio. La Société d'Auteuil et la Révolution. In: Dix-huitième Siècle, n°6, 1974. Lumières et Révolution. pp. 181-191