Memoirs of a Nun : Introduction by P. N. Furbank

"Memoirs of a Nun, which began as a joke and grew into a masterpiece, was one of the loudest salvos fired in the continuing battles between the clergy and the intelligentsia which defined so much of eighteenth-century French history. Diderot's story of a novice held in a convent against her will and forced to undergo curious spiritual and sexual trials displays all the brilliance, icy wit, and worldliness of the Enlightenment at its best." -- Publishers website Together with Voltaire, Diderot was a remarkable figure of the French Enlightenment, as a philosopher, journalist and novelist. In this book, a young girl's enforced enclosure in a convent gives Diderot the chance to explore themes such as religious hypocrisy and sexual repression.