Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal : François Bernier, Marguerite De La Sablière, and Enlightening Conversations in Seventeenth-Century France

__Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal__identifies and explores the traces that exposure to India left on the cultural artifacts and mindset of France's "Great Century" and the early Enlightenment. Focusing on the salon of Marguerite de La Sablière and its encounter with the traveler and philosopher François Bernier, this book resurrects the conversations about India inspired by Bernier's travels and inscribed in his influential texts produced in collaboration with La Sablière's salon. The literary works, correspondences, and philosophical texts produced by the members of this eclectic salon bear the traces of this engagement with India.Faith E. Beasley's analysis of these conversations reveals France's unique engagement with India during this period and challenges prevailing images derived from a nineteenth-century "orientalism" imbued with colonialism. The India encountered in La Sabli?re's salon through Francois Bernier and others is not the colonized India that has come to dominate any image of the Orient.__Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal__adds a new chapter to literary and cultural history by adopting a new approach to the study of salon culture, exploring how texts, cultural artifacts, and patterns of thought were shaped by the collective reading and by the conversations emanating from these practices. Beasley's analysis highlights the unique role of French salon culture in the evolution of western thought during the early modern period. "Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal identifies and explores the traces that exposure to India left on the cultural artifacts and mindset of France's "great century" and the early Enlightenment. Focusing on the salon of Marguerite de La Sablière and its encounter with the traveler and philosopher François Bernier, this book resurrects the conversations about India inspired by Bernier's travels and inscribed in his influential texts produced in collaboration with La Sablière's salon. The literary works, correspondences, and philosophical texts produced by the members of this eclectic salon bear the traces of this engagement with India. Faith E. Beasley's analysis of these conversations reveals France's unique engagement with India during this period and challenges prevailing images derived from a nineteenth-century "orientalism" imbued with colonialism. The India encountered in La Sablière's salon through François Bernier and others is not the colonized India that has come to dominate any image of the Orient. Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal adds a new chapter to literary and cultural history by adopting a new approach to the study of salon culture, exploring how texts, cultural artifacts, and patterns of thought were shaped by the collective reading and by the conversations emanating from these practices. Beasley's analysis highlights the unique role of French salon culture in the evolution of western thought during the early modern period."-- Provided by publisher Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal identifies and explores the traces that exposure to India left on the cultural artifacts and mindset of France's "Great Century" and the early Enlightenment. Focusing on the salon of Marguerite de La Sablière and its encounter with the traveler and philosopher François Bernier, this book resurrects the conversations about India inspired by Bernier's travels and inscribed in his influential texts produced in collaboration with La Sablière's salon. The literary works, correspondences, and philosophical texts produced by the members of this eclectic salon bear the traces of this engagement with India. Faith E. Beasley's analysis of these conversations reveals France's unique engagement with India during this period and challenges prevailing images derived from a nineteenth-century "orientalism" imbued with colonialism. The India encountered in La Sabli?re's salon through Francois Bernier and others is not the colonized India that has come to dominate any image of the Orient. Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal adds a new chapter to literary and cultural history by adopting a new approach to the study of salon culture, exploring how texts, cultural artifacts, and patterns of thought were shaped by the collective reading and by the conversations emanating from these practices. Beasley's analysis highlights the unique role of French salon culture in the evolution of western thought during the early modern period. Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal identifies and explores the traces that exposure to India left on the cultural artifacts and mindset of France's'Great Century'and the early Enlightenment. Focusing on the salon of Marguerite de La Sablière and its encounter with the traveler and philosopher François Bernier, this book resurrects the conversations about India inspired by Bernier's travels and inscribed in his influential texts produced in collaboration with La Sablière's salon. The literary works, correspondences, and philosophical texts produced by the members of this eclectic salon bear the traces of this engagement with India. Faith E. Beasley's analysis of these conversations reveals France's unique engagement with India during this period and challenges prevailing images derived from a nineteenth-century'orientalism'imbued with colonialism. The India encountered in La Sablière's salon through Francois Bernier and others is not the colonized India that has come to dominate any image of the Orient. Versailles Meets the Taj Mahal adds a new chapter to literary and cultural history by adopting a new approach to the study of salon culture, exploring how texts, cultural artifacts, and patterns of thought were shaped by the collective reading and by the conversations emanating from these practices. Beasley's analysis highlights the unique role of French salon culture in the evolution of western thought during the early modern period. Cover 1 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Note on Translations 16 Introduction 20 1 Worldly Encounters: Communities and Conversation 46 “Un esprit extraordinaire” 49 Food for Conversation: Bernier’s Travels 65 Conversing with/about Colbert 88 Remapping the Mind: Landscapes and Cultural Relativism 98 2 Salons, Seraglios, and Social Networking 108 Engaging the Salon Public: Bernier’s Particular History 120 Nur Jahan 128 Jahanara and Raushanara: Mughal Models 136 The Zenana: “Plus indispensable qu’on ne saurait presque croire” 142 “Une canne des Indes fort extraordinaire” 152 Dryden’s Aureng-Zebe: A Different Conversation 175 3 Penser autrement: Fables, Philosophy, and Diversity 187 Religious Diversity and French Thought 191 Inspiring Thought: Bernier and Diversity 217 La Fontaine: Deriving Wisdom from Diversity 228 Fontenelle: A Conversation between and of Different Worlds 244 4 Indian Taste, A Taste for India 255 Importing Taste: Le goût féminin et la guerre des étoffes 266 Transforming Taste: Diamonds and Political Capital 283 Directing Taste: Molière’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme 292 Reflecting Grandeur: Mirroring India 298 Afterword 302 Notes 308 Bibliography 358 Index 372 Colour plates follow page 194