Jacques the Fatalist: And His Master

Denis Diderot was born in Langres in 1713, leaving the town in 1728 for Paris, where he lived until his death in 1784. What little evidence there is of Diderot’s life and activities during his first dozen years in the capital suggests that he led the Bohemian life of an aspiring man of letters, often forced to resort to literary hack-work, private coaching and translation to make ends meet. His family helped him out for some years until Diderot quarrelled with his father in 1743 over his marriage plans. In spite of all these difficulties, these were the years in which Diderot developed his literary and intellectual talents and became keenly interested in contemporary developments in literature, philosophy and science.

In the late 1740s Diderot was approached by a consortium of Parisian publishers and asked to take over joint editorial control with the eminent mathematician d’Alembert of a project to translate and furnish suitable additions to Chamber’s
Cyclopaedia
. In October 1747 Diderot signed a contract with the publishers, and so embarked on the single most important enterprise of his life. What finally emerged over the next twenty-odd years was one of the greatest and most representative monuments of the Enlightenment, the
Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers
. This work – the first modern encyclopaedia – ran to seventeen folio volumes of text and eleven of plates. After d’Alembert withdrew in 1758, Diderot was left in sole editorial control. In addition to the normal tasks of an editor he also took on a major role as researcher and contributor to the
Encyclopédie
. His articles were among the best and most original and covered topics ranging from the technological to the metaphysical.

From its early days the
Encyclopédie
was at the centre of political and ideological conflict. Far from being allowed to carry on his work in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity, Diderot had to cope with the hostility of the
parlements
, the greater part of the Catholic Church, an important party at Court and various other influential groups as well as with the threat of prosecution and censorship.

His labours and difficulties were, however, justified by the importance of
what was achieved. The
Encyclopédie
brought together the leading intellectual and scientific lights of the age. More than any other eighteenth-century work it defined the consensus of liberal and progressive ideas and values which was the Enlightenment. The
Encyclopédie
made Diderot a figure of European reputation and the acknowledged leader of the militant younger group of philosophes. The
Encyclopédie
also gave Diderot financial security and a large degree of independence besides stimulating the development of an omnivorous intelligence which made him the greatest polymath among the
philosophes
.

Nevertheless, the
Encyclopédie
never constituted Diderot’s exclusive preoccupation, nor does it contain his most interesting contribution to the literature and thought of the period. This lies in writings that remained largely unknown to the general public during his lifetime, and which were written both during and after the publication of the
Encyclopédie
. Thus, Diderot’s masterpiece of scientific speculation,
D’Alembert’s Dream
, was unknown until 1831. Most of his prose fiction – novels, dialogues and short stories – remained unpublished until after his death, and included such major works as
Rameau’s Nephew, The Nun
and
Jacques the Fatalist and his Master
. One reason why Diderot published so little during his lifetime was that it was often dangerous for writers to do so under a regime which exercised a fierce, if inefficient, censorship. Diderot learnt this at first hand when, in 1749, he published anonymously a brilliant exposition of atheist and materialist ideas in a work entitled
Letter Concerning the Blind
. Diderot’s authorship was soon known to the authorities, and he was arrested and imprisoned for three months. There are, however, other reasons which may explain why Diderot was reluctant to publish many of his works. For example, the content of some of his work might have offended friends, as was the case with
D’Alembert’s Dream
, which Diderot suppressed at the request of D’Alembert and his mistress, who felt they had been represented in an offensive manner. Another reason may be Diderot’s preoccupation with the usefulness of the intellectual to society. While this never came into direct conflict with his commitment to stating the truth, it is fair to say that Diderot sometimes felt that the public good would not be best served by his broadcasting his more heterodox flights of fancy. Finally – and here
Jacques the Fatalist
might be taken as an example – it seems likely that Diderot believed his best and most original work would not be properly understood and appreciated in his own time and consciously accepted that, for him, true recognition had to be posthumous.

Jacques the Fatalist
was conceived and written over a long period between
the late 1760s and 1778 – a time of intense creative activity for Diderot after the depression accompanying the conclusion of work on the
Encyclopédie
. It was partially published in the
Correspondance littéraire
between 1778 and 1780. An early and enthusiastic reader was Goethe, but, for the most part, the reception of the work tended to confirm Diderot’s suspicions about the likely reaction to his most original work. Even after the novel became more widely available after its publication in 1796, reactions tended to vary from incomprehension to patronizing indifference. At best it was deemed an amusing pot-pourri, at worst obscene and unreadable. It is only recently, in the last few decades, that both specialist and non-specialist readers have begun to catch up with Diderot and discover the strange originality of
Jacques the Fatalist
.