"Un Sopha rose brodé d'argent": Crébillon fils and the Rococo

While the application of terms from the visual arts to literature has been much debated, this essay nevertheless argues for the identification of Crébillon fils' Le Sopha as a Rococo novel. After establishing Crébillon's interest in luxurious Rococo interiors and the lascivious activities that these decors encourage, I will examine the novel's paradoxical position as a critique of Rococo lifestyles at the same time as I show that Crebillon's complex prose style may be viewed as a form of literary Rococo. In exploring Crébillon's ambivalent attitude toward the Rococo, I will pay particular attention to his problematic presentation of female characters both as corrupt consumers of luxury and as admirably refined tastemakers, for in Le Sopha woman is the agent of the effeminization and moral degradation of society but also, as the sensitive civilizer of men, the ideal reader of Crébillon's complicated and sophisticated novel.