The Shock of the Ancient

“The Shock of the Ancient is one of the most intelligent and interesting works on seventeenth-century literature that I have read in the past few years. Well-researched, thought-provoking, and very engaging, Larry F. Norman’s book makes a clear point and makes it compellingly: that the French classical period was far more aware of questions relating to its own historicism than we moderns tend to believe and that the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns indeed reflected a protomodern sensibility of self and otherness. Readable and accessible, The Shock of the Ancient will appeal to scholars and students alike.”

“Witty, free of jargon, and filled with an encyclopedic knowledge of sources, as well as an up-to-date view of recent literary and cultural debates, this book will shed vivid new light on this important historical controversy.”

“Larry Norman’s account of the cultural debate known as the querelle des ancients et des modernes is revisionist and lean, yet detailed and with depth. . . . Doing away with a whole range of cherished stereotypes and teleologies, Norman explores the tactics of this debate, combining smart synopsis with in-depth knowledge of a wide range of materials. . . . Norman’s fresh road map is an excellent one.”

“Rich, learned, and nuanced.”

“This study of literary transformations recovers a neoclassical world that had been lost to us, obscured, ironically, by the consequences of a later quarrel—the Romantics’ debate with neoclassicism. Norman makes evident what the Romantics made us forget: just how scandalous those ancients were.”

“Solidly structured and agreeably written, Larry Norman’s book turns all the evidence into a beneficial, even provocative, read, as much for specialists of the seventeenth century and the reception of Antiquity as for those interested in literary history.”