ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author turns to the revival of the pastoral, a pan-European literary vogue during the second half of the eighteenth century. The pastoral enjoyed a revival in France in the middle of the eighteenth century. Thomson's Seasons were widely read in France, both in the original and in translation, especially in the derivative Les Saisons by Saint-Lambert; but it is the Swiss writer Salomon Gessner who exercised the most significant influence on the French pastoral. A clear shift occurs when we come to look at the pastoral tales of the early years of the Revolution. The unexpected reappearance of the classical pastoral model can tell us something about the mentalities of those writing during the first phase of the Revolution. The focus on harmony is also much greater than in the pastorals of the 1780s. Both Malcolm Cook and Lise Andries have explored the Republican pastoral, whose apogee can be dated to 1793.
