The. thesis describes the, network of theories and practices which articulated the discourse of crime in legal and fictional writing in eighteenth-century England. Alter an Introduction which outlines the general scope of the thesis, successive chapters examine a number of issues which the representation of crime in eighteenth-century England raises. Chapter one is a study of the effects of luxury on the perception of crime in the Classical period (the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries); Chapter two is a critical approach to the English criminal law in the Classical Age. This chapter examines how legal thought was constructed and how its concepts and statements were defined within the general mode of knowledge during this period. Chapter three discusses the definitions of crime and the treatment of criminals in a world governed by a market-economy and representative authority. Chapter four describes the penal system which existed in England in the Classical period and analyses its theoretical choices, methods and practice. Chapter five which opens Part 11 is a study of the relationship between crime and narrative. The focus in this chapter is on Defoe's, Pelham's and Fielding's narratives of the life of Jonathan Wild. The chapter also studies the practices of Jonathan Wild in relation to the representation of crime in fiction. Chapter six is devoted mainly to Defoe's representation of crime in his fiction. The chapter examines a number of features in Defoe's configuration of crime in his writings: wealth, crime, masquerade, transformation, topography and geography are all important elements of his crime fiction. Chapter seven is4study of Fielding's Amelia and his magisterial activities. The aim in this chapter is to show how a magistrate sees and represents crime in fiction. Finally, the Conclusion is an assessment of the foregoing ideas.

Le scandale et l’indignation constituent deux notions thématique et rhétorique centrales de la prédication religieuse classique que ce travail se propose d’étudier à partir des sermons des trois plus grands prédicateurs du règne de Louis XIV : Bossuet, Bourdaloue et Massillon. La première partie présente les fondements théologiques du scandale avant de suivre l’évolution de cette notion qui intéresse rapidement le droit canon et la morale. La seconde partie de ce travail étudie précisément la notion de scandale dans les sermons des prédicateurs classiques. Elle met en lumière la transposition morale et la généralisation de la notion de scandale à l’âge classique sous la forme du scandale de mœurs. L’analyse des sermons classiques s’attache à dévoiler le fonctionnement de l’argument du scandale et de la passion rhétorique associée, l’indignation. La troisième partie envisage l’efficacité de la parole sermonnaire comme arme pour lutter contre l’omniprésence des scandales parmi les hommes. Elle s’intéresse notamment à l’ambivalence de la parole des prédicateurs et à ses enjeux politiques. / Scandal and indignation constitute two central thematic and rhetorical notions of classical religious preaching which this work proposes to study from the sermons of the three greatest preachers of the reign of Louis XIV: Bossuet, Bourdaloue and Massillon. The first part presents the theological foundations of the scandal before following the evolution of this notion which interests canon law and morals. The second part of this work studies precisely the notion of scandal in the sermons of the classical preachers. It highlights the moral transposition and the generalization of the notion of scandal in the classical age in the form of scandal of morals. The analysis of classical sermons seeks to unfold the functioning of the argument of scandal and the associated rhetorical passion, indignation.

Qu’ils mettent en avant une figure historique ou un personnage fictif, les Mémoires de Courtilz de Sandras, publiés entre 1687 et 1758, marquent l’essor d’une forme romanesque fondée sur le simulacre de l’écriture mémorialiste. Ces romans empruntent l’aspect de mémoires dont les signataires fictifs sont des acteurs du règne de Louis XIII ou des contemporains parfois célèbres de Courtilz ; cependant, loin d’induire en erreur le lectorat, l’origine fictive de ces récits, qui justifie le qualificatif d’apocryphes, n’a pas empêché les critiques des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles de déceler derrière les auteurs supposés la présence d’un romancier anonyme. Entre illusion et vérité, ces pseudo-mémoires à la première personne, qui mêlent véracité biographique, exactitude historique et invention romanesque, invitent à redéfinir les notions d’authenticité et de fiction, à la lumière du pacte tacite qui s’établit entre l’auteur et le lecteur, unis dans une conscience commune du simulacre. L’examen des rapports complexes que ces textes entretiennent avec les mémoires et l’histoire permet de les situer dans l’évolution des formes romanesques à l’âge classique. Enfin, la fiction de l’écriture mémorialiste autorise un brouillage des voix dont l’analyse révèle la pluralité des discours mis en œuvre par Courtilz : à la voix du mémorialiste fictif se superpose et souvent s’oppose la voix du romancier, qui, à travers les faits du récit, formule en filigrane un discours satirique sur le monde, incompatible avec celui des personnages. Véritable instrument polémique, la rencontre de ces discours contradictoires participe d’un univers romanesque pessimiste où transparaît l’échec existentiel des héros. / Whether they highlight a historical figure or a fictional character, the Memoirs of Courtilz de Sandras, published between 1687 and 1758, mark the emergence of a type of fiction based upon the pretence of memorialist writing. These novelistic works assume the form of memoirs whose fictitious authors are individuals from the reign of Louis XIII or well-known contemporaries of Courtilz. Far from misleading the readers, the fictional origin of these narratives, which justifies their being called apocryphal, did not prevent the literary critics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from detecting behind the purported authors an anonymous novelist. Between illusion and truth, these so-called memoirs written in the first person, mixing biographical veracity, historical accuracy and fictional invention, urge to redefine the notions of authenticity and fiction, in the light of the tacit pact between the writer and the reader, united in a common awareness of pretence. Studying the complex relationship that these novels share with authentic memoirs and history permits to situate them in the evolution of the works of fiction in the French classical age. The fiction of memorialist writing allows the mixing of the voices, which reveals the plurality of the discourses used by Courtilz: to the voice of the fictitious memorialist, the voice of the novelist is superimposed if not opposed. Through the narrative, the novelist implicitly expresses a satirical speech about the world, irrelevant with the one of the characters. A real instrument of controversy, the interweaving of the two discourses partakes of a pessimistic fictional world which emphasizes the existential failure of the heroes.