The Father of the Family

Le Père de famille marks Diderot’s second venture into drama. Published in 1758 alongside a Discourse on Dramatic Poetry dedicated to Grimm, it swiftly reached the stage. The play premiered at the Comédie-Française on February 18, 1761, following a performance in Marseille in 1760. Its initial cast featured luminaries such as Grandval, Dangeville, du Bois, Paulin, Bellecour, Préville, Brizard, Blainville, Bernaut, Molé, Durancy, Dauberval, and actresses Gaussin, Dumesnil, Drouin, Préville, Lekain, and Camouche. Voltaire’s correspondence reveals the anticipation surrounding the premiere. Writing to Thiriot, he effused, “Are we playing Tancrède? Are we playing Le Père de famille? Oh, my dear brother Diderot! I yield my place to you with all my heart.” His letters to d’Argental and Damilaville similarly buzzed with curiosity, framing the play’s success as a moral victory—a rebuke to the anti-philosophe satire La Comédie des Philosophes. Diderot, touched by this fervor (feigned or not), responded with a rare personal letter. Though Voltaire’s reply is lost, his later remarks to Damilaville praised the play as proof that “virtue” could triumph onstage, while coyly acknowledging Diderot’s habitual reluctance to write: “It was only out of an excess of humanity that he forgot his laziness with me.” After its premiere, Diderot responded to Voltaire’s enthusiasm—genuine or otherwise—with a letter, preserved in archives, though Voltaire’s reply is lost. Voltaire later wrote to others, celebrating the play’s success: "I see Le Père de famille’s triumph as virtue’s victory, a public amends for tolerating the vile Comédie des Philosophes." To Damilaville on March 3, 1761, he noted, "I thank Diderot for sharing news of a success all honest souls must cherish. Knowing he dislikes writing, I’m touched he overcame his reluctance for me." This edition contains a new Epilogue by the translator, a glossary of Philosophical Terms used by Diderot, a chronology of his core life and works, and a summary index of all of Diderot's works. With a clean, modern translation of Diderot's Enlightenment-era French, this edition brings Diderot's thoughts directly into the modern intellectual sphere, tracing the intellectual forces which swept along Diderot and impacted today's secular world.