Among the three leaders of the French Enlightenment in the 18th century, although Diderot was not as prominent as Voltaire in terms of prestige at that time, and not as profound as Rousseau in terms of influence, the progress and richness of his ideas were second to none. In 1731, at the age of 18, Diderot received a master's degree in education from the University of Paris. But the emotional erraticity of this young talent is no less than that of the other two writers.
In 1741, Diderot met Antoinette, a girl three years older than himself, the daughter of a cloth merchant who lived with his widowed mother and depended on sewing for a living. When they were about to get married, they were strongly opposed by the woman's mother. Later, the mother could not stand her daughter's tearful pleas and the clever words of the suitor, and finally agreed to the marriage. But the prerequisite for marriage is that the man must obtain the consent of his father. In this way, the financially strapped Diderot had to scrape together the carriage fare to return to his hometown of Langer, and returned to his long-lost parents, ready to inform his father about his marriage, and hoped to get financial help and support. Unexpectedly, in addition to the categorical denial he got, he was actually sent to a monastery by his father.
Diderot was so afraid of his father because when he first came to Paris 10 years ago to study, he violated his father's wishes for him to study medicine or law, which made his father very angry and cut off the economic supply in a fit of rage. When Diderot, who had not found a suitable and legitimate occupation and had been wandering in Paris with empty wallets, returned to his father with a heart of hope and prayed for support, the father-son relationship, which had been in a stalemate for a long time, not only failed to obtain Any easing, instead, exacerbated the outbreak: instead of showing any sympathy for the bachelor son, who is nearly 30 years old, his father regarded him as dissolute and accused him of being a lazy ungrateful. There was another conflict between father and son. Diderot swore that he would marry with or without his father's consent and with or without the pocketbook.
Diderot, who had been imprisoned by his father for several months, finally managed to escape from the convent, almost penniless, and when he returned to Paris by carriage after a 90-mile walk, the answer was equally disappointing: Antoinette Te's mother is very determined that she will never allow her daughter to marry a man who has no father's support and no property rights. Diderot, who suffered a double blow and was unaccompanied, finally fell ill in a filthy room. When Antoinette arrived in a hurry after hearing the news, she was moved by her daughter's infatuation and sympathized with the sick young philosopher, and decided not to stop their marriage. As a result, the lovers, who had been in love for nearly two years, finally got married in secret in a chapel and settled their new home in a small rented room on St. Victor Street. This secret marriage was not discovered by the old Diderot until 8 years later.
The newly-married Yaner couples respect and love each other, and they live happily ever after. When the first child came to earth a year later, they rejoiced together for the birth of the child, and Diderot named the eldest daughter Angéric after his mother. But unfortunately, the baby girl died soon after.
In order to make a living, Diderot first made his mark in the literary and art circles with his English translations. Although he was very diligent, his income was not rich, especially because of the materialistic ideas contained in his translations, which led to official doubts, and some books were rejected by the courts. ordered to burn. For the thinker who was "often ahead of his time", Antoinette, though a faithful wife, was an insufficient companion, for she was often unable to follow her husband's intellectual excursions, but Always complain about his meager income as a translator. With the death of his second child shortly after birth, and to escape his wife's nagging, Diderot returned to the coffee shop he frequented in college. Lady's lover.
In fact, Diderot's pre-marital life had been dissolute and disorderly, for which he was condemned by his wife after his marriage. But Diderot assured her that it was a prelude to marital fidelity and that he would always be her faithful companion. "My last love letters are to you, and if I write another letter to anyone else in my life, may God punish me as the most wicked and most treacherous person." Today, Diderot's actions violate these wonderful oaths he wrote in his letter. To satisfy his mistress in need of new clothes, Diderot decides to trade his wits for money. His "Philosophical Thoughts", published anonymously in 1746, was ordered to be burned by the Paris Parliament because "ideas can lead to the depravity of human nature", but the banned book unexpectedly became a bestseller. Diderot handed over the 50 louis gold coins he received from the publisher to his mistress.
1748 was an exciting and difficult year for Diderot: his wife, Antoinette, gave birth to a boy, and his mistress, Madame Piercy, demanded the payment of adultery. For this he began to write more boldly and diligently. Especially as the needs of the lover increased, Diderot decided to write another book. The manuscript of "A Walk of Skeptics" was confiscated by the police due to church interference; Diderot wrote another novel called "The Jewels of the Leaking Secret" in order to collect money quickly. , Unexpectedly, this book with lustful content that can only be sold "under the counter" is extremely popular, and the author has been paid 1,200 livres.
The following year, Diderot's anonymously published book "Letters on the Blind for the Sighted" was charged by the court for "writing and publishing articles that promoted deism and violated morality". He was also arrested by the police and detained in the suburbs. Winsenburg Prison. His wife, who came to visit, comforted his misfortune and condemned his ill will, which made Diderot very grateful, and his old love for his wife sprouted, and after his release from three and a half months in prison, he happily returned to his wife and children beside him, and leave Mrs. Piercy behind. Unfortunately, however, the 4-year-old son died of a high fever. Not long after, the newly born child was accidentally dropped on the floor by a waiter while being baptized and was seriously injured, and died less than a year later. Sad and disappointed Diderot resumes life in the café.
In 1750, Diderot met the German critic Grimm at Rousseau's house, and regarded friendship as the main consolation and encouragement in life. He wrote for Grimm for the Journal of Communications, covered the Salon for him, and wrote reviews of new books for him. Grimm wanted to be paid, but he refused to accept it. He wrote to the best friend, calling him "my gentle and only friend, and you have been and will be my closest and only friend." Grimm said Diderot was "the most perfect man he ever knew". Their friendship was closer and lasting than anyone else he loved.
When Antoinette was too busy being an unsuccessful mother, with tedious household chores, to be a suitable and necessary audience for her husband's ideas, Diderot demanded a divorce on the grounds of lack of knowledge. In the absence of a divorce petition, he found a 38-year-old unmarried woman with a wide range of books, even politics and philosophy, Warren, who not only talked to others, but listened to them . Diderot was very grateful for her listening ears, and loved her understanding heart, not only regarded her as a wise soul, but also named her Sophie. During their 20-year relationship, she gave him love, loyalty and understanding. Diderot raved about her in a letter to his friend Grimm: "What a good woman she is! How gentle, honest, delicate and rational she is! She can think...in customs, morals, feelings and innumerable important things, we do not know much better than she. She has her own judgments, opinions, and ideas, and her own way of thinking, based on reason, truth, and common sense; Or anything else can't bring her down." Diderot was able to write to her frankly about everything, and to show her his obscene stories and his latest thoughts. Like Rousseau, he is very sensitive in sensibility and equally tender in emotion. In his relationship with Sophie, he recognized the role that feelings and emotions can play in life. Diderot's letter to Sophie is shocking and artistic, making it one of the literary treasures of the 18th century.
But after 20 years of this intimacy that transcended friendship, it was Diderot, whose letters to Sophie were getting shorter and his vows of fidelity seem more reluctant. In 1769, he replaced a recently deceased friend as the lover of the 54-year-old Lady Damoc, only to be replaced a year later by another young man. Meanwhile, Diderot continues to assure Sophie of his "eternal love".
While Diderot's restless heart roamed outside the home, his wife Antoinette showed considerable patience and faithfulness, and although they quarreled almost every day, she could not restrain herself from scolding her husband, especially When she finds out about her husband's affair with Sophie, she becomes furious, but Diderot thinks her actions are very out of line with what he considers to be an ordinary affair. It seems that time has no way to bridge the gap between a husband who has a thousand ideas and a wife who believes in only one God. For a while they even separated, and it was only when his wife was sick that he became milder and complained about taking care of her. But it is surprising that Diderot did not abandon his home, because he loved the comfort of home life.
Diderot has been indifferent to his wife for a long time. When he was 40 years old when he got a daughter, he devoted all his affection to the only surviving child and spent what he thought was the happiest time. He not only doted on his only daughter very much, but also strictly controlled her, nurtured her carefully, and even directly asked her about her marriage. He believes that the conditions for choosing a son-in-law, "property is secondary, what matters is reason, character, honest status and healthy physique." In order to raise more money for his daughter to prepare a dowry, he did not hesitate to sell all the books in his library to the Russian Queen Catherine II, and received 15,000 livres in return. When his daughter was married, he wept for losing her, but when he saw the happiness of her marriage, he cried even more, because he felt that "father's love is one of the strongest emotions in human beings."
As Diderot matures as a father, he gradually understands his father. When he was young, he felt that his father was too cold, and he had some resentment about this, but as he grew older, he admired and missed his father more and more, and also began to praise the moral code that helps men develop a good family. Thus, in the emotional life, Diderot showed a contradictory and complex character. As the famous American philosopher and historian Will Duran said when he discussed Diderot in the ninth volume of his masterpiece "The History of World Civilization": "Hidden behind an ever-changing mind is a Virtue and almost all faults, his virtues and faults, alternately appear on the stage of his life." Another man named Henri Meister, who often listened to Diderot's conversation, once described himself in this way. Impressions: "Diderot's character does change constantly, as he himself said: 'I have a hundred different expressions throughout the day, depending on my mood that day. I am calm, sad, good Dreams, tenderness, violence, passion, longing. The many and varied states of my soul, the manifestations of my psyche, chasing after my face so quickly that the painter grasps at every moment a different me... "...'" If the description of words is not enough to cast a versatile and thoughtful image into shape, then the portrait painted by the famous French painter Greer for him is concrete and vivid: as gloomy as Caesar. Facial expression, a look of exhaustion from too much thinking; high eyebrows set back on half-bald head; large, vulgar ears, large, crooked nose, firm mouth, chin that fights , heavy and sad brown eyes. This is the versatile and fickle Diderot known for his "dissemination of dangerous ideas".
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