Description

Two plays attacking the principles of Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and other French philosophers of the eighteenth century. In THE PHILOSOPHERS, the treacherous, self-centered charlatans (as Palissot viewed them) persuade Cydalise that she's a genius, in order to entice her to marry her well-endowed daughter to one of their number. Actually, they despise the woman and her opinions--a fact which is soon revealed to her! THE STUMBLING BLOCK OF MORALS also revolves around the attempts of "The Philosophers" to unite a young woman--in this case Rosalie--with an unsuitable (and insufferable) member of their own group, rather than to the more pedestrian Honoré, who she's come to love. In the end, of course, everything works out for the best, with the machinations of the pedants revealed for what they are. Two quasi-comedies of life, philosophy, and love.