The Phantom of ChanceFrom Fortune to Randomness in Seventeenth-Century French Literature

Eloquent and compelling, this is a noteworthy contribution to the field.

[A] searching and provocative study.

Overall, this intriguing, erudite, readable study offers some beautiful examples of textual analysis and suggestive avenues for further research. Students and scholars of the period, its authors, and the limits of rationalism will be richly rewarded by Lyons’s insightful reinterpretations, particularly of Zayde and Bossuet’s Discourse on Universal History.

John D. Lyons brilliantly shows how, in both literary and religious writing of the Seventeenth Century, the quest for pattern has to come to terms with the apparently irreducible element of randomness in human life. Original in conception, broad in perspective, subtle in analysis, this is a remarkable book.

John Lyons' new take on the issue of chance, supported by illuminating interpretations of major 17th- Century French texts, invites the reader to rethink the enigmatic links between randomness and necessity. Beautifully written, powerfully argued, The Phantom of Chance is a major contribution to the intellectual and literary history of modern times.

John Lyons' new take on the issue of chance, supported by illuminating interpretations of major 17th- century French texts, invites the reader to rethink the enigmatic links between randomness and necessity. Beautifully written, powerfully argued, The Phantom of Chance is a major contribution to the intellectual and literary history of modern times.