If you subscribe to The New Yorker, there is a wonderfully written profile in the July 25 issue (I’ve been playing catch-up this weekend) on Elisabeth Badinter. 

Badinter and the writer Jane Kramer make multiple 18th century references that will surely excite your mind as much as they did mine. Although I don’t necessarily share all of the same views as Badinter, I thoroughly enjoyed the intellectual discourse of the article. 

Two of my favorite quotes from the article:

“Badinter once told me that she lived in two centuries and commuted between them, a reluctant tenant in her own.”

 ”She talked wistfully about the ‘great intellectual revolution in the salons before the Revolution, when there was a gaiety, a charm, a grace and seduction’ to conversation…”

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As a side note: If you don’t subscribe to The New Yorker, I highly recommend doing so!