La fille de Diderot

ENGLISH: This book recounts the life of Angélique, born in 1753, daughter of the writer Denis Diderot and wife of the businessman Caroillon de Vandeul. The book offers a sweeping vision of life at the end of the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, the Directory, the Consulate, and the Empire until the Restoration.

During the first 19 years of her life, Angélique grew up under the contrasting influence of her cantankerous and uneducated mother, and her cultured and refined father. Diderot invested considerably in the education of his daughter, who became a talented harpsichordist and rubbed shoulders with big names in literature and music, as well as the political and business world of Paris. Her husband, a forge master and financier, was associated with the Caisse d'Escompte and the Compagnie des Indes. With the help of Angélique, he managed his businesses in collaboration with his brothers and associates. Victim of the financial crisis of 1786, he was almost ruined. Then he was imprisoned during the Terror, wrongly accused of being involved in the affair which led Fabre d'Églantine to the guillotine. He subsequently founded several companies in metallurgy, glassmaking and cotton spinning.

This biography narrates, without romanticizing, the destiny—linked to that of her father, her husband and her family—of a woman who went through personal trials, as well as several episodes, in which she and her husband were associated, of the political and economic life of France. The text is based on three main sources: Diderot's correspondence; that of Angélique de Vandeul and her family; and that between Angélique and Jacques-Henri Meister.