Publisher's Synopsis
This book is a study of the measurement and understanding of time in seventeenth-century Europe, particularly in France. Close readings of literary representations of time in Moliere, Mme de Sevigne, and Mmd de Lafayette are contextualized with historical studies of court life under Louis XIV, the restructuring of the early modern French postal system, and the emergencce of new practices of periodical publication, respectively. An epistemological backdrop for these historical and literary studies is provided by an introductory analysis of developments in the science of time measurement under Louis XIV. A concluding section places questions of human temporality in the contemporary context of global environmental concerns.
