Constructing ‘Englishness’ and promoting ‘politeness’ through a ‘Francophobic’ bestseller: Télémaque

This article draws attention to the reception that Fran\ue7ois F\ue9nelon's T\ue9l\ue9maque (1699) received in England in the first half of the eighteenth century. It overturns the historiographical assumption that the Jacobites were the leading disseminators of this continental bestseller on the other side of the Channel. Even though in the English intellectual context T\ue9l\ue9maque's framework was unorthodox, many staunch supporters of the Glorious Revolution were fascinated by the book's portrayal of a virtuous king who respects laws, rights and liberties, and sacrifices himself to improve the wellbeing of his subjects. Moderate Whigs - who included several Huguenot refugees - capitalised on the poem's esprit du roi in order both to celebrate the English kings and to construct the \u2018Myth of Louis XIV' as an example of how a sovereign should not rule. The study of the book's reception thus presents a somewhat emblematic case study from which to view the genesis of \u2018Englishness', that of an ideological discourse largely based on a process of overturning. In addition, the T\ue9l\ue9maque responded to the thirst for \u2018useful Knowledge' that distinguished the advocates of \u2018politeness' and, not least, its mild pedagogical approach rendered it a precious resource for the \u2018moderation\u2019 of the youth