Versailles meets the Taj Mahal-new book by Professor Faith Beasley

Few visitors to the Palace of Versailles or readers of The Princess of Cleves see any Indian influence in these iconic creations of 17th ^- century France. Yet these major works of the Grand Siècle, like so many others, were born in an intellectual context deeply marked by a fascination with India, and they bear its traces.

In search of this forgotten passion, Faith E. Beasley reexamines the texts to reconstruct the conversations that took place in the salons between scholars and socialites of both sexes. She shows how these interviews emanating from the greatest minds of the time (François Bernier returning from a ten-year stay at the court of the Great Mughal, Marguerite de La Sablière at the head of the most scholarly of salons, Jean de La Fontaine, Madame de Sévigné, Bernard de Fontenelle, Madame de Lafayette, etc.) reveal France's unique commitment to India during this period.

This work, the result of twenty-five years of research and reflection, highlights the many imprints left by India on the culture and mentalities of the French 17th ^century , whether in literature, philosophy, theology, political thought or even clothing and architecture. Far from the dominant representations inherited from a 19th century "orientalism" ^imbued with colonialism, we discover a France that greatly admires India, its know-how, its wealth, the plurality of its society and the religious tolerance of its sovereigns.