Resumen de Diderot: De L'Auteur à L'Écrivain: Réflexions en marge de l'Essai sur les règnes de Claude et de Néron
At the end of his life, Diderot writes: »I do not compose, I am not an author«. In d'Alembert's article (»Ecrivain, Auteur« of the Encyclopédie), the terms author and writer are closely related, the author being more preoccupied by the originality of his thought, than the writer, who is more interested in the perfection of his style. A survey of the context of these terms in Diderot's work confirms that Diderot shares generally d'Alembert's opinion. As testifies particularly the Essai on Claude and Neron, the lack of originality that he found in his own writings can explain Diderot's disabused opinion on himself, and his technique of writing: his marginalia on the books he comments (the Nakaz, Helvetius' Refutation...), his contributions to Raynal's History of the two Indias.
