Part I: Enlightenment Genius 17
Chapter 1: The Eighteenth Century: Mimesis and Effect 19
Chapter 2: Genius Obscured: Diderot 35
Part II: Nineteenth-Century Genius: The Idiom of the Age 45
Chapter 3: Language, Religion, Nation 47
Chapter 4: Individual versus Collective Genius 61
Chapter 5: The Romantic Poet and the Brotherhood of Genius 67
Chapter 6: Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare, and the Dynasty of Genius 81
Part III: Genius in the Clinic 89
Chapter 7: Genius under Observation: Lélut 91
Chapter 8: Genius, Neurosis, and Family Trees: Moreau de Tours 104
Chapter 9: Genius Restored to Health 114
Part IV: Failure, Femininity, and the Realist Novel 123
Chapter 10: A Novel of Female Genius: Mme de Staël’s Corinne 125
Chapter 11: Balzac’s Louis Lambert: Genius and the Feminine Mediator 137
Chapter 12: Creativity and Procreation in Zola’s L’Œuvre 146
Part V: Precocity and Child Prodigies 159
Chapter 13: Exemplarity and Performance in Literature for Children 161
Chapter 14: Alfred Binet and the Measurement of Intelligence 173
Chapter 15: Minou Drouet: The Prodigy under Suspicion 183
Chapter 16: Cultural Critique and the End of Genius: Barthes, Sartre 195
Chapter 17: The Return of Genius: Mad Poets 204
Chapter 18: Julia Kristeva and Female Genius 212