My first Diderot and easily my top read of this year (right alongside Saharu's Chronicles of an Hour and a Half, which is also about religion and society, lol.)

“I could think of nothing worse than becoming a nun against one's will.”

I have an unhealthy obsession with reading stories that feature nuns and priests and monks and convents and... so yeah, I'm biased. I also love a good prank. For these reasons, The Nun is an obvious pick for someone like me.

An action-packed epistolary initially written as a practical joke on Marquis of Crosmaire, The Nun reveals real institutional problems in an inflated and hyperbolic series of events. Given who wrote it + when it was written, I think it's as strong a jab at the insincerity and hypocrisy that religion is infested with can get.

“The same evil comes either from God who is testing or Satan who is tempting.”

I think I love this novel a tad bit more because it wasn't meant to be a novel in the first place. And so as much as I loved the portraiture of religious folk, the critique of society, state, and church, and all the commentary on religion, I couldn't quite get over the fact that Diderot just decided to mess around with his friend by conjuring up a fake nun needing rescue.

The detail and effort Diderot put into this elaborate scheme makes me want to claw my way back in time just to grab a coffee or something with him. It seems to me that he wasn't just a philosopher, art critic and writer — he was a menace with a purpose.

(and how radiantly confident of me to think that Diderot would oblige me with a coffee date...)

I also loved how Suzanne has been written with wit, foresight, and intelligence despite how terribly she suffers in an intolerable ad oppressive environment.

“My character tends to be indulgent, and I can forgive men anything except injustice, ingratitude and inhumanity.”