L’enfant trouvé de Crébillon fils à Madame Riccoboni Variations du roman libertin au roman sentimental

This contribution compares the topic of exposure in the libertine novel of Crebillon fils, The Happy Orphans (1754), and Mrs. Riccoboni’s sentimental novels, Letters of Sophie de Valliere (1772) and Letters of Lord Rivers (1776). Recurring patterns, transformations and diversions may be traced, revelatory of the processes and the evolution of an « exposure littérature » that was a cornerstone of the the eighteenth-century Romancie.