To Thomas Jefferson from Nicolas Gouin Dufief, 6 April 1802
From Nicolas Gouin Dufief
6 d’avril. 1802
Monsieur,
Mr Duane s’est chargé de vous remettre tous les ouvrages que vous m’avez demandés À l’égard de ceux que vous désirez faire venir de France Je les ai particulierement recommandés à mon Libraire, mon voyage projetée ne pouvant avoir lieu, par une Suite de Circonstances dont le detail ne Sauroit vous interesser—
Jacques le Fataliste est attribué à Diderot par tous ceux qui sont familiarisés avec sa touche originale, quoiqui’il ne reponde pas tout à fait a ce qu’on devoit attendre d’un aussi grand máitre. Cet ouvrage & la Religieuse du même auteur furent presentés au Gouvernement français par le Prince Henry de Prusse qui en étoit depositaire
Je suis avec une profonde estime Monsieur, Votre très devoué Serviteur.
N. G. Dufief
EDITORS’ TRANSLATION
6 Apr. 1802
Sir,
Mr. Duane has taken it upon himself to turn over to you all the works you requested of me. With respect to those that you wish to order from France, I have especially ordered them from my bookseller, my planned voyage not being possible to take place due to a series of circumstances, the details of which could not interest you.
Jacques the Fatalist is attributed to Diderot by all those who have become familiar with his original manner, although it does not quite measure up to what one should expect from so great a master. This work and La Religieuse (The Nun) by the same author were presented to the French government by Prince Henry of Prussia, who was their authorized guardian.
I am with deep esteem, Sir, your very devoted servant,
N. G. Dufief
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Le président des Etats Unis”; endorsed by TJ as received 9 Apr. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Invoice, Dufief to TJ, 6 Apr. 1802, showing $3 for d’Holbach’s Systême de la Nature in six volumes; $1.50 for Diderot’s Jacques le fataliste in three volumes; $5 for Chaptal’s Élémens de Chymie in three volumes (see Dufief to TJ, 4 Mch. 1802); and $14 for the six-volume Oeuvres de Séneque translated by La Grange; TJ added $2.25 to the total of $23.50 and drew a new total of $25.75 (MS in CSmH, in Dufief’s hand, with addition by TJ and Dufief’s acknowledgment of receipt in full; see TJ to Dufief, 10 Apr.).
LA RELIGIEUSE: Denis Diderot’s fictional memoir and letters of a woman forced to take religious vows against her will received little attention when it was first published in serial form in the early 1780s. The work drew more notice when it appeared as a book in 1796. Numerous editions followed, including an English translation published in London in 1797 (Denis Diderot, The Nun, trans. Russell Goulbourne [Oxford, 2005], xii–xiv, xxxiv–xxxv).