The reception of The Orphan of Zhao in eighteenth-century French-language periodicals

Eighteenth-century critics’ attention to the Chinese play entitled The Orphan of Zhao was mainly a result of the successful staging of L’Orphelin de la Chine (Voltaire’s adaptation) in France. This play was considered a representative work of Chinese literature and was analyzed by journalists from a literary point of view. Their reviews reveal their attraction to foreign literature as well as their devotion to classic French taste. Moreover, The Orphan of Zhao served as a work of reference, or indeed a tool in certain literary critiques, for both Élie-Catherine Fréron and François Arnaud.