Dominique Bouhours enjoyed great respect in his time. Even the dramatist Jean Racine sought the advice of this theoretician of style on how to perfect his plays. A century later, although Bouhours's general popularity had diminished, Voltaire still held him in high regard. In the late twentieth century, after a long decline, Bouhours's importance was reappraised in view of his contribution to the definition of French classical style. While keeping its minor status in the history of French literature, the work of this Jesuit offers an excellent vantage point from which to investigate the relations among power, society, and style in the first part of King Louis XIV's reign. Despite its increasingly tight control over the arts, especially at court, the monarchy could not entirely influence another sphere of artistic creation--the salons, where women played a vital role and where classical taste was more an effect of social...