Les auteurs ont mis tout leur cœur à choisir une thématique qui leur semblait croiser les centres d'intérêt cultivés par Suzanne Lafage. Cet ouvrage a aussi pour objectif de mettre au grand jour les différentes facettes de la recherche actuelle dans les secteurs de la linguistique à l'université Paris 3 - Sorbonne nouvelle.
The bad press surrounding the medical profession pertains to a literary tradition that dates back to the Antiquity. This study was born from the observation of a recurrence, that of the theme of medicine in 18th century literature, especially in the English novelistic production. The selection of Smollet and Sterne is legitimated by the richness of their novelistic work in materia medica. The seemingly incongruous reunion of two men as different in their personality and talent remains though to be justified. Despite their antagonism, the two men had indeed more than one element in common, certainly unknowingly. Perhaps they shared the desperate certainty of the medical science’s imperfect nature. This disillusioned outlook, severe in one, amused in the other, is their closest connection.