The Essay
Regrets on parting with my old dressing gown
Denis Diderot, 1769. The whole essay in our own plain modern English, in six short chapters, with the French original alongside and notes on what he meant.
Diderot wrote this short piece for friends after a gift of a fine scarlet dressing gown pushed him, one purchase at a time, into refurnishing his whole study. Its full title adds a warning: to those who have more taste than fortune. Two centuries later it gave a name to the pattern this site is about. Here is the complete essay, from the old robe to the painting he would not part with, in six chapters that each take a few minutes to read.
Chapters
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Chapter 1
The old robe and the new
Diderot mourns the shapeless old gown that fit him like a second skin, and discovers that the splendid new one has made him its servant.
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Chapter 2
Everything out of tune
Diderot warns his friends against wealth, remembers how well his shabby study once hung together, and admits that the scarlet gown has thrown it all out of tune.
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Chapter 3
The study, piece by piece
The chair, the hanging, the prints, the bookshelf, the mirror, the casts, the table. Diderot lists what the scarlet gown pushed out, one object at a time, and curses the taste that did it.
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Chapter 4
The rag rug and the confession
One cheap rug survives the makeover, and Diderot swears to keep it. Then he protests that wealth has not changed him, lets slip what it would look like if it had, and starts to pray.
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Chapter 5
Everything but the Vernet
Diderot keeps praying, and the prayer turns into a guided tour of his painting of a shipwreck. By the last line he has to admit who his visitors really come to see.
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Chapter 6
Laïs, who cost me nothing
Diderot shows off the painting he has just begged God to spare, promises that the debts will be paid, and ends the essay with a line borrowed from an ancient philosopher and a secret that is not quite true.