In 18th-century France, matter itselfGin forms ranging from atoms to anatomiesGbecame a privileged object of study. Voluptuous Philosophy redefines what is at stake in the emergence of an enlightened secular materialism by showing how questions of figureGHow should a body be represented? What should the effects of this representation be on readers?Gare tellingly and consistently located at the very heart of 18th-century debates about the nature of material substance. How, Meeker asks, did the eraGs fascination with an immaterial eventGreading works of fictionGcoincide with a gradual materialization of human subjects: men and women who increasingly envision themselves transfigured into machines, animals, and even, in the work of the Marquis de Sade, tables and chairs? In what way did the new materialisms depend upon the ability of readers to perceive certain figures of speech as GliterallyG trueGto imagine themselves both as fully material bodies and as compelled by disembodied literary forms? How does reading literature alter our perceptions of what is, and can be, real?.