The Rake's Progress (ballet) The Rake's Progress (ballet) The Rake's Progress is a short 1935 ballet based on the drawings of William Hogarth, with music by Gavin Gordon (1901-1970), choreography by Ninette de Valois, and set design by Rex Whistler. Gavin Gordon had written some earlier ballets that were not successful. By contrast, "The Rake's Progress" was an instant hit and has remained in the repertoires of a number of ballet companies. It is the only work of Gavin Gordon's that is remembered today. Gordon based his scenario for the ballet on Hogarth's series of paintings called "A Rake's Progress". These paintings influenced him
18th-century French literature de Sade (the Marquis de Sade) (1797); "Le Sopha- conte moral" ) ("The Sopha - a moral tale") by Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (1745), and "les Bijoux indiscrets" ("The indiscreet jewels") (1748) and "La Religieuse" ("The Nun") by Diderot (1760). The novel of feelings appeared in the second half of the 18th century, with the publication of "Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse" ("Julie, or the New Heloise"), in a novel in the form of letters, written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1761). It was modelled after the English novel "Pamela" by Samuel Richardson, which was the best-selling novel of the century,