The Rake's Progress The Rake's Progress The Rake's Progress is an English-language opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings "A Rake's Progress" (1733–1735) of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on 2 May 1947, in a Chicago exhibition. The story concerns the decline and fall of one Tom Rakewell, who deserts Anne Trulove for the delights of London in the company of Nick Shadow, who turns out to be the Devil. After several misadventures, all initiated by the devious Shadow, Tom
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,