Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... La Princesse de Clèves (original 1678; edition 1972)by Madame de La Fayette, Michel Butor (Introduction), Béatrice Didier (Commentaires)
Work InformationThe Princesse de Clèves by Madame de La Fayette (1678)
» 16 more Female Author (71) Historical Fiction (113) Best Historical Fiction (432) 1,001 BYMRBYD Concensus (266) Favorite Romance Fiction (185) French Books (90) Books Read in 2018 (3,763) Europe (178) Romans (4) Best of World Literature (424) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A quote from the Madame de La Fayette author page here on Goodreads: "... the work is often taken to be the first true French novel and a prototype of the early psychological novel." This was definitely an interesting depiction of the intrigues of the French court, and when I say intrigues, I mean the intrigues of love. Initially, a bit overwhelmed with the multitude of characters described in the novel, I was finally able to keep everyone straight, although with effort. Regarding it being an early psychological novel, I would have to agree. The author was very skillful in depicting the inner workings of the characters' minds, especially those of the Princess of Cleves and the Duc de Nemours. I think there's a good story in here somewhere. I wasn't fond of the writing style and there were way too many characters mentioned for me to keep track of who was who. The end was especially disappointing. To see happiness that comes along so rarely in life so close at hand, and to see Madame de Cleves just walk away from it was so frustrating! no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inContainsHas as a reference guide/companionHas as a student's study guideNotable Lists
Classic Literature.
Fiction.
Romance.
Historical Fiction.
HTML: This groundbreaking novel made a splash when it was initially published in 1678, changing the course of literary fiction forever. Rather than following in the same vein as the one-dimensional romances that preceded it, The Princess of Cleves tackles its characters' inner dilemmas with unprecedented sophistication and nuance. .No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)843.4Literature French French fiction Classic period 1600–1715LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
________
As I commonly found with her works, the actual French vocabulary used is quite intuitive and easy to pick up; I had trouble at first because the first part of this novel is made up of one of the world's worst exposition dumps but it picks up greatly from there onward and also became a much easier read such that even though I was going from my Kindle I barely used the dictionary even if I sometimes had to struggle to piece together the older literary structure. Some wonderful literary French expressions and turns of phrase I learnt from this also. ( )