The Princess of Cleves is often called the first modern French novel.Its publication in 1678 was a national and even international literary and social event. Within twelve months of its publication, two books had been published about the The Princess of Cleves, the novel had been trans]ated into English, and a literary magazine, Le Mercure Galant,published voluminous correspondence in which the magazine's readers gave their opinion--somewhat in the manner of today's "Dear Abby" newspaper column--on the characters' conduct. The Princess of Cleves had such an impact on French literature that it is reasonable to say that Lafayette's work changed the very meaning of the French word for novel,roman, shifting the meaning from "romance" to our modern conception of the genre as a realistic narrative usually with a limited set of principal characters.

The Princess of ClOves is often called the first modern French novel. Published anonymously in 1678, it was immediatelv oooular. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is that of Thomas Sargent Perry's 1892 translation,unareuablv the translation that has best served readers in English. Reprinted repeatedly over the last one hundred years, the Perry translation is in its own right a classic. After careful review, the editor has made a small number of changes to the translation both to correct infelicities of translation (necessary to remain true to Lafayette's text) and to update vocabulary.

In order to experience the innovation of Lafayette's writing, it is necessary to understand the critical resistance it met with in seventeenth-century France. "Contemporary Reactions" includes five assessments of The Princess of Cleves--by Marie-Madeleine de Lafayette, Roger de Bussy-Rabutin and Marie de Sevingne, Jean-Baptiste-Henry de Trousset de Valincour, JeanAntoine de Charnes, and Du Plaisir following its controversial publication.Each selection has been translated from the French by John Lyons; this Norton Critical Edition marks the first time these reactions are available in English.

"Criticism" includes eleven modern studies of the novel (five appearing in English for the first time), by Jean Fabre, Michel Butor, Jean Rousset,Helen Karen Kaps, Gerard Genette, Roger Francillon, Kurt Weinberg,Peggy Kamuf, Erica Harth, Joan DeJean, and Lawrence Gregorio.

A Glossary of Characters and a Selected Bibliography are also included.

Preface

Introduction

The Text of The Princess of ClUes

Editor's Afterword: Secret History and the History of Secrets

Contemporary Reactions

 Madame de Lafayette to Joseph Marie de Lescheraine · [It is not a romance]

 Roger de Bussy-Rabutin to Marie de Sevigne · [An Impartial Reading]

 Marie de Sevigne to Roger de Bussy-Rabutin

 ]ean-Baptiste-Henry du Trousset de Valincour Letters to the Marquise about The Princess of ClOves

 Jean-Antoine de Cbames ·[A Kind of Enchantment]

 Du Plaisir ·[These Little Histories]

Criticism

 Jean Fabre ·The Art of Analysis in The Princess of ClOves

 Michel Butor ·On The Princess of ClOves

 Jean Rousset ·Presence and Absence of the Author

 Helen Karen Kaps ·Baroque or Classic?

 Gerard Genette ·Plausibility and Motivation

 Roger Francillon ·Novelistic Perspective and Structure of the Narrative

 Kurt Weinberg ·The Lady and the Unicorn, or M. de Nemours at Coulommiers

 Peggy Kamuf ·A Mother's Will

 Erica Harth ·An Official 'Nouvelle'

 Joan DeJean ·Lafayette's Ellipses: The Privileges of

 　Anonymity

 Laurence Gregorio ·The Gaze of History

Glossary of Characters

Selected Bibliography