Review
'His well-judged introduction and his notes are angled towards a student readership ... He also, and this gives his translation a definite edge, includes two important shorter stories by Madame de Lafayette. His translation offers a fair equivalent of Lafayette's careful, often knotty, phrasing, which plunges the reader into the perpexities of amorous feeling and moral choice.' Times Literary Supplement
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
Poised between the fading world of chivalric romance and a new psychological realism, Madame de Lafayette's novel of passion and self-deception marks a turning point in the history of the novel. When it first appeared anonymously in 1678--in the heyday of French classicism--it aroused fierce controversy among critics and readers, particularly for the extraordinary confession which forms the climax of the story. It is now regarded as a landmark in the history of women's writing. In this entirely new translation,
The Princesse de Cleves is accompanied by two shorter works also attributed to Mme de Lafayette,
The Princesse de Montpensier and
The Comtesse de Tende.