A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 Read online

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER I PAGE

  INTRODUCTORY 1

  The early history of prose fiction--The late classicalstage--A _nexus_ of Greek and French romance?--the factsabout the matter--The power and influence of the "Saint'sLife"--The Legend of St. Eulalia--The _St. Alexis_.

  CHAPTER II

  THE MATTERS OF FRANCE, ROME, AND BRITAIN 9

  The _Chanson de Geste_--The proportions of history andfiction in them--The part played by language, prosody, andmanners--Some drawbacks--But a fair balance of actual storymerit--Some instances of this--The classical borrowings:Troy and Alexander--_Troilus_--_Alexander_--The ArthurianLegend--Chrestien de Troyes and the theories about him--Hisunquestioned work--Comparison of the _Chevalier a laCharette_ and the prose _Lancelot_--The constitution of theArthuriad--Its approximation to the novel proper--Especiallyin the characters and relations of Lancelot andGuinevere--Lancelot--Guinevere--Some minorpoints--Illustrative extracts translated from the "Vulgate":the youth of Lancelot--The first meeting of Lancelot andGuinevere--The scene of the kiss--Some further remarks onthe novel-character of the story--And the personages--Books.

  CHAPTER III

  ROMANS D'AVENTURES 55

  Variety of the present group--Different views held ofit--_Partenopeus of Blois_ selected for analysis andtranslation.

  CHAPTER IV

  THE BEGINNINGS OF PROSE FICTION 73

  Prose novelettes of the thirteenth century: _Aucassin etNicolette_ not quite typical--_L'Empereur Constant_ moreso--_Le Roi Flore et la Belle Jehane_--_La Comtesse dePonthieu_--Those of the fourteenth:_Asseneth_--_Troilus_--_Foulques Fitzwarin_--Something onthese--And on the short story generally.

  CHAPTER V

  ALLEGORY, FABLIAU, AND PROSE STORY OF COMMON LIFE 89

  The connection with prose fiction of allegory--And of the_fabliaux_--The rise of the _nouvelle_ itself--_Les CentNouvelles Nouvelles_--Analysis of "La DemoiselleCavaliere"--The interest of _namea_ personages--_Petit Jehande Saintre_--_Jehan de Paris._

  CHAPTER VI

  RABELAIS 105

  The anonymity, or at least impersonality, of authorship upto this point--Rabelais unquestionably the first very greatknown writer--But the first great novelist?--Some objectionsconsidered--And dismissed as affecting the generalattraction of the book--Which lies, largely if not wholly,in its story-interest--Contrast of the _Moyen deParvenir_--A general theme possible--A reference, to betaken up later, to the last Book--Running survey of thewhole--_Gargantua_--The birth and education--The war--TheCounsel to Picrochole--The peace and the Abbey ofThelema--_Pantagruel_ I. The contrastedyouth--Panurge--Short view of the sequels in BookII.--_Pantagruel_ II. (Book III.) The marriage of Panurgeand the consultations on it--_Pantagruel_ III. (Book IV.)The first part of the voyage--_Pantagruel_ IV. (Book V.) Thesecond part of the voyage: the "Isle Sonnante"--"LaQuinte"--The conclusion and The Bottle.

  CHAPTER VII

  THE SUCCESSORS OF RABELAIS AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE"AMADIS" ROMANCES 134

  Subsidiary importance of Brantome and othercharacter-mongers--The _Heptameron_--Note onMontaigne--Character and "problems"--Parlamente on human anddivine love--Desperiers--_Contes et Joyeux Devis_--Othertale-collections--The "provincial" character of these--The_Amadis_ romances--Their characteristics--Extravagance inincident, nomenclature, etc.--The "cruel" heroine--Note onHelisenne de Crenne.

  CHAPTER VIII

  THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY NOVEL--I. 152

  _The Pastoral and Heroic Romance, and the Fairy Story._

  Immense importance of the seventeenth century in oursubject--The divisions of its contribution--Note on markedinfluence of Greek Romance--The Pastoral in general--Itsbeginnings in France--Minor romances preceding the_Astree_--Their general character--Examples of theirstyle--Montreux and the _Bergeries de Juliette_--DesEscuteaux and his _Amours Diverses_--Francois de Moliere:_Polyxene_--Du Perier: _Arnoult et Clarimonde_--Du Croset:_Philocalie_--Corbin: _Philocaste_--Jean de Lannoi and his_Roman Satirique_--Beroalde de Verville outside the _Moyende Parvenir_--The _Astree_: its author--The book--Itslikeness to the _Arcadia_--Its philosophy and its generaltemper--Its appearance and its author's other work--Itscharacter and appeals--Hylas and Stella and theirConvention--Narrative skill frequent--The Fountain of theTruth of Love--Some drawbacks: awkward history--Butattractive on the whole--The general importance andinfluence--The _Grand Cyrus_--Its preface to Madame deLongueville--The "Address to the Reader"--The opening of the"business"--The ups and downs of the general conduct of thestory--Extracts: the introduction of Cyrus to Mandane--Hissoliloquy in the pavilion--The Fight of the FourHundred--The abstract resumed--The oracle toPhilidaspes--The advent of Araminta--Her correspondence withSpithridates--Some interposed comments--Analysisresumed--The statue in the gallery at Sardis--The judgmentof Cyrus in a court of love--Thomyris on thewarpath--General remarks on the book and its class--Theother Scudery romances:_Ibrahim_--_Almahide_--_Clelie_--Perhaps the liveliest ofthe set--Rough outline of it--La Calprenede: hiscomparative cheerfulness--_Cleopatre_: the Cypassis andArminius episode--The bookgenerally--_Cassandre_--_Faramond_--Gomberville: _LaCaritee_--_Polexandre_--Camus: _Palombe_, etc.--Hedelind'Aubignac: _Macarise_--Gombauld: _Endimion_--Mme. deVilledieu--_Le Grand Alcandre Frustre_--The collectedlove-stories--Their historic liberties--_Carmente_,etc.--Her value on the whole--The fairy tale--Its _general_characteristics: the happy ending--Perrault and Mme.d'Aulnoy--Commented examples: _Gracieuse etPercinet_--_L'Adroite Princesse_--The danger of the"moral"--Yet often redeemed--The main _Cabinet des Fees_:more on Mme. d'Aulnoy--Warning against disappointment--Mlle.de la Force and others--The large proportion of EasternTales--_Les Voyages de Zulma_--Fenelon--Caylus--_PrinceCourtebotte et Princesse Zibeline_--_Rosanie_--_PrinceMuguet et Princesse Zaza_--Note on _Le Diable Amoureux_.

  CHAPTER IX

  THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY NOVEL--II. 274

  _From "Francion" to "La Princesse de Cleves"--Anthony Hamilton._

  The material of the chapter--Sorel and _Francion_--The_Berger Extravagant_ and _Polyandre_--Scarron and the _RomanComique_--The opening scene of this--Furetiere and the_Roman Bourgeois_--Nicodeme takes Javotte home fromchurch--Cyrano de Bergerac and his _Voyages_--Mme. de laFayette and _La Princesse de Cleves_--Its centralscene--Hamilton and the Nymph--The opening of _Fleurd'Epine_--_Les Quatre Facardins_.

  CHAPTER X

  LESAGE, MARIVAUX, PREVOST, CREBILLON 325

  The subjects of the chapter--Lesage: his Spanishconnections--Peculiarity of his work generally--And itsvariety--_Le Diable Boiteux_--Lesage and Boileau--_GilBlas_: its peculiar cosmopolitanism--And its adoption of the_homme sensuel moyen_ fashion--Its inequality, in the Secondand Fourth Books especially--Lesage's quality: not requiringmany words, but indisputable--Marivaux: _Les Effets de laSympathie_ (?)--His work in general--_Le PaysanParvenu_--_Marianne_: outline of the story--Importance ofMarianne herself--Marivaux and Richardson:"Marivaudage"--Examples: Marianne on the _physique_ and_moral_ of Prioresses and Nuns--She returns thegift-clothes--Prevost--His minor novels: the opinions onthem of Sainte-Beuve--And of Planche--The books themselves:_Histoire d'une Grecque Moderne_--_Cleveland_--_Le Doyen deKillerine_--_The Memoires d'un Homme de Qualite_--Itsmiscellaneous curiosities--_Manon Lescaut_--Itsuniqueness--The character of its heroine--And that of thehero--The inevitableness of both and the inestimableness oftheir history--Crebillon _fils_--The case against him--Forthe defendant: the veracity of his artificiality and hisconsummate cleverness--The Crebillonesque atmosphere andmethod--Inequality of his general work; a survey of it.

  CHAPTER XI

  THE _PHILOSOPHE_ NOVEL 377

  T
he use of the novel for "purpose"; Voltaire--Generalcharacteristics of his tales--_Candide_--_Zadig_ and itssatellites--_Micromegas_--_L'Ingenu_--_La Princesse deBabylone_--Some minors--Voltaire, the Kehl edition, andPlato--An attempt at different evaluation ofhimself--Rousseau: the novel character of the_Confessions_--The ambiguous position of _Emile_--_LaNouvelle Heloise_--Its numerous and grave faults--The minorcharacters--The delinquencies of Saint-Preux--And the lesscharming points of Julie; her redemption--And the betterside of the book generally--But little probability of moregood work in novel from its author--The different case ofDiderot--His gifts and the waste of them--The variousdisplay of them--_Le Neveu de Rameau_--_Jacques leFataliste_--Its "Arcis-Pommeraye" episode--_LaReligieuse_--Its story--A hardly missed, if missed,masterpiece--The successors--Marmontel--His "Telemachic"imitations worth little--The best of his _Contes Moraux_worth a good deal--_Alcibiade ou le Moi_--_Soliman theSecond_--_The Four Flasks_--_Heureusement_--_Le PhilosopheSoi-disant_--A real advance in these--Bernardin deSaint-Pierre.

  CHAPTER XII

  "SENSIBILITY." MINOR AND LATER NOVELISTS. THE FRENCHNOVEL, _c._ 1800 428

  "Sensibility"--A glance at Miss Austen--The thingessentially French--Its history--Mme. de Tencin and _LeComte de Comminge_--Mme. Riccoboni and _Le Marquis deCressy_--Her other work: _Milady Catesby_--Mme. de Beaumont:_Lettres du Marquis de Roselle_--Mme. de Souza--Xavier deMaistre--His illustrations of the lighter side ofSensibility--A sign of decadence--Benjamin Constant:_Adolphe_--Mme. de Duras's "postscript"--_Sensibilite_ and_engouement_--Some final words on the matter--Its importancehere--Restif de la Bretonne--Pigault-Lebrun: the differenceof his positive and relative importance--His life and thereasons for giving it--His generalcharacteristics--_L'Enfant du Carnaval_ and _Les Barons deFelsheim_--_Angelique et Jeanneton_--_Mon OncleThomas_--_Jerome_--The redeeming points of these--Others:_Adelaide de Meran and Tableaux deSociete_--_L'Officieux_--Further examples--Last words onhim--The French novel in 1800.

  CHRONOLOGICAL CONSPECTUS OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OF FRENCHFICTION NOTICED IN THIS VOLUME 475

  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 479

  INDEX 483