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The Princesse de Clèves: The Princesse de Montpensier, the Comtesse de Tende
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.
272 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2015
About the author
Madame de La Fayette
265 books144 followersMarie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, comtesse de la Fayette
Christened Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, she was born in Paris to a family of minor but wealthy nobility. At 16, de la Vergne became the maid of honor to Queen Anne of Austria and began also to acquire a literary education from Gilles Ménage, who gave her lessons in Italian and Latin. Ménage would lead her to join the fashionable salons of Madame de Rambouillet and Madeleine de Scudéry. Her father, Marc Pioche de la Vergne, had died a year before, and the same year her mother married Renaud de Sévigné, uncle of Madame de Sévigné, who would remain her lifelong intimate friend.
In 1655, de la Vergne married François Motier, comte de La Fayette, a widowed nobleman some eighteen years her senior, with whom she would have two sons. She accompanied him to country estates in Auvergne and Bourbonnais although she made frequent trips back to Paris, where she began to mix with court society and formed her own successful salon. Some of her acquaintances included Henrietta of England, future Duchess of Orleans, who asked La Fayette to write her biography; Antoine Arnauld; and the leading French writers Segrais and Huet. Earlier on, during the Fronde, La Fayette had also befriended the Cardinal de Retz.
Settling permanently in Paris in 1659, La Fayette published, anonymously, La Princesse de Montpensier in 1662. From 1665 onwards she formed a close relationship with François de La Rochefoucauld, author of Maximes, who introduced her to many literary luminaries of the time, including Racine and Boileau. 1669 saw the publication of the first volume of Zaïde, a Hispano-Moorish romance which was signed by Segrais but is almost certainly attributable to La Fayette. The second volume appeared in 1671. The title ran through reprints and translations mostly thanks to the preface Huet had offered.
Marie de LaFayette's La Princesse de Clèves (1678)
La Fayette's most famous novel was La Princesse de Clèves, first published anonymously in March 1678. An immense success, the work is often taken to be the first true French novel and a prototype of the early psychological novel.
The death of La Rochefoucauld in 1680 and her husband in 1683 led La Fayette to lead a less active social life in her later years. Three works were published posthumously: La Comtesse de Tende (1718), Histoire d'Henriette d'Angleterre (1720), and Memoires de la Cour de France (1731).
Christened Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, she was born in Paris to a family of minor but wealthy nobility. At 16, de la Vergne became the maid of honor to Queen Anne of Austria and began also to acquire a literary education from Gilles Ménage, who gave her lessons in Italian and Latin. Ménage would lead her to join the fashionable salons of Madame de Rambouillet and Madeleine de Scudéry. Her father, Marc Pioche de la Vergne, had died a year before, and the same year her mother married Renaud de Sévigné, uncle of Madame de Sévigné, who would remain her lifelong intimate friend.
In 1655, de la Vergne married François Motier, comte de La Fayette, a widowed nobleman some eighteen years her senior, with whom she would have two sons. She accompanied him to country estates in Auvergne and Bourbonnais although she made frequent trips back to Paris, where she began to mix with court society and formed her own successful salon. Some of her acquaintances included Henrietta of England, future Duchess of Orleans, who asked La Fayette to write her biography; Antoine Arnauld; and the leading French writers Segrais and Huet. Earlier on, during the Fronde, La Fayette had also befriended the Cardinal de Retz.
Settling permanently in Paris in 1659, La Fayette published, anonymously, La Princesse de Montpensier in 1662. From 1665 onwards she formed a close relationship with François de La Rochefoucauld, author of Maximes, who introduced her to many literary luminaries of the time, including Racine and Boileau. 1669 saw the publication of the first volume of Zaïde, a Hispano-Moorish romance which was signed by Segrais but is almost certainly attributable to La Fayette. The second volume appeared in 1671. The title ran through reprints and translations mostly thanks to the preface Huet had offered.
Marie de LaFayette's La Princesse de Clèves (1678)
La Fayette's most famous novel was La Princesse de Clèves, first published anonymously in March 1678. An immense success, the work is often taken to be the first true French novel and a prototype of the early psychological novel.
The death of La Rochefoucauld in 1680 and her husband in 1683 led La Fayette to lead a less active social life in her later years. Three works were published posthumously: La Comtesse de Tende (1718), Histoire d'Henriette d'Angleterre (1720), and Memoires de la Cour de France (1731).
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 12, 2023
the drama .. the slow burn .. the betrayals ….. slay
February 2, 2010
This is what France has been reading. President Sarkozy took some flack for saying he disagreed with Mme Cleves action. What is at the core here is not a torrid love affair, a la Mme Bovary, nor is it a tale of revenge. It's really about ethics and the "mores" of the time. The heroine's temptations, her confession to her husband and resulting tragedy bring us into the seventeenth century. Should she have confessed when there was no sin? Did she do even more harm in her admission? It's a great discussion book and we know how the french love to "discuss".
November 17, 2012
I love how people get the vapours and just keel over and die when they hear bad news in this book.
April 14, 2017
Not in scene and dialogue like modern novels, brief, telling not showing, but psychologically sharp and, ergo, chilling.
May 18, 2025
4/5 for the main book - The Princesse de Clèves . Not sure about the other two.
The past is a foreign country but humans in every country are still the same. And that is how this book feels. The characters' society, beliefs, their external struggles are quite alien to us. And can seem ridiculous. And yet the inner struggles are still something which can be relatable. And those make this still a pretty good read.
The book starts dry for first few pages as it introduces all historical figures but then picks up from there. There is barely any plot which makes it a relatively easy read. The language is dated and a little stilted but there is certain beauty to it. And the translator Terence Cave deserves credit for that. The soap opera hijinks which move the minuscule plot along are funny to read after so many centuries but they feel like a window to the past - if not the whole historical truth, then to a part of it which concerns literary preferences and the publicly held ideas. Funnily enough the serious treatment of the ideas which are ridiculous to modern eye (like someone refusing to marry anyone who has a title less than a king/prince) also puts into perspective the satire presented by books like Candide.
At times it feels like this book was what led people to invent 'show not tell'. The first few pages present an exposition dump which a modern writer would avoid. An interesting benefit though is that it is just easier to look up any historical person in the book by going to the start of the story. Similarly throughout the book events which a modern book would spend time developing, are just mentioned in a matter-of-fact manner. For example a character has an idea they want to plant in his sister's head (so that she thinks she came up with an idea - reasons are kind of stupid but understandable for the setting). A modern book would spend time showing this manipulation. While this book just says that he handled things so well that she thought she came up with the idea. On one hand stuff like this is a little unsatisfying but on the other hand it actually helps the author avoid getting stuck in the weeds of the story. It perhaps also shows that the society they lived in, the readers might have been able to imagine how to handle this kind of situation.
All the descriptions of the feelings are so extravagant and fun to read. The famous 'confession' part of this book is quite well done and definitely feels ahead of its time.
Overall a worthwhile experience.
The smaller books in this edition are a lot less nuanced than this one. They both pack a lot more plot despite being fraction of its size. But they are a lot more preachy in their message and a lot more soap-opera in the plot. They also start to feel repetitive. While the plots of the 3 books are different, one starts noticing so many common elements when the read the smaller books and that does diminish the enjoyment. They are still fine overall and can be read pretty fast.
The volume also has the commentary and analysis of the translation choices by Terence Cave and that is illuminating.
The past is a foreign country but humans in every country are still the same. And that is how this book feels. The characters' society, beliefs, their external struggles are quite alien to us. And can seem ridiculous. And yet the inner struggles are still something which can be relatable. And those make this still a pretty good read.
The book starts dry for first few pages as it introduces all historical figures but then picks up from there. There is barely any plot which makes it a relatively easy read. The language is dated and a little stilted but there is certain beauty to it. And the translator Terence Cave deserves credit for that. The soap opera hijinks which move the minuscule plot along are funny to read after so many centuries but they feel like a window to the past - if not the whole historical truth, then to a part of it which concerns literary preferences and the publicly held ideas. Funnily enough the serious treatment of the ideas which are ridiculous to modern eye (like someone refusing to marry anyone who has a title less than a king/prince) also puts into perspective the satire presented by books like Candide.
At times it feels like this book was what led people to invent 'show not tell'. The first few pages present an exposition dump which a modern writer would avoid. An interesting benefit though is that it is just easier to look up any historical person in the book by going to the start of the story. Similarly throughout the book events which a modern book would spend time developing, are just mentioned in a matter-of-fact manner. For example a character has an idea they want to plant in his sister's head (so that she thinks she came up with an idea - reasons are kind of stupid but understandable for the setting). A modern book would spend time showing this manipulation. While this book just says that he handled things so well that she thought she came up with the idea. On one hand stuff like this is a little unsatisfying but on the other hand it actually helps the author avoid getting stuck in the weeds of the story. It perhaps also shows that the society they lived in, the readers might have been able to imagine how to handle this kind of situation.
All the descriptions of the feelings are so extravagant and fun to read. The famous 'confession' part of this book is quite well done and definitely feels ahead of its time.
Overall a worthwhile experience.
The smaller books in this edition are a lot less nuanced than this one. They both pack a lot more plot despite being fraction of its size. But they are a lot more preachy in their message and a lot more soap-opera in the plot. They also start to feel repetitive. While the plots of the 3 books are different, one starts noticing so many common elements when the read the smaller books and that does diminish the enjoyment. They are still fine overall and can be read pretty fast.
The volume also has the commentary and analysis of the translation choices by Terence Cave and that is illuminating.
June 13, 2023
There's quite a bit of drama here - including people landing on their deathbed after getting bad news and high standards for ethics and virtue. Definitely first world problems and drama - amusing in many ways.
to-read-actual
November 26, 2021First published 1678
June 8, 2025
quite literally made me swoon
June 23, 2010
If all three stories had not been about "the most beautiful and witty women at court," it would have been easier to feel a connection to these women and the various states of love/infidelity they get into with, of course, the handsomest men at court. On the other hand, whether plain or fair looking, the heart of the stories still has relevance today, and can be seen in pop culture TV shows on every other channel.
Read
December 3, 2009just the princesse de cleves
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews