The Princess of Montpensier (novella)

Frontispiece, first edition

The Princess of Montpensier is a short novel by Madame de La Fayette[1] which came out anonymously in 1662 as her first published work. It is regarded not only as one of the first modern novels in French,[2] but also as both the prototype and a masterpiece of the historical novel.[3]

Set in France during the Wars of Religion, it tells the story of a young noblewoman, married without affection and loved platonically by her husband's best friend, who cannot refuse her former fiancé's impetuous brother and collapses under the emotional stress. Some of the characters are historical and some made up for the story.

  1. ^ There is no consistency over the spelling of the family name, which can equally be written 'de Lafayette'.
  2. ^ Programme de littérature pour l'année scolaire 2017-2018, 1 March 2017, retrieved 12 May 2018
  3. ^ Cuénin, Micheline (1979), Préface à 'Histoire de la Princesse de Montpensier sous le règne de Charles IXe Roi de France et Histoire de la Comtesse de Tende', Geneva: Droz