A History of the French Novel Volume I Part 38

Scarron, P. _Le Roman Comique_, 1651.

Cyrano de Bergerac. _Histoire Comique_, etc., 1655.

Furetiere, A. _Le Roman Bourgeois_, 1666.

La Fayette, Madame de. _La Princesse de Cleves_, 1678. Her first book, _La Princesse de Montpensier_ (much slighter but well written), had appeared eighteen years earlier, and _Zade_ or _Zayde_ in 1670, fathered by Segrais.

Fenelon. _Telemaque_, 1699.

18TH CENTURY

_Cabinet des Fees_, containing not only the authors or translators mentioned under the head of the preceding century, but a series of later writings down to the eve of the Revolution. Gueulette's adaptations and imitations ranged from the _Soirees Bretonnes_, published in 1712 during Hamilton's lifetime, to the _Thousand and One Hours_, 1733, the other collections mentioned in the text coming between. It may be worth mentioning that, being an industrious editor as well as tale-teller and playwright, he reprinted _Le Pet.i.t Jehan de Saintre_ in 1724 and Rabelais in 1732. Caylus's tales seem to have been scattered over the middle third of the century from about 1730 to his death in 1765.

Cazotte's _Diable Amoureux_ (not in the _Cabinet_) is of 1772--he had written very inferior things of the tale kind full thirty years earlier.

Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont (who was long an actual governess in England) wrote her numerous "books for the young" for the most part between 1757 (_Le Magazin des Enfants_) and 1774 (_Contes Moraux_).

Lesage. _Le Diable Boiteux_, 1707; _Gil Blas de Santillane_, 1715-35.

Marivaux. _Les Effets Surprenants_, 1713-14; _Marianne_, 1731-36; _Le Paysan Parvenu_, 1735.

Prevost. _Memoires d'un Homme de Qualite_, 1728-32, followed by _Manon Lescaut_, 1733; _Cleveland_, 1732-39; _Le Doyen de Killerine_, 1735; _Histoire d'une Grecque Moderne_, 1741.

(It may not be impertinent to draw attention to the fact that Prevost, like Defoe--though not quite to the same extent, and in the middle, not towards the end of his career--concentrated the novel-part of an enormous polygraphic production upon a few years.)

Crebillon _fils_. _Lettres de la Marquise_, 1732; _Tanza et Neadarne_, 1734; _Les egarements_, 1736; _Le Sopha_, 1745; _La Nuit et le Moment_, 1755; _Le Hasard au Coin du Feu_, 1763; _Ah! Quel Conte!_ 1764.

Voltaire's _Tales_ were distributed over a large part of his long and insatiably busy life; but none of his best are very early. _Zadig_ is of 1747; _Micromegas_ of 1752; _Candide_ of 1759; _L'Ingenu_ and _La Princesse de Babylone_ of 1767 and 1768 respectively.

Rousseau. _La Nouvelle Helose_, 1760; _emile_, 1762.

Diderot. _Les Bijoux Indiscrets_, 1748. _Jacques le Fataliste_ and _La Religieuse_ were posthumously published, but must have been written much earlier than their author's death in 1784.

Marmontel. _Contes Moraux_ appeared in the official or semi-official _Mercure de France_, with which the author was connected from 1753-60, being its manager or editor for the last two of these years. _Belisaire_ came out in 1767.

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. _Paul et Virginie_, 1787; _La Chaumiere Indienne_, 1790.

"Sensibility" Novels:--

Madame de Tencin. _Le Comte de Comminge_, 1735; _Les Malheurs de l'Amour_, 1747.

Madame Riccoboni. _Le Marquis de Cressy_, 1758; _Lettres de Julie Catesby_, 1759; _Ernestine_, 1762.

Madame elie de Beaumont. _Le Marquis de Roselle_, 1764.

Madame de Souza. _Adele de Senanges_, 1794.

Madame de Genlis. _Mlle. de Clermont_, 1802.

Madame de Duras. _Ourika_, 1823; _edouard_, 1825.

Xavier de Maistre. _Voyage autour de ma Chambre_, 1794; _Le Lepreux de la Cite d'Aoste_, 1812; _Les Prisonniers du Caucase, La Jeune Siberienne_, 1825.

Benjamin Constant. _Adolphe_, 1815.

Restif de la Bretonne. _Le Pied de Fanchette_, 1769; _Adele_, 1772; _Le Paysan Perverti_, 1775-76; _Les Contemporaines_, 1780-85; _Ingenue Saxancour_, 1789; _Monsieur Nicolas_, 1794-97.

Pigault-Lebrun. _L'Enfant du Carnaval_, 1792; _Les Barons de Felsheim_, 1798; _Angelique et Jeanneton_, _Mon Oncle Thomas_, _La Folie Espagnole_, 1799; _M. Botte_, 1802; _Jerome_, 1804; _Tableaux de Societe_, 1813; _Adelade de Meran_, 1815; M. de Roberval, _L'Officieux_, 1818.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

(Although it is probably idle to attempt to satisfy or placate the contemporary _h.e.l.luo_ of bibliography, it may be respectful to other readers to observe that this is not intended to deal with the whole subject, but only as a companion, or chrestomathic guide, to this book itself.)

CHAPTER I

_Apollonius of Tyre._ Ed. Thorpe. London, 1834.

_English Novel, The._ By the present writer. London (Dent), 1913.

_French Literature, A Short History of._ By the present writer. Oxford, 1882, and often reprinted.

_Greek Romances, The._ Most convenient editions of originals--Didot's _Erotici Graeci_, Paris, 1856, or Teubner's, ed. Herscher, Leipzig, 1858. English translations in Bohn's Library. For those who prefer books about things to the things themselves, there is a very good English monograph by Wolff (Columbia University Series, New York).

_Hymn of St. Eulalia._ Quoted in most histories of French literature, _e.g._ that entered above, pp. 4, 5.

_Life of St. Alexis._ Ed. G. Paris and L. Pannier. Paris, 1872-87.

CHAPTER II

_Alexander Legends_ ("Matter of Rome"). The most important editions of romances concerning Alexander are Michelant's of the great poem from which, according to the most general theory, the "Alexandrine" or twelve-syllabled verse takes its name (Stuttgart, 1846), and M. Paul Meyer's _Alexandre le Grand dans la Litterature Francaise au moyen age_ (2 vols., Paris, 1886), a monograph of the very first order, with plentiful reproduction of texts.

_Arthurian Legend, The._ No complete bibliography of this is possible here--a note of some fulness will be found in the writer's _Short History_ (see above on Chapter I.). The most important books for an English reader who wishes to supplement Malory are M. Paulin Paris's abstract of the whole, _Les Romans de la Table Ronde_ (5 vols., Paris, 1869-77), a very charming set of handy volumes, beautifully printed and ill.u.s.trated; and, now at last, Dr. Sommer's stately edition of the "Vulgate" texts, completed recently, I believe (Carnegie Inst.i.tution, Washington, U.S.A.).

_Chansons de Gestes._ The first sentence of the last entry applies here with greater fulness. The editions of _Roland_ are very numerous; and those of other _chansons_, though there are not often two or more of the same, run to scores of volumes. The most important books about them are M. Leon Gautier's _Les epopees Francaises_ (4 vols., Paris, 1892) and M.

Bedier's _Les Legendes epiques_ (4 vols., Paris, 1908-13).

Sainte-More, B. de. _Roman de Troie._ Ed. Joly. Rouen, 1870. Edited a second time in the series of the Societe des Anciens Textes Francais.

CHAPTER III

The bibliography of the _Romans d'Aventures_ generally is again too complicated and voluminous to be attempted here. A fair amount of information will be found, as regards the two sides, French and English, of the matter, in the writer's _Short Histories_ of the two literatures--_French_ as above, _English_ (Macmillan, 9th ed., London, 1914), and in his _Romance and Allegory_, referred to in the text. Short of the texts themselves, but for fuller information than general histories contain, Dunlop's well-known book, reprinted in Bohn's Library with valuable additions, and Ellis's _Early English Romances_, especially the latter, will be found of greatest value.

_Partenopeus de Blois._ 2 vols. Paris, 1834.