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Madame de La Fayette
La Princesse de Clèves
Category: Fiction | Published: 1678 | Review Added: 14-04-2013
(Qualifier: ages since I read this.)
An extremely early psychological novel. I can't remember much about it, but it centres on a young princess who falls in love with somebody or other, and emotional intrigues throughout the court.
Perhaps because of the antique language, I didn't enjoy this novel as much as I have enjoyed more modern French fiction. Despite that, I was struck by the incisiveness of de la Fayette's psychological understanding. On that level, it seemed incredibly modern: French novelists were properly philosophising long before those in the rest of Europe had got started.