The Princesse De Clèves
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the glittering court of Henri II, where beauty is currency and honour is everything, a young noblewoman finds herself ensnared in an impossible conflict between duty and desire — a tension so acutely rendered that it has haunted Western literature for over three centuries. The Princesse de Clèves chronicles the story of a virtuous young woman whose arranged marriage to the estimable Prince de Clèves is upended by a passionate, consuming love for the dashing Duc de Nemours, forcing her to wage a silent war against her own heart in a world where a single misstep could mean social ruin. Widely regarded as the first psychological novel in the French literary tradition, Madame de Lafayette's masterwork presents an astonishingly modern inner world beneath the stiff brocade of seventeenth-century court life. With a prose style that is precise, restrained, and devastatingly observant, the narrative dissects the nature of love, fidelity, and self-knowledge with surgical clarity. Nancy Mitford's celebrated English translation preserves both the elegant formality and the emotional intensity of the original, making this edition a compelling entry point for new readers. The novel's final, quietly shattering choice made by its heroine remains one of the most debated conclusions in all of world literature — a question of conscience that refuses to be neatly resolved.
Author: Madame De Lafayette
Format: Paperback
Genre: Classic fiction
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the glittering court of Henri II, where beauty is currency and honour is everything, a young noblewoman finds herself ensnared in an impossible conflict between duty and desire — a tension so acutely rendered that it has haunted Western literature for over three centuries. The Princesse de Clèves chronicles the story of a virtuous young woman whose arranged marriage to the estimable Prince de Clèves is upended by a passionate, consuming love for the dashing Duc de Nemours, forcing her to wage a silent war against her own heart in a world where a single misstep could mean social ruin. Widely regarded as the first psychological novel in the French literary tradition, Madame de Lafayette's masterwork presents an astonishingly modern inner world beneath the stiff brocade of seventeenth-century court life. With a prose style that is precise, restrained, and devastatingly observant, the narrative dissects the nature of love, fidelity, and self-knowledge with surgical clarity. Nancy Mitford's celebrated English translation preserves both the elegant formality and the emotional intensity of the original, making this edition a compelling entry point for new readers. The novel's final, quietly shattering choice made by its heroine remains one of the most debated conclusions in all of world literature — a question of conscience that refuses to be neatly resolved.